2008 Woodie Awards
Sex Sells
For Young Female on the Internet
Erica Dietsche ; The Record (Hackensack N.J.)
Issue date: 4/5/06 Section: Life
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Krinsky, 23, has earned national attention and acclaim for her writing. While a student at Yale University, she penned a sex column called "Sex and the (Elm) City" that received hundreds of thousands of Internet hits, landed her a feature in The New York Times and earned her a book deal with Hyperion. The book, "Chloe Does Yale," a fictional account of the life of a Yale University sex columnist named Chloe Carrington, comes out in paperback Tuesday.
Now she's turning her book into a screenplay, writing a second novel and working on television development projects. All this makes her the Candace Bushnell of the twentysomething set.
"Oh, I'm so flattered when I get comparisons to her," she says, beaming. "She makes great money and has great shoes."
On a cold, windy Friday recently at Joe, a tiny coffee shop where she likes to write, Krinsky seems warm, smart, the kind of woman everyone wants as her best friend. She is articulate, thoughtful and intelligent, but not above saying "That's hot!" and laughing when a strand of her curly, dark red hair falls into her mouth.
Over regular coffees ("You always can tell the quality of a coffee shop by the quality of its regular coffee," she says), Krinsky shares her story.
"Sex and the (Elm) City" began in 2001 when Krinsky was a 19-year-old sophomore. A friend of a friend who edited Scene, the Friday entertainment section of the Yale Daily News, asked her to submit a few sex columns as a favor. "He had never seen my writing, we never talked about writing," she recalls. "I figured I'd write a column or two until he found someone else."
The editor, Chris Rovzar, did not need to look elsewhere; her column was an immediate success. "We had no idea what a stir it would create and the reach it would have," Krinsky says. "We were exploring, there were no expectations. Now, there are expectations."
She's referring to the mass proliferation of sex columns on college campuses across the country that followed her column's success. "It's nice to be credited with starting a trend," Krinsky says. "But everyone brings their own spin to it."
Does she consider herself a role model? Krinsky looks surprised. "No one has ever asked me that before," she says, and pauses a minute before answering. "No, I don't consider myself a role model. I'm more of a prototype than a role model."