Jane Pratt’s Fourth (Publishing) Act
Plus, T. Swift is back on the market, and celebrity tree crime. YES, TREES.
The only line of dialogue I remember from Girls comes from the pilot, when Hannah Horvath declares to her parents, “I think that I may be the voice of my generation. Or at least a voice. Of a generation.” In certain circles, that particular piece of real estate belongs to Jane Pratt, having been a defining influence in the lives of my particular generation via Sassy magazine (1988-1996), after which she attempted to stake a similar claim on other youths via Jane from 1997-2007, and xoJane.com from 2011 to 2016. In March, Vanity Fair reported that Pratt is developing a new online project for this decade, allegedly launching this month, called…wait for it…DeedDa.
The name is awful,1 and primarily reminiscent of this trippy kids’ show on PBS called Boobah, which is ostensibly a toddler exercise and movement show that opens with a bunch of furry blobs with creepy color-matching alien doll heads coming down from… space?… in a bubble, while a truly fucking haunting child’s voice says, “Booooo…
