family matters

shagging and blogging - it gets personal

history

Girl With A One-Track Mind is a blog by a young woman living in London who writes under the pseudonym Abby Lee. Abby started writing the blog in 2004 as an outlet for and distraction from thinking about sex all the time. Her early blog entries are explicit, hilarious, insightful and shockingly honest as she lays bare intimate details about dating, shagging, masturbating and her general obsession with men’s bodies and bits. The blog soon gained a cult following. These days it claims 6 million unique viewers and over 150 000 readers a month. When you read the early entries of Abby’s blog it’s little surprise it gained such widespread popularity and fame: she writes with the honesty and insight that can only come from true anonymity.

In August 2006 Abby published a book of the same name with Ebury Publishing. She was rumoured to have been offered a six figure advance for the book, having managed all communications through an agent. A few days after the books hit the shelves, Abby was ‘outed’ as Zoe Margolis, a 33 year-old film producer. A photographer from The Sunday Times captured her accepting a bunch of flowers that were supposedly from her publisher and on 6 August the story revealing Abby’s real identity was published. Great for book sales, not so great for Zoe.

Zoe’s life changed overnight: she was suddenly the subject of media interest and hype, as were the people she had written about in her blog. While Zoe had always maintained a level of privacy by using people’s initials, the subjects of her blog were easier to identify now everyone knew who she was. As a retort to being unwillingly outed, Zoe accepted an interview with The Guardian and wrote an article for The Independent on Sunday. 

Abby continued to write about the experience of being outed in her blog throughout the month of August 2006. Using her signature dry humour and acute observation, she diarised coming to terms with the fact that her family, friends and ex-lovers now knew her most private thoughts and had to deal with the media to boot.

book

Abby’s book went to to the top of the bestseller list and has sold 165 000 copies. It has been translated into several languages and is available in the US. This is an extraordinary success for a previously unpublished author whose writing has local English overtones (sales of 5,000 copies in AUS market would be considered reasonable, for example). It reinforces that the essence of Abby’s writing are universal truths about sexuality, sensuality, confidence, sensitivity and emotional volatility. Truth is, Abby is as fucked up as the rest of us - and that makes a good read.

today

Zoe had to give up her job in the film industry because she was considered to be too high risk. She continues to write the blog and speak /write about blogging, technology, sex and feminism. Her most recent article was for The Guardian, where she comments on the importance of safe sex education for kids.

blog

Since being outed, there’s no question that the tone of Girl With A One-Track Mind has changed. It would not be possible for Abby, a nobody with a big sex drive, to write with the same honesty now she is Zoe Margolis, professional blogger, tech wizz, feminist and general sexpert. Not to mention sibling, daughter, friend and lover. Abby has taken on a professional identity that has allowed her to shape a successful career. No longer just a lowly blogger, Zoe Margolis is now an international media and technology brand. As with any brand, there is a conscience about profile that shines through her work. In a recent blog dated 6 September, Abby asked heself the question: “am I - or have I become - much more boring in person than online?”

It is a question any professional blogger would face. However, it’s especially hard to separate Abby’s personal persona from Zoe’s professional because of the inherently private nature of her musings. Abby provided us with a window into her world, albeit frosted in parts. But life changes and people move on. The things Abby wrote about back in 2004 are not necessarily things she’d want to discuss now. And they’re not necessarily things she experiences at that level now. On her professional site, Zoe Margolis claims that she started writing the blog to balance the sexist stereotypes about male and female sexuality. What happened to the girl who just loved cock?

Fame has brought with it expectation on other levels. As a reader, I expect to be entertained, amused, horrified or simply connect with Abby on some emotional or intellectual level or I will stop visiting her blog, which means others will stop reading and she will be challenged on the things which now form the basis of Zoe’s career. Somewhere along the way, the personal became professional, which means a slow death to the things that brought Abby to life in the first place. I read some recent posts and enjoyed them much less than the early days. I feel like I am reading Zoe’s work, not Abby’s.

In any case, the tale of Abby Lee, Zoe Margolis and Girl With A One-Track Mind is a fabulous story and her publisher would be mad not to sign her up for another book - a merger of the different parts of her life.