Mortified: Angst Written

Check out the latest episode of KCRW's Guest DJ Project for an interview about the music that inspires Mortified. For those who don't know, KCRW is one of America's most influential public radio stations.

It was beyond flattering to be asked to participate on this radio show, especially given that past guests have included:

Sarah Silverman, Jon Favreau, Neil LaBute, Danny DeVito, Digg's Kevin Rose, Jason Schwartzman, Margaret Cho, Conan O’Brien, Padma Lakshmi, Jason Reitman, Janeane Garafalo, and... the guy who inspired "The Dude" in Big Lebowski.
Music is such a huge part of what makes Mortified, so it was great to get a chance to share some of it with the world. You can hear the interview on-demand whenever you like. Hope you enjoy.

Labels: Press

NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly was nice enough to invite me on their TV show recently to discuss Mortified. Having never done a late night talk show before, I was pretty damn psyched. It's somewhat rare for late night TV talk shows to interview non-political authors, let alone people who curate anthologies (or whatever the hell it is that I do). I give Last Call credit for being one of the few TV shows that consistently lays out the welcome mat to emerging artists and oddball media, especially considering that they could just as easily book some daytime soap actor instead.

Luckily, the interview went smooth, Carson was super effusive, and best of all, I was able to give on-air love to people who are such a huge part of our collective project-- Mortified: Love Is a Battlefield cover girl Kim Lombardini, LA contributor Leonard Hyman, and San Fran contributor Laurent Martini (AKA: Live Evil).



For a peek at Mortified's late night fun, we hope you will watch the video.

And if you missed the full episode, be sure to check out the other guest, Bo Burnham. A very talented guy.

- Dave

Labels: Press

Huge thanks to Mortified superfan Lisa who emailed us to say she spotted our first book, Mortified: Real Words, Real People, Real Pathetic, in the pages of the August 2008 InStyle magazine.

Intrigued, we picked up a copy and sure enough, there it was... displayed on the bookshelf of Entourage actress Constance Zimmer.

We hereby nominate Ms. Zimmer as the newest official member of the Mortified BFF Club.

Also spotted on her shelf? Middlesex (a book about a female teenage outcast) and Ulysses (a book about awkward teenage boys).

Anyone detect a recurring theme?

Labels: Pop Culture, Press

Congratulations to Mortified participant Maurissa Tancharoen, who co-wrote the pretty damn awesome new web series, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Mortified fans may know Maurissa from our latest book, Mortified: Love Is a Battlefield. In Maurissa's entry, "Dissed," she shared a diary that revealed her ill-conceived attempt to go from studious Asian girl to sassy, hip hop homegirl.



Dr. Horrible has a pretty great pedigree-- Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day (who writes a fun series of her own). But the show's secret ingredient is actually its score by Jed Whedon.

Anyway, we think you'll get a huge kick out of the show. Hopefully, if its a hit, it will help to bring more attention to world of online series (like ours, for instance).

Labels: alumni, BFF Club

Mortified deals with a wide range of issues that teenagers face everyday. From the cute stuff (songs, exams, crushes, bad hair). To the dark stuff (bigotry, depression, addiction, divorce, violence). Even though our project is rooted in comedy, we love to use Mortified to explore the full spectrum of what kids go through. The good and the bad.

Not surprisingly, one topic that we hear a lot of kids write about is suicide. And today, there is a suicide attempt every 42 seconds. Luckily, there's a great nonprofit devoted to helping people of all ages get the privacy and care they need. But as this organization is no longer government funded, they need your help to continue. All we ask is that you watch this video. If it impacts you, perhaps you will visit Hopeline.com and donate funds to help 1-800-SUICIDE.



Special thanks to our friend Frank Warren, who runs the fascinating PostSecret project, and who first told us about the hotline. Hope you can help. If not, forward this to a friend.

Labels: BFF Club