Jenny Mollen
Jenny Mollen's essay collection I Like You Just The Way I Am, published in 2014, reached the New York Times Best Seller list the same year, one of two such appearances she has achieved with her books.
Born in Phoenix in 1979, Mollen attended Chaparral High School before going on to study at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her work has spanned both acting and writing. In television, her most sustained role was the recurring character Nina Ash on the series Angel, which she played from 2003 to 2004. She subsequently appeared on Viva Laughlin in 2007, Crash in 2008, and Girls in 2014.
Alongside her acting work, Mollen has written articles for publications including Cosmopolitan and Parents. She has published two collections of essays, the first being I Like You Just The Way I Am in 2014 and the second Live Fast Die Hot in 2016. Both collections reached the New York Times Best Seller list, a distinction she holds across two consecutive books of personal essays written in English.
The New York Times Best Seller appearance for Live Fast Die Hot in 2016 stands as the most recent concrete marker of her publishing career documented in available records. Her authorized Library of Congress name authority record identifies her as Jenny Mollen, born 1979, an American actress and writer.
Quotes by Jenny Mollen
The books on my nightstand are so bizarre, very eclectic - like, every German author, and then I have a couple of books by this ex-boyfriend of mine there. I just want to make sure that he's not too much better than I am!
Chelsea Handler is a good friend of mine, and I always was inspired by the fact that she was taking her life and turning it into these ridiculous, raunchy memoirs. She really has a talent, and she's a great writer. I was inspired by her trajectory.
My brother and I have never been that close. We have different mothers and never lived in the same house. As kids, my sister, Samantha, and I lived in San Diego and Brad in Brooklyn. The only time I saw him was in the summer when our visitations with our father overlapped.
There's this unspoken assumption when you're the child of a doctor that nothing is ever wrong with you - or at least nothing horrendous enough to warrant your father leaving work.
I never had a go-to girl squad. I think that I'm only friends with loners, so I have a select group of loners that I hang out with individually.
It was hard to write about my dad for the first book because I know how sensitive he is. I knew he wasn't going to take it as well as my mom, who can kind of roll with the punches and is used to having me tell her everything she has done wrong as a parent.
I don't want to read about the fabricated version of someone's life. I want to know what haunts you, what are you ashamed of, what embarrasses you, what do you wish was different?