Vanessa, Author at Autostraddle

Vanessa

Community Editor

Joined A-Team: July 2012

Articles written: 398

About Vanessa

Vanessa is a writer, a teacher, and the community editor at Autostraddle. Very hot, very fun, very weird. Find her on twitter and instagram.

Vanessa's Featured Posts on Autostraddle

All Posts on Autostraddle

two corsaged sets of hands hold each other in close up during a lesbian wedding.

Lesbian Weddings

Blush and Bashful: Let’s Talk About Wedding Registries

A collage of seven heart shaped images featuring seven different relationships on a pale pink background. The hearts feature photos of the seven relationships interviewed for this column: Kristen and Kayla, Beth and Sa’iyda, Yasmeen and Clio and their polycule, Adrienne, and Jenny, Evette and Teré, Amanda-Faye and Jo, and Sadie and Nico.

Lesbian Weddings

Blush and Bashful: What It’s Like To Be Queer and Engaged

A fat bride with brown hair curled at the edges around her shoulders is in a white gown and looking at herself in the mirror of a dressing room. She is smiling and happy.

Lesbian Weddings

Blush and Bashful: How One Fat Femme Bought Her Dream Wedding Dress

two hands, both belonging to white women, show off two gorgeous and unique engagement rings

Lesbian Weddings

Blush and Bashful: You’re a Lesbian and You Want To Buy an Engagement Ring

a screenshot from The Drew Barrymore Instagram, featuring Drew and Natasha Lyonne embracing during a clip where they announced they were Aubrey Plaza's mommy and daddy. On the right you can see the comment section where Aubrey herself has commented "mama" and "dada."

Celebrities (Vapid Fluff)

Drew Barrymore and Natasha Lyonne Say They’re Aubrey Plaza’s Mommi and Daddy, I Personally Won’t Recover

Puzzles

Word Search: Dream Afternoon

Vanessa's wedding engagement, featuring a close-up of two hands with rings on a piece of wood

Lesbian Weddings

Blush and Bashful: I’m Writing a Lesbian Wedding Column and You’re Invited

Puzzles

Word Search: Into Every Generation

a sad woman sitting on a sofa with a mug of tea looking depressed and alone

Relationships

You Need Help: I Feel Like I’m My Girlfriend’s Second Choice

a sofa made from straw

Lesbian Weddings

Some Things I Didn’t Expect When Planning My Lesbian Wedding

Puzzles

Word Search: The Situationship

three older women laughing and having a good time together

Identity

You Need Help: I Just Turned 65 and I’m Questioning My Sexuality

Light and dark pink roses are against a pale pink background. Vanessa, a white person with long, brown hair who's wearing a pink dress with ruffled sleeves and a pink KN95 mask, stands in the center holding a bouquet of white and pink roses.

Lesbian Weddings

I’m a Queer Bride on a Budget — And I Went to a Bridal Expo

An abdomen of an adult patient with Waterproof Transparent Dressing after Cholecystectomy or Laparoscopic Gallbladder Surgery for gallstones removal.

Goodbye to My Gallbladder

Sponsored

City Queers Went Outdoors With REI And Naturally — It Was a Blast

overhead table: knife, fork, spoon, salt shakers, and blank menu template, all set on a table

How to Meal Plan Without Hating Your Life and Your Self

Sponsored

Autostraddle Goes Outside, in Chicago and Portland!

four abstractly illustrated figures engage in a celebratory kinky dance. from left to right we have someone with top surgery scars wearing assless chaps, connected bvia a pair of cuffs to a person who is blindfolded and wearing cut out underwear, who is dancing next to someone in a mask and what appears to abe a full body rope bind, and followed by a person in a fishnet, corset and ballgag waving a flogger above their head. The figures are featureless and hairless and purple and the kink elements are red

How to Find Local Kink Community and Also How to Hire a Sex Worker

the cover of issue 3 of DYKE QUEEN zine featuring a hand squeezing a grapefruit in front of a lingerie clad butt

Culture

Fall in Love With Dyke Queen Issue 3: Recipes from Queerantine!

a white person in a black sports bra and briefs holds up a sign that says S O S and another sign that has a question mark on it, near their vulva/vaginal region

Health

You Need Help: I Keep Getting Yeast Infections When I Receive Oral Sex

Virology by Joe Osmundson

Book Features

Joe Osmundson on Expansive Science Writing and Living in an Impossible World

Photo 1: A person wears brown coveralls and a hat that says Beefcake while holding a drill. Photo 2: A person wearing a tank that says "handiqueers" on it holds a large tool. Photo 3: A person crouches in white lace up boots and a mask, spraying something at a construction site.

Community

17 Handyqueers To Follow on Instagram

Michelle Tea sits at a microphone

Book Features

Michelle Tea on Queer Pregnancy and Writing a Memoir in Present Tense

a bidet with water shooting up out of it

First Person

My Girlfriend Installed My Bidet While I Cheered Her On: A Love Story

four book covers in a simple collage: blood fresh, there are trans people here, funeral for flaca, and the subtweet

Book Lists

30 Books That Are Still Gay Even Though Pride Month Is Over

Vanessa and PB pose in front of a pool in bathing suits, wearing sunglasses. Vanessa's sunglasses are red and heart-shaped. PB's are clear with greenish lenses. PB is white and has blonde hair that is long on top and under a hat with a swoop of bangs visible and with shaved sides. Vanessa is also white with long brown hair she is wearing up.

A+

Things I’ve Never Asked My Girlfriend About Wildflowers, Baby Names and Time Travel

A fat femme in a sheer piece with blonde hair stands smiling with deep colored circles in the background. Queerness through Style

Style

Fat Femmes On How They Show Their Queerness Through Fashion

Two fat femmes in All red dresses, surrounded by florals and deep pastels.

Style

Swimsuits, Lingerie & Jumpsuits – Fat Femmes Share Their Favorite Shops!

Two fat femmes of different sizes in the same lavender ruched front dress. Fat Femme Fashion.

Style

Fast Fashion Diaries — Fat Femmes On the Difficulties of Curating an Ethical Wardrobe

the cover of the sex and the single woman anthology, retro pink and orange text read sex and the single woman: 24 writers reimagine helen gurley brown's cult classic

Book Features

Seven Queer Writers Reflect on Their Essays Published in “Sex and the Single Woman”

Style

Puberty, Gym Class & Aeropostale — Fat Femmes On Their Childhood Style

a collage on lined paper including converse sneakers, a sleeping bag, two hands linked by their pinkies, and the purple text that reads Open Thread

Community

It’s a Friday Open Thread, but on a Thursday!

collage on lined paper featuring cute photos of lockers, girls holding hands, half a best friend necklace, and purple text in the center that reads The Gayest Things We Did At 13

Community

The Gayest Things You Did at 13

Pressed flowers against a blue background

Crafts & DIY Projects

Crafts I Intended To Try This Winter but Now It’s Almost Spring so I Guess I’ll Put Them Off for Another Year

a collage with the words THE GAYEST THINGS WE DID AT 13: CALL FOR READER CONTRIBUTIONS at the center of nostalgic photos from high school

Community

Tell Us All About the Gayest Things You Did at 13!

Jill Gutowitz's book cover for her debut essay collection Girls Can Kiss Now is dark purple with pink font and many line drawing illustrations of cool lesbians in the background

LGBT Book Reviews

“Girls Can Kiss Now” and Other Realizations with Jill Gutowitz

Two drawn people in black ink tilt toward each other with sketched flowers in the background

First Person

We Call It Time Travel

sliced provolone cheese on a plate

Food and Drink

Things I’ve Eaten for Lunch at My Girlfriend’s House

young woman with curly hair leans against a city wall and looks up at the sky, deep in thought

You Need Help: Will I Ever Grow Out Of The Messy Questioning Phase?

older woman sitting in teal armchair holding a pink mug and waving

Friendship

You Need Help: I Don’t Know How To Be a Casual Friend

a fat woman looking excitedly at her phone while she texts a long distance lover in her kitchen

Dating

You Need Help: How Do I Pursue a Beautiful Woman Without Getting My Feelings Hurt?

a photo of lit candles

Say Hello to RITUALS, an Autostraddle End of Year Miniseries

A person with green skin and long pink hair looks off to the side with their arms folded against a black background. Two people behind them (a person with purple skin and blue hair and a person with blue skin and purple hair) touch their foreheads together.

A+

S L I C K: How to Fuck Your Friends

a lonely woman sits with her head between her knees by a beautiful lake

Dating

You Need Help: I’ve Never Had a Date and I’m So Lonely

a queer couple sits at a coffee shop holding hands and having a serious conversation

Relationships

You Need Help: I Don’t Want Kids But My Partner Might, Does This Mean We Can’t Get Married?

An empty classroom, which includes wooden desks, a green chalkboard, a clock and a podium at the front of the room.

First Person

Well, That’s Mortifying: That Time I Didn’t Know About Roger Clemens

Straddleverse

I Almost Didn’t Write It

three stacked journals: the top and bottom journals are black and the middle journal is grey with the words The Grief Journal on the spine

First Person

Journaling With My Grief

A white woman lies on the floor on a pink velvet blanket. Her face is not entirely visible, you can only see her mouth and her chin, and four candles are in the foreground

First Person

Lying On The Floor With My Grief

railroad tracks trailing off into the distance, with beautiful tall green trees on either side

First Person

Walking With My Grief

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