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A Blogazine, based out of Park Slope, Brooklyn, that features fun and interesting articles. Topics include: parenting, society, real estate, career, style, spirituality and more. Written contributions are always welcome!


Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Breakup Girl to the Rescue!


Hip Slope Mama came across an absolutely brilliant website the other day called BreakupGirl.net. The content is so relevant. On this site, "women and men can find the humor in heartbreak and the wherewithal to make good relationships -- or singlehood -- great". I wish I had known about it when I was single. Now you can pass it on to your single friends!

Lynn Harris is the co-creator of the award winning BreakupGirl.net, and author of many books, among them the comic novel Death By Chick Lit, dubbed "brilliant" by New York Magazine. She is also an award-winning journalist, essayist, and Park Slope mom. HSM asked her to share her insight into what inspired her to co-create the only online superhero who rescues men and women from romantic emergencies.

This is what she shared with us: "Breakup Girl was "born" in 1996 in the kitchen of a Park Slope brownstone. I along with my roommate creative partner, Christopher Kalb (supergenius/ artist/cartoonist/illustrator/web designer/animator), in the middle of a book project about surviving a breakup, thought to ourselves: "Breakups! We need a superhero for that!" I mean, we have superheroes who can bend steel bars -- but how about one who can mend broken hearts? So Breakup Girl became the narrator of that book -- and we branched out to the Web with BreakupGirl.net in 1997. (Yes, there was a Web back then!) There, BG also branched out: through her advice column and comic adventures -- and other features we added to the site over the years -- she began using her superpowers to help both men and women (very important!) deal not only with breakups but also with makeups, hookups, and beyond: all aspects of relationships, straight and gay, young and old, attached and single. We also felt strongly NOT that we were total relationship know-it-alls when it came to giving advice, but rather that we had an essential point of view to share about relationships: one that exchanged rancor, bitterness and divisiveness (between the sexes, between the exes) for compassion, optimism, respect, excellent manners, and really smart humor. Also, geeky gadgets. Over the years, there was another Breakup Girl book, a live stage show, and even an animated television series, but all along, the website has been BG's main virtual headquarters. Back in the glory days of the dotcom, we also had a full (co-ed) staff; now it's back down to Chris and me and a bunch of brand-new bloggers. Without all our old sidekicks, though, I can't write the advice column anymore, sadly -- but I do write the dating advice column for MSN.com and that gets discussed on the blog at BreakupGirl.net. And, best news of all, we also just did a series of brand-new comic adventures (the first in seven years!) for Lifetime Mobile; we're now rolling those out every Monday at BreakupGirl.net. And if you're wondering about Chris and me, the company we formed to back BG is called Just Friends Productions. Sorry. ;-)"




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