Meet Jacqueline

I grew up reading my way through my local library and scribbling stories during recess. To grapple with my mom’s hoarding and family estrangement, I wrote nonfiction essays that were eventually published in The Washington Post, The Guardian, HuffPost, Women’s Health, Business Insider, Newsweek, Salon, and Slate. When people from all over the world messaged me about my writing, I realized just how much telling the truth had set me free.

After college, I worked as a New York City public high school English teacher with the mission of empowering students to write their own truths. I continued freelancing during my daily three-hour commute and landed bylines in WIRED, SUCCESS, Next Avenue, Everyday Health, and more. After several years, I pursued my MFA in creative nonfiction at The New School and a master's in journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. 

Today I continue to publish personal essays, reported features, and service pieces. I've developed a beat writing about family relationships, women’s sexual experiences, and health. In addition, I pour my time into two delightful writers’ groups, which helped me discover a passion for editing. 

I’m currently working on a memoir that explores how my mom's compulsive hoarding and my early introductions to intimacy led me to become celibate for over two years. During that time, I tried to comprehend the roots of my nonconsensual sexual experiences by investigating the long-hidden secrets that shaped my family. In giving up sex, I ultimately found what I had lacked for most of my life: understanding and agency.

I also plan to write a coming-of-age YA novel, Through the Mess, in which seventeen-year-old Reese struggles to connect with her mother due to her mom’s compulsive hoarding. No one, not even Reese’s older sister, understands the shame Reese feels about her disastrous Cleveland home and tense relationship with her mom. Then a phone call with Reese’s aunt reveals a family secret that makes Reese question everything she thought she knew about her mother. Drawing inspiration from my life, Through the Mess is a story about breaking down the barriers between parents and children and finding a way back to each other despite life’s messes.