Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Margaret is a contributing editor at BDG, writing reported features and commentary that challenge traditional ideas about what it means to be a woman, a mother, and a family. She also covers eating disorders, diet culture, and body image.

She previously edited features and oversaw major editorial initiatives, partnerships, brand extensions, and all digital issues across Bustle, Romper, Elite Daily, NYLON, and The Zoe Report. She has served as the managing editor of both Bustle and Romper, which she launched in 2015. Before coming to BDG, she was the founding editor of Huffington Post Women. She also worked at Babble.com during the Mommy Bloggers’ true heyday, and she was once a not very effective features assistant at Vogue.

She graduated from Princeton, got her masters degree in journalism through NYU's program in Cultural Reporting and Criticism, and has taught graduate students in the Publishing department of NYU's School for Professional Studies. Originally from New Orleans, she lives in Manhattan with her wife, four children, and a vizsla named Clay.

Books

What Would Your High School Self Think Of You Now?

Elyssa Friedland’s new novel, The Most Likely Club, takes on thwarted millennial ambition.

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Wellness

Why Wouldn’t Your Nutritionist Have An Eating Disorder?

The people we pay to tell us how to eat often struggle to feed themselves.

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

28

At 28, Huma Abedin Was Sleeping On Couches & Wearing Zara

With her memoir, ‘Both/And,’ Hillary Clinton's right hand finally tells her own story.

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Stepford Lies

Myths About The Suburbs As Outdated As The Mall

Everything you think you know about life on the edge of a city is wrong, reports Margaret Wheeler Johnson.

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Life

What Dieting Costs Us

Remember 2020, when we were sobered by our political and epidemiological reality and encouraged to practice self care?

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Politics

Why It Hurts So Much

When RBG died, I started trying to define what we'd lost.

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Sex & Relationships

How One Psychologist Upended Everything We Know About Women, Sex, & Monogamy

Psychology had an explanation for why women are "naturally" monogamous. Terri Conley blew that up.

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Health

Your Health, A To Z

Have a health question the internet won't answer? Here's the women's health index you've been looking for.

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Life

There Are Real Reasons You're Playing Pioneer Woman In Your Apartment Right Now

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

News

What 7 Healthcare Workers Fighting COVID Are Really Thinking

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Life

In A Pandemic, How Should We Be?

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Life

The Riveter & Alaska Airlines Are Giving Away 2 Round Trip Holiday Flights, So Run Don't Walk

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Books

Lindy West Has 2 Things She Does To Stave Off The Despair

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

News

Did Stacey Abrams Just Say She Still Plans To Be President?

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Life

Can The Riveter Make Work Saner For All? We're Going To The Summit To Find Out

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Entertainment

Busy Philipps Will Not Be Canceled

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Style

Soko Glam’s Charlotte Cho Has Already Upended The Beauty Industry — And It’s Only The Start

By Sara Tan and Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Books

Samantha Irby Writes About Gross Stuff, But There's A Rule-Breaking Reason For That

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

Life

It's Time To Nominate The Most Inspiring Rule Breaker You Know

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson

News

The Best Bush/Rubio Debate Memes

By Margaret Wheeler Johnson