Lesley Arfin photo

Lesley Arfin

Lesley Arfin has been writing professionally since 2001. She graduated from Hampshire College and immediately started an internship at Vice magazine, where she then went on to write a number of articles, as well as her own column, "Dear Diary."

In 2007 her book, Dear Diary, based on the column, was published by Vice Books/MTV Press. The introduction to the book was written by Chloe Sevigny.

Lesley is the former Editor-In-Chief of Missbehave magazine.

She has freelanced for a number of publications: Jezebel.com, Jane, Nylon, iD, America, Purple, Paper, Jalouse, and she is currently the New York contributor to Australian magazine, Russh. Lesley has written columns for websites such as Street Carnage, Buzz Net, and Thought Catalog. She penned the introduction to the 2010 interior design/photo book The Selby: In Your Place.

Lesley has done commercial work for clients such as XBox, Burton, Sophomore, Kanon Vodka, and Nike.

She currently works as staff writer on the HBO series Girls, created by Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture) and produced by Judd Apatow.


“Ever notice how amused people are when you point out one of their mannerisms or a funny quirk about them? They start laughing and getting happy because they're thinking, "People notice me! I'm relevent!" It's OK to have these instincts, but you have to suppress them a bit. There are 6 billion people here, so it's not all about you. You need to let other people talk for a while and pay attention to their world for a sec.”
Lesley Arfin
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