About Us

Julie Kraut

In addition to being the Editorial Director here at Gurl, Julie is the co-author of Hot Mess and author of Slept Away and a huge fan of pizza. Her writing has appeared in places such as the Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, and Seventeen, among others. She's a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and isn't that into goatees. You probably find her eating Nutella and at juliekraut.com.

Melanie Abrahams

As an English major at U.C. Berkeley, Melanie applied for and got her first internship at Teen magazine--and fell head-over-heels, crazy in love with the fun and frantic world of journalism. After earning a Master’s degree in Magazine Journalism from Northwestern University, she got her first big editor gig at Seventeen—and even made a few appearances on the magazine’s MTV reality show, Miss Seventeen. Later, she became an editor at Glamour where she helped create a philanthropic arm of Glamour’s Women of the Year Awards that helps empower awesome women in developing countries. Today, after over a decade in print journalism, she’s the Editor of gURL.com, and loving sharing all the most crazy-amazing-frustrating-whatever moments of life with gURLs everywhere. When she’s not writing Melanie is often eating cheese, working on her headstand, and reading that awesome “Hey Girl” Ryan Gosling Tumblr.

Jessica Booth

Before getting her job at gURL.com, Jessica interned for Us Weekly magazine and HollywoodLife.com, which helped her meet and interview some of her favorite celebrities. When she's not working, Jessica enjoys dreaming about Ryan Gosling, watching a lot of movies and TV, discovering funny Tumblr blogs, being a vegetarian and cuddling with her kitten. She also has an unhealthy obsession with her iPhone. You can follow her on Twitter @Jboothyy

Danielle Lurie

Danielle Lurie is a filmmaker and also likes to take pictures of pretty, silly, and/or awesome things and post them on Instagram. She’s made a bunch of short films including 81-Year-Old Sweethearts, which is about an 81-year-old man was flying across the country to re-meet his high school sweetheart after 62 years – how cute is that (??!!). She’s made film projects with some cool folks most notably a documentary that had Larry David in it. And yeah, she admits she has a weird crush on him. In addition to producing all of the videos on Gurl, Danielle loses many chess games to her dad and doodles more than she should.

Emerald Pellot

Before the fates (probably Aphrodite) brought Emerald to gURL.com she interned at Vice, The New York Observer, and BOMB magazine. She is a Britney Spears expert—no seriously, you should challenge her for the title—and a recent graduate from NYU. When she is not mastering the art of being sassy or watching old episodes of Britney and Kevin: Chaotic, she is hanging out at coffee shops, reading fashion and gossip blogs, and TMI tweeting (farts have been mentioned, you’ve been warned). You can totes follow her @EmeraldGritty

Chiara Atik

Chiara Atik is a New York based writer, originally from California. She writes about dating for HowAboutWe.com, and is a playwright with Ensemble Studio Theater's Youngblood group. In her free time, Chiara likes to travel above all else, but when that's not possible, she contents herself with hanging around the Lower East Side, popping into museums, and lazing about on rooftops. She is on a quest to find the best pasta in New York City. You can follow her on twitter @ChiaraAtik.

Nina Fortuna

Nina Fortuna is a graduate of Northeastern University (Boston, not Chicago). She currently is a program coordinator for the American Society of Magazine Editors where she manages the National Magazine Awards, the ASME Best Cover Contest and the coveted Magazine Internship Program. Nina has been an intern at Seventeen magazine and has freelanced for various magazines including Time Out New York and Glamour. She and her high-maintenance dog Penny Lane live in Astoria, where Nina pretends the sound of the subway is really the sound of waves crashing on the beach.

Laura Krumland

Laura's been near-obsessed with social media and her various personal blogs for the past ten years, so she's thrilled to be able to share her musings online with Gurl.com readers. Her one true love in life is belly dancing and she'd be happy to show you some moves. Besides blogging, Laura also digs her wonderful friends, hiding in corners at the goth club, drinking wayyy too much coffee, Hello Kitty, jewelry she can't afford, Rihanna's haircuts, new wave music, and Corgis.

Jessica Sager

Jessica Sager will sleep when she's dead. When she's not writing for Gurl, she's writing and editing for PopCrush and StarCrush, dishing out Dating Rules, performing stand up comedy, flexing, beating you at Street Fighter, or writing bios in the third person. She loves baking, butter, the New York Jets, heights, and anything with an engine. She finds vegetables and flat shoes particularly offensive. Jess graduated with honors and a B.A. in journalism and media studies from Rutgers University, because at the time it seemed more lucrative than studying to be a ninja. She's currently reevaluating her life decisions and patiently waiting for Gerard Butler to lift that pesky restraining order. You can watch her on YouTube at youtube.com/jethicawethome (language may be NSFW) and lurk her comedy Twitter at @ohheyjesssager.

Ethan Fixell

Ethan Fixell is a writer and comedian from New York City best known as one half of comic "dating coach" duo Dave and Ethan, who have embarked on over 200 double dates together. He is also the creator and editor of ActualConversation.com, a blog featuring humorous everyday exchanges. For more on Ethan, visit EthanFixell.com...or call his mom, Robin.

Shallon Lester

Shallon Lester was the star of MTV's hit reality series "Downtown Girls" and is currently an editor at Star magazine. Dubbed "Carrie Bradshaw 2.0" by Cosmo magazine, Shallon is the author of two books: teen fiction novel Hot Mess and dating memoir Exes and Ohs: A Downtown Girls' (Mostly Awkward) Tales of Love, Lust, Revenge and a Little Facebook Stalking. She lives in Manhattan, NY where she obsesses over soccer players, bedazzled iPhones and TJ Maxx. Follow her on Twitter @DowntownShallon!

Kat Rosenfield

Kat Rosenfield is a writer, illustrator, advice columnist, YA novelist, and former lead singer of the most terrible modern rock band in New York, which is really saying something. When not contributing to Gurl, she can be found gossiping about celebrity fashion and sparkly vampires on MTV.com, and demonstrating proper flirting technique on the Barnes & Noble site SparkLife. Her first book comes out this summer. Follow her on Twitter @katrosenfield.

Abiola Abrams

Lifestyle expert Abiola Abrams is an MTV Made Teen Dating Empowerment Coach, host of "Abiola's Kiss and Tell Web TV" and author of the upcoming Official Bombshell Handbook. Find her scrapbooking with pink feathers at AbiolaTV.com.

Michelle Christensen

Michelle was just 7 years old when she knew she would be an illustrator, and has been pursuing this dream ever since. She grew up internationally as the daughter of a diplomat, and kept careful note of her experiences there. After graduating in illustration, she began as an in-house illustrator at a newspaper, then quit and moved to Paris. She is now back in Salt Lake City, where she does freelance and enjoys the company of her cat Saffy Sweatpants (who looks like she is wearing them).

Meg Haston

Meg Haston is the author of How to Rock Braces and Glasses, a novel for young adults. While you're anxiously awaiting the sequel (How to Rock Break-Ups and Make-Ups, September 2012), you can check out How to Rock on Saturday nights at 8:30 EST on Nickelodeon. After living in Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, and Avignon, France (among other cool places), she moved back to her hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, where she spends her time writing, going to the beach, and hanging out with her rescue pup Dinah. Sometimes she does all three at once. If you're impressed with her ability to multitask, follow her on Twitter @meghaston.

Joanna Martine Woolfolk

JOANNA MARTINE WOOLFOLK is the author of The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need, which is a classic in its field. Her newest Sun Sign Series has just been published – a collection of 12 books, each dedicated exclusively to one zodiac sign. Joanna has written the Horoscope column for such magazines as Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Redbook, Self, YM, and House Beautiful. She is a popular TV and radio personality who has been interviewed by Barbara Walters and Regis Philbin. She has also created an astrological design business, The Abundant Goddess, Inc., and been on QVC selling her beautiful Astrological Scarf. To learn more, visit Joanna’s website at www.joannamartinewoolfolk.com

Haemi Choung

Haemi Choung is like a super crime fighter when it comes to comics. She works in the city in the day and works on comics at night. When she’s not eating delicious foods, drawing and writing comics and working like a lunatic, she likes watching random TV shows, exploring uncharted places in New York, and having bonding time with her poochie. One of her expertise is trying to find hot guys and seduce them with her sexy looks and charming personality (which is another way of saying she’s good at making herself awkward around hot guys). She has a Facebook fan page (www.facebook.com/haemi.choung.comics) and a Twitter account (@haemichoung) !

Carson Lane

After a long and semi-dramatic four years, Carson Lane is a recent Journalism graduate from the University of Texas at Austin. On top of writing for Gurl, she manages social media for both Texas Highways magazine and independent film studio, Alpheus Media. If she's not working, she's probably hanging out with her foreign boyfriend (oh yeah, be jealous), eating a little too much Toblerone or planning for a vacation that she can't afford. She loves Indian food, secretly buying tabloids and living in Austin, Texas. She also cries every time she watches the Sex and The City movie when Carrie gives Samantha the "Fifty and Fabulous" toast. She is still trying to figure out what that means...

Ellen Friedrichs

Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Ellen Friedrichs is a health and sexuality educator based in New York City. Her professional experiences have included creating sex education programs in India, running an HIV prevention program in the South Bronx, and answering thousands of anonymous questions on Planned Parenthood's teen website. Currently, Ellen is the health education coordinator at a Brooklyn-based school. She also teaches human sexuality at Brooklyn College and runs the GLBT Teens site for About.com. Find her at sexEdvice.com.

Kaylani Fuller

Kaylani's been passionate about art for as long as she can remember. If she's not drawing she's cracking jokes, making ugly faces, or doing schoolwork. As a kid her favorite cartoon was Sailor Moon. She's always been fond of the strong heroine role. Aside from cartoons, she also adores chilled coconut milk, Kate Moennig, and graffiti. You can follow her on twitter @coconut_miruku