Me, in 5th grade looking like a young, Jewish, female Cookie Monster

You probably wouldn’t look at a girl who’s dressed as a marshmallow for her 5th grade class picture and think, “I bet you a million dollars that she will be Philly’s most popular dating blogger.” Well, she is! I mean, I am! Philadelphia Weekly said so. I can’t believe it either.

Even though I looked like a feral child, I can assure you that I wasn’t raised in a jungle. In fact, I was born in the opposite of the jungle–a tiny town outside of Albany, New York called East Greenbush. I’m the middle daughter to a nice Jewish couple who really should have taught their eleven-year-old some grooming basics. Seriously, my hair looks like Chewbacca’s armpit in that photo.

We relocated to a lovely Chicago suburb the summer before eighth grade. My parents bribed me with a trip to Space Camp to cooperate with the move which, you have to admit, is pretty badass in a geeky way. I moved to New York City when I was 18 to attend Barnard College. I settled in Philadelphia when I was 24 and earned my master’s degree in journalism from Temple University.

I guess you could say I’m a late-bloomer because I didn’t start dating until my 20s which, everyone has told me, is really late for a woman to start dating. Just between us, it’s hard for me because I’m so tall. I’m 6’1″ to be exact. And, I only like dating shorter guys which makes things doubly tough. But, while I’m not so good at having relationships with short hotties, it turns out that I’ve very good at having opinions about relationships with short hotties. I write about dating on my blog, Shmitten Kitten. It’s been around since 2008 and it’s garnered over six million pageviews. Not too shabby.

My first book, “Clearly, I Didn’t Think This Through” (November 6, 2012, Berkley Books) is a humor memoir about how terrible I am at being an adult. I talk about guys I’ve dated, impulsive decisions I’ve made, and all the furniture I’ve broken by accident. It’s a fun read.

I’m also a contributing writer to The Huffington Post, The Frisky and Hello Giggles and have been featured in Cosmopolitan, Forbes, and Philadelphia Magazine, among others. You can find me on Twitter @ShmittenKitten.

Photo by Dom Savini Photgraphy