Stefanie Iris Weiss
I’m a New York City-based freelance writer, certified clinical sexologist, pleasure activist, and author of nine books. I write about sex, politics, the environment, holistic health, wellness, and astrology for a variety of outlets. The subjects that I’m most obsessed with: sexuality, sustainability, and the stars, coalesce at the heart of the natural world and our nature as humans. The long arc of my work explores the ways that the environment, our bodies, and the cosmos commingle.
My recent bylines include Narratively, ELLE US, ELLE UK, Harper’s UK, Bustle, the Forward, WELL+GOOD, The Daily Dot, GOOD Magazine, and many more. You can find my entire portfolio here or scroll through the blog on the home page.
Late in 2020 I made my own proverbial “pandemic pivot” and enrolled in a rigorous academic program to become certified as a clinical sexologist/sex coach.
Columns
I love writing about sexuality because it’s at the intersection of liberation and pleasure. Yet I didn’t really know this about myself until I began working on my book Eco-Sex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make Your Love Life Sustainable (Random House/Ten Speed Press). I’d made my living as a writer and editor for years before realizing that I wanted to make sex the centerpiece of my work – and in the last decade, I’ve wholly embraced it. Working on sex and relationship columns is my ultimate happy place – whether I get to be a guinea pig and write service pieces about products and toys, interview professional Tantrikas and BDSM experts, or attend underground sex parties as a journalist. I feel so lucky to do this work, helping people to heal by discovering their capacity for pleasure.
My fiercely feminist, totally unapologetic Sexual Healing and Come Again columns have reached millions, helping them to pursue a sex-positive, shame-free approach to love (with a strong emphasis on self-love). Sexual Healing ran in Ecosalon.com from 2012 until 2014. My more recent column, Come Again, ran in Sheknows.com from 2015 to 2017. My previous columns are archived here and here.
My Winding Path
After graduating from NYU with a bazillion dollars in student debt, I quickly realized that poetry wasn’t necessarily a viable professional path for me. I went for a Master’s in English Education at NYU. Although I eventually became a full-time freelance writer instead of a full-time English teacher as I once imagined I’d be, my heart is firmly rooted in teaching the exquisite power of words, informed by Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (You should really read that book, no matter what you do for a living.)
The twist in my expected professional path came while I was still in grad school – I was offered an editing gig and then a contract to write a book for young adults (the first was Everything You Need To Know About Dealing With Losses). I would go on to teach as an adjunct at several New York City colleges (Hunter and Marymount Manhattan) in my early days of freelancing. This was more of a labor of love than anything else as adjuncts are barely paid enough to survive. I miss it nevertheless.
I’d go on to write four other work-for-hire books for a small educational publisher (Rosen Publishing) while working as an adjunct (and simultaneously studying astrology in secret). These YA books covered coping with grief, yoga, henna design, and veganism. The first book I ever formally pitched, Coping With the Beauty Myth: A Guide For Real Girls, was published in 2000 and reprinted in 2004. I still get letters from young women about this book, widely available in libraries across the country. Yes, I wrote five short books before the age of thirty.
Fast forward to the second decade of our strange new millennium, and I am the author of nine books on topics ranging from metaphysics to sex and sustainability. My success in selling my own books led to work as a ghostwriter, helping other would-be authors acquire agents and sell their work. I still take on ghostwriting clients from time to time, so hit me up if you’re looking for assistance.
When I’m not working on a writing project or with a client, you can probably find me on Twitter ranting about the myriad injustices of our world – and how to make them right (in it for the long haul, and with plenty of humor). I’m currently working on a TV pilot and my next book – so watch this space for developments.
Literary Agent: Jennifer Unter of the Unter Agency
