So last week my book came out and it was so exciting and terrifying and immediately my blog started giving me error messages and completely crashed until I finally fixed it today BECAUSE OF COURSE IT DID.
I tried to keep everything updated on threads because that’s where I hang out most and so if you were following me there you already know many of my adventures, including when I heard someone getting murdered at midnight outside my hotel room in NYC and when I went to check it out (because I’m helpful and stupid) I realized the screaming was coming from the room next to mine and so I recorded 20 seconds of it to give to the police but then I realized that I was actually listening to the most dramatic sex ever interrupted with laughter about cameras and turns out it was someone shooting p0rn. So the next morning I’m being driven to my first book tour stop and I decide to send my sister the video but I’m listening back to it (with my headphones, obviously) to see if I’d picked up how incredibly loud it was and I could barely hear it so I kept turning it up louder and turns out that I couldn’t hear it because I’d forgotten that I’d unplugged my headphones so that I could charge my phone and I was actually playing 12 seconds of terrible p0rn bloopers over and over for my very professional driver. And then I had to text my publicist to tell her that I was not listening to 12-seconds of p0rn bloopers on a loop for lascivious reasons just in case the driver they’d hired for me was concerned that I had some sort of problem. This happened exactly one hour into a five hour drive. *sigh*
But aside from numerous ways I embarrassed myself it was lovely. I went on The Today Show on the weekend and panic-rambled and managed to refer to explosive diarrhea and drool and feet falling off in the first sentence. Below is the dress I wore which doesn’t look like vaginas unless I point out that it looks like vaginas and then all you can see is vaginas. I’m so sorry.
Then right after this, one of the long-time hosts quit but I don’t think it had anything to do me. Probably.
The link to the video is here and it will make you feel better about yourself in comparison because what the fuck am I doing with my hands and also, did I say “my foot fall off”? That’s not even a real sentence. ;/
In spite of the fact that I was weird as hell on live tv I got asked to come on NBC News Now. I was afraid I’d forget what to say so I just wrote everything on my leg as a cheat sheet. This is fine and totally normal.
I had my first two tour stops in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania and they were so much fun, particularly because everyone there was the same level of anxious/weird as me and when I pondered hiding behind a chair to catch my breath the whole audience was like, “DO IT, FRIEND. DO YOU WANT SOME XANAX?”
If you are considering coming to my next stops and are nervous, please know that it is the kindest group of people you will ever meet in your life and everyone is on your side.
(Special thanks to Gibson’s Bookstore and Midtown Scholar Bookstore for putting these together beautifully and to Kate Baer and Rebecca Lavoie for moderating!)
I’m home resting for a few days but I’ll be back on the road for a few more stops so please come if you can.
April 11th – San Antonio Book Festival! I always go and usually moderate for other authors but this time I’m a featured author! It’s free for everyone, so much fun, so many amazing authors. And Nowhere is the official bookseller so we will be there selling books for all the authors and I’ll be doing a signing after I speak if you want your book personalized. 🙂
April 12b (technically April the-unlucky-number but I don’t like to write that number if I can help it. I realize this is weird.) Huntington Beach California Barnes and Noble – Reading, discussion, signing! (I believe this one is almost sold out.)
April 15th – Powell’s in Portland Oregon has rented out Revolution Hall. That’s not intimidating at all, she whispered while hiding under her desk. Reading, talking, signing! Please come!
April 18th – Mom 2.0 : Closing keynote and a signing, I think? I was supposed to be doing BookCon that day which is the biggest book conference that exists, I think, but I declined it when I found out their parent company has ties to ICE. No judgment on others who go. It was just an easy thing that I could say no to when the world seems a little bit on fire.
April 27th – Book People in Austin rented out a whole church for this. What. This one is going to be weird but in the best way. I might bedazzle my kaftan for this one. Come!
Then there’s one at Nowhere that already sold out and when I’m done with all of this and recover I’ll do a free online one at Nowhere in case I’m not coming anywhere near you.
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMFG Y’ALL. I just got a text from Nowhere and we get emails from the American Booksellers Association that tell us the Indie Bookstore Bestsellers for the week, and HOW TO BE OKAY WHEN NOTHING IS OKAY is going to be debuting at #3 on their bestseller list! I’m literally crying. This book is different in many ways and I was so afraid that people wouldn’t like it, and the fact that it’s a bestseller on such a special list as one compiled by Indie Bookshops (MAGICAL) is even more special. Holy shit. I don’t even remember what the rest of this blog post was supposed to be about. I’m done. I have to go lay on the floor now.
You have no idea how much I really, really, really love your book. You do you, Jenny. That’s why we love you.
Every time I read one of your posts, I’m reminded of how much I love & adore you, Jenny! Your books are pretty cool too. Thanks for all you do!
Can someone help me, I am a part of the book club and I am trying to remember if we are getting the new book from the club or if I need to order it?
Thanks!
(We’re doing another book for that month. 🙂 ~ Jenny)
Thank you for coming to NH. We’ll always have your back and plenty of Klonopin.
Damn! You sound like a fun gal to be around. And what a huge audience in that photo. Reminds me when the Talking Heads came to UCSB. Congrats on the response to your new book. We all knew (and know) you could do it. Wheeeeeeee! (PS:don’t forget the undies).
You got them all to put pencils in their mouths! (spelling pencils carefully) And you could tell which ones didn’t like it which was even more Awesome! We all just grin & bear it sometimes – mom joke. btw my son says mom jokes are worse than dad jokes & that means I’m better at bad jokes, not that my jokes are worse. Thank you for being brave enough to share authentically with us. We need it, at least I do.
I love your dress (!) and do not see vaginas. Possibly because I’m only vaguely familiar with what they look like. Your porn story is hysterical and on point for my life as well. I really need your new book in my life. Is it available as an eBook? I only read eBooks because of an irrational fear of a stranger touching a book before me. You cheer me to keep me sane.
Dear Jenny, dear Ms. Lawson!
Sorry for having to mansplain once again: Those are NOT vaginas but if anything at all from “below” those would be vulvae.
The vagina is usually not visible at all. And what you are usually referring to as a “lady’s garden” is the outer visbile part. And this is called vulva and NOT vagina, the inner “tube-” or “hose”-thing connecting the vulva to one’s uterus.
I really do admire you and your work from the bottom of my heart and soul, but it really annoys me to have to “mansplain” female genitalia to a woman. Sorry!
But apart from that: Keep it up your good work! And as always good health and all the best to you! And thanks a lot! 🙂
Thank you for the laughs, via this post and your new book. I really needed them.
Ridiculously proud of you my online friend ❤️❤️❤️❤️!! Every time I see a clip I smile. Tribe. (Love the book. So good. Listening to the audio because I personally love hearing you tell your story.)
ALL THE HIGH FIVES!!!! 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌😊😊😊
Wish I lived closer to one of these locations (Montana is so far away! Lol!!) I would he there in a heartbeat. Sending all the juju to you regardless! ❤️
I can’t wait to see you in Portland!! I’m going to try to not be too weird (no guarantees lol) when I get to meet you!
I got up shortly before 7:00 AM just so I could see you on the Today show, but what I didn’t realize is that there were actually 3 Today shows: “Today” from 7:00-8:00, followed by “Weekend Today” from 8:00 to 8:30, followed by “Saturday Today Extra” from 8:30 to 9:00. And your appearance was on the third one, so I ended up watching a lot more Today than I was expecting, when I actually could have stayed in bed an extra hour and a half. Oh, well 🙂
I wish I could see you in Portland but it’s just not possible. I just got “How to be OK” yesterday (thank you) and can’t wait to start reading it. You are so amazing and funny and wonderful! Stay weird! Love you Jenni!
Your NH tour stop was great fun! I got to introduce my wife to your work (she had a great time in Concord, too). And then last night, I played poker with my sons and a bunch of their friends and one of them saw the book on the table, so I read “Murder Potatoes” to them and you may have a bunch of new 20-year old fans now :).
I’m so excited! Your book was on the kitchen counter this morning. (Not by magic, my daughter brought it in from the mailbox I never check.) I was tempted to take it to work, but I thought it might be frowned upon to be reading when I’m supposed to be proctoring a state test.
❤️❤️❤️
Thank you for sharing that video. It’s been a sh*t day at work and you reminded me to sit back and smile. I’m on pg6 of How to Be Okay. Hopefully I’ll get a bit farther tonight. I loved the shoes you wore in the video. I’m forever looking for cute shoes that I can actually wear without damaging my feet even more than I have (3 torn tendons and 1 broken bone so far). I know from your previous posts and books that you have issues with shoes vs RA. If you can, please tell me the brand, where you got them, anything.
Thank you for the smiles and tips and everything you’ve given the world, especially on sh*t days.
(They’re from Clarks and they are the only heels I can wear for more than a half hour without crying. I think they’re called “Rosalyn wren” but I could be wrong. Look up “Clarks Mary Jane pumps with velcro” and you’ll see a few varieties. ~ Jenny)
We love you the way you are you are and so everyone who meets you including tv présenter so not to worry be who you are that and we will Allway be there for you no matter what so shine that you do best even people who don’t know you love you it’s call what you have Charisma so enjoy it you are full of it ❤️ 💖 😊
When I used to teach college students to prepare for GMAT and GRE, I gave them the smile/pencil tip. Because guess what! People who are happy do better on tests. Stress and Anxiety triggers your fight or flight brain and that brain knows nothing about grammar or math or logic.
And you can trick your mind to be happy with the horizontal pencil, even when you are stressed about graduate exams!
I haven’t finished the book yet because I’m trying to make it last longer. I love it! It may be your best! I’m still begging you to add a stop in Kentucky, Tennessee, or Southern Indiana. The dress is cute, and TBH, I don’t see lady parts. If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the bathroom with a mirror. I must have forgotten what everything looks like. 😄
So happy for you, Jenny!! You so deserve all the wonderfulness from your book tour! (And we all knew your book was going to be bestseller.) 🩷🩷🩷
When I went in to my local indie bookstore, I was telling the clerk about the book and both she and the lady behind me said it sounded awesome and timely.
I have been talking about your new book nonstop to everyone I know! It came at the perfect time. I have been a long time sufferer of anxiety and depression. In 2021 I was hospitalized with Covid for over a month almost died multiple times. And now not only do I have permanent lung damage….but I am losing all my teeth due to Long Covid, oxygen use, and steroid use because of my breathing issues. Your books make me smile and have such great advice. I have bought several copies and I am giving them to people who I think could benefit. You are my hero, and I would love to be a part of your “Beta Band”!
I’m going to need a “My foot fall off t-shirt”! 🤣🦶
Isn’t it wonderful that we are all just utterly fallible humans?! Anyone that feels divided or distanced about the silly human errors that happen isn’t one of ours.
I FINALLY GET TO COME SEE YOU IN PORTLAND!! 🎉
Oh I am reading The Keeper right now
😂🥰
April 12b is my birthday. So it is good for some of us. 🙂 I hope I get your new book soon. Can’t wait. Loved your workbook and all the others too.
Anonymous number 8,
Mansplaining is patronizing, a word that has its roots in the patriarchy, if you look up the definition, you’ll see why that word is such a perfect fit for the comment you made.
Most females refer in general to that part of their body as their vagina, rather than by the technical anatomy terms invented by a male physician years ago. If you don’t have a vulva or vagina, then you don’t get to tell females what they can call their lady parts. We decide for ourselves what we want to call it.
Dear Jenny, I watched you on the Today Show and I thought you looked lovely and did a fantastic job of being yourself, and in doing so you charmed the hosts. I’m so glad your book is doing do well and getting the attention it deserves. May the rest of your book tour continue to be marvelously authentically you.
OMG I have never loved you more! 🤣 Once I wrote a joke about my colleagues on my knee—the next day I had a sonogram and the tech read it out loud. I seriously thought for a minute that she was reading my mind through my uterus. 🤭 It broke my brain!
Jenny, you were fantastic! The dress looked so pretty, I hardly noticed the vaginas. 😉
I am reading the book now. It’s so good and laugh out loud funny.
Exciting and well deserved!
@Anonymous, April 7, 2026 at 8:12 pm
Really thank you so much for your answer and clarification! 🙂 And you really may believe me that I surely did not want to be or just to come over as patronising.
As I have seen more than one (not only) _scientific_ documentations about your lady parts I was and still am pretty sure that those names were not “invented” by men (for patonising) but more so are used mostly and especially by “very proud” totally emancipated strong women.
And of course and by 100,00% you are completely free to call or name your body parts the way you like it. At least I will surely not interfere (any more)!
And I am and hopefully will always be willing to learn more, not only but also about and off and from women.
As I surely do not want to start anything even remotely like a “fight”, I will leave at that. I searched for more than half an hour but really could not find anything remotely endorsing your statement but lots of (scientific and deeply “emancipated” / female, i. e. meaning written by women) that endorse (not only) my point of view.
Peace? You surely will not read from me on this topic again! 😉
And can we both agree to be pretty pleased with the mere existence and the writing and speaking of Jenny Lawson? 😉 At least I totally am! 🙂
I’ve been reading all her books and probably more than half of her posts here since about some 12 – 15 years and have learnt from and laughed about her comments more than I can bear. Hth?! 😉
Good luck, thanks a lot and really all the best to you, Jenny Lawson!!! 🙂
You’re a champion, yet reluctant, rock star, Jenny!!! Go forth and conquer the world, one vagina dress at a time!!! Love the idea of writing notes on your leg – genius! (and it saves trees!). xoxo
I’m totally jealous of the 35th commenter that she discovered Jenny 12 to 15 years ago. That’s around the time I first discovered I suffered from anxiety just after my second child. I could have enjoyed all those funny stories to get me through those dark times. The important thing is that I did finally find her and enjoying her new book. Also, finding this blog and this community. Much love to everyone.
So sad I missed you on the NE coast, but hope to see you if you do a virtual event!
YAYAYAYAYYYYYY! So much good news.
And LOVING the new book!
I received a huge surprise last week when I got the copy I ordered weeks ago from Amazon and then promptly forgot that I ordered it. So, thank you for my present. I can’t wait to dive into it. And congratulations on #3 and the crowds and actually doing all of the stuff that can be so difficult to do.
I watched the video and laughed and was so happy at how engaged everyone was while you were talking! Then I read the next bit of your post about how kind everyone is at your stops…immediately I burst into tears. It’s so wonderful to read about so many kind people. It’s so important. Thank you for bringing us all some joy.
You look very beautiful in your so-called Vagina dress. The dress is a stunner and so are you. I love Powell’s Bookstore in Portland and wish I could be there when you are speaking. It’s only a five-hour drive to Vancouver from Portland. Could you add us to your itinerary, please?
There is never a time, when after you’ve experienced a day (or more) of hell, that you fail to make me laugh. With you…, not at you. Congrats on your obviously amazing and successful new book 💖
Jenny, you are the woman I wish I could have been. Doing a crazy smile for 5 minutes right now (this just after my ‘last hope’Ketamine treatment for the week—raw dogging it til my next appointment)
Stoned, smiling and will start your book again once I’m sober.
Seriously, blessings woman. You help so much. You matter more than the biggest, brightest star in the sky.
Congratulations! You deserve every bit of success and accolades you’re getting on this book tour. ❤️
Congrats! Come to Seattle!
On the Today show, when they mentioned you had a tool for smiling, I was full-on expecting Rory masks. No grinning raccoon masks, but now I know what to do with those #2 pencils I have been hanging on to for 30+ years. Win!
@Jody, April 8, 2026 at 6:41 am
Hello dear Jody!
Thanks a lot for your post and you’re really very welcome and your comment surely helped to make my day a little better! 🙂
But sorry for eventually having to disappoint you as well: You wrote “she” to address me but unfortunately my (preferred and real) only pronouns would be “he/him/his”; as I already had clearly stated in this and my other comment before that => Though probably / hopefully not really the only man here (=> “Victor” and the way Jenny Lawson usually describes the obviously very special kind of humour of her husband are also very welcome! At least by me …!) but reading a lot if not even most of the comments here I do get the impression that I’m probably the member of only a really very small minority. But who would I blame for this?! I _chose_ to be here quite often a long time ago on my own. And I think there are lots and lots of ways to spend one’s time in a worse way!!! 😉
If you can find or spare in any kind of way the necessary time for the following endeavour you might want to take a close look on the lower left side here as this will show you the links to the archives of older and even up to the oldest post by Ms. Lawson from June 2007. I had gotten recommended to read Ms. Lawson’s posts by a really very good female friend who obviously had known me better than myself as she had “thoroughly diagnosed” me to being “pretty strange” when I myself had still been thinking that my life would consist of hundreds of wrong-way drivers messing with me and my life. But i can concede that Jenny Lawson, especially with her books, had really helped me to comprehensively realise and learn to totally accept in every way that obviously only I myself had been and would be the only wrong-way driver in my life. And I think that, if nothing special comes up, I probably will reach this opening post of hers by the end of this year. And then I will write my master thesis about jenny Lawson and her complete writings … 😉 But Jenny Lawson really feels like a good and understanding sister to me though under the actual circumstances I absolutely certainly won’t cross the Atlantic to enter this mess of a country and state the USA and Texas are actually actively showing off. 🙁 Although I really so much would like to visit Nowhere bookshop and Ms. Lawson in person as well. But unfortunately this won’t happen. 🙁
Wish you all the best and good luck in every way! If you’re really living in the US even much more so … 🙂
PS:
And just like Jenny Lawson herself (on the right side of her site) recommends her at the moment as well, I too really do recommend Allie Brosh and her https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/ as well as her two books for anyone having emotional or social or in general psychological problems. Really urgently! I had done myself the favour to have gone back in time and have read the _complete_ blog of Allie Brosh. And boy was I NOT disappointed! 🙂 Pls. do have lots of fun on your own …! 🙂
A FIVE HOUR DRIVE????
I live in England, and that would take me from one end of country to the other. Fuck, America is BIG.
I’m jazzed that you wore the vulva frock.
I am so very pleased that you went with vagina dress. My very favorite thing is the dude who has his boxers in a bind over whether it is vagina or labia. Vagina is the cave. I see cave. It’s a cooter. I do see meat curtain in one spot, but mostly, the Cave of Wonders.
I got my book the other day, and I get to read it this weekend! I know it is going to be great because I have loved all your books.
If it helps at all, Revolution Hall in Portland is really just an old school auditorium turned music venue, and it’s way less intimidating than both of the spots in the pictures you posted! Alas, you, Rainbow Rowell, and Throwing Muses have all chosen to visit Portland during the week when I am gone, which is simply wrong. Enjoy Portland!
(That is a relief, actually. That the place isn’t intimidating, I mean. Not that you are gone. Come back! ~ Jenny)
@becomingcliche April 8, 2026 at 8:31 pm
You’re welcome and I’m sooo over the moon and pleased that I obviously could do you a favour with my comments! 😉
Hopefully you are able to understand German as well, because then this documentary _by_women_only_ (gynecologist included) might eventually perhaps under certain circumstances … help you to understand what really big favour I had, but obviously in vain, _tried_ to do you:
https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/mein-koerper-oder-ard-wissen/mein-koerper-meine-vulva-warum-so-tabu/swr/Y3JpZDovL3N3ci5kZS9hZXgvbzIxNDM4NzQ
Perhaps you might have heard of the saying: “Ignorance is bliss!”
SCNR!
Still hoping your book tour will include Silicon Valley.
I did the most ADHD thing ever. I preordered your book. Apparently I did it twice. Okay, two copies – I’ll gift one to a friend. Now, I see that a third copy is on its way to me. LOL.
Clearly I adore your writing!
I’ll be working the Powell’s event at Revolution Hall. I never volunteer for offsite events because they make me anxious BUT I WILL SHOW UP FOR JENNY 🙂 I can’t wait to wee you there, Jenny!
And of course there is a typo in my previous comment. I won’t wee there. I hope. But I will see you there!
(Why not both? ~ Jenny)
Yay, photographic proof that I was at the event in NH! I couldn’t stay afterwards because I was in the middle of prepping for a colonoscopy the next morning, but listening to you speak was worth the effort!
@ 52
RE “Perhaps you might have heard of the saying: “Ignorance is bliss!””
Ignorance of lies and deceptions (=most mainstream news and establishment decrees) is bliss because exposing yourself to that is self-propagandization.
Ignorance of truths is not, or only temporarily or rarely, bliss because it is ultimately self-defeating …. https://johnmichaeldemarco.com/15-reasons-why-ignorance-is-not-bliss
“Ignorance is not protection from consequences. When you know better, you do better—but when you do not know, the consequences still arrive, often compounded. Proactivity matters. Asking questions matters. Research matters. Every choice we make carries outcomes, and those outcomes do not pause simply because we failed to understand them.” — https://archive.is/PLqhb
The FALSE mantra of “ignorance is bliss”, promoted in the latter sense, is a product of a fake sick culture that has indoctrinated its “dumbed down” (therefore TRULY ignorant, therefore easy to control) people with many such manipulative slogans. Eg…
““We’re all in this together” is a tribal maxim. Even there, it’s a con, because the tribal leaders use it to enforce loyalty and submission. … The unity of compliance.” — Jon Rappoport, Investigative Journalist
You can find the proof that ignorance is hardly ever bliss (and if so only superficial temporary fake bliss), and how you get to buy into this lie (and other self-defeating lies), in the article “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room –The Holocaustal Covid-19 Coronavirus Madness: A Sociological Perspective & Historical Assessment Of The Covid “Phenomenon”” … https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html
“If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t there more happy people?” — John Mitchinson
“Ignorance is the root cause of all Evil. Since only Knowledge eradicates ignorance, it is our duty and moral obligation to educate ourselves, as well as the masses around us.” — Anonymous
“If we have learned anything in the past six years, it is that vaccinologists, doctors, and the government in general do not have good intentions and never did. The clear intention of everyone concerned was and is to make as much dirty money as possible, letting any amount of collateral damage slide, including a genocide and mass poisoning [with Covid-19 jabs]. The fact [is] that Big Pharma just murdered millions of people, with the full support of government, media, and “science”. With Covid, everyone is part of the fraud, many of them paid off, so no one has any reason to expose it, and big reasons to bury it. Don’t believe anything these people tell you, ABOUT ANYTHING. It isn’t time for a civil war against your neighbors, it is time for a revolution against these hoaxers and thieves.” — Miles Mathis, American author, in 2025
@Margot, No. 58, April 10, 2026 at 5:59 pm
Sorry, but unfortunately you _seem_ to have my overlooked my, as I had thought it to be, “pretty decent portion” of sarcasm, that I had served in my post No. 52.
Because I can assure you that we can probably agree to s.th > than 99,99999999% on what you have written.
I do know that I’m a fu… nitpicker and perhaps a fu… know-it-all as well. And even not an American one but a German as should be clear from my post.
And I even do know the meaning of mansplaining as well and usually try to avoid it at any cost.
And I really only wanted to clear up a pretty common misunderstanding by lots of women: vulva and vagina (or their correct plurals vulvae and vaginae and not -as at the end; unfortunately some 40 years ago I even was able to speak some nearly pretty fluent Latin) are usuallya really very close together but they are obviously not the same. Nothing more, nothing less!
To be totally clear: At least I can and do totally agree with your post!
Hth?! 🙂
Wish you really well and all the best!!! And once again: If you are in the US even much more so …! You will probably know why!
We Germans had had our “own” (actually borrowed from the Austrians) Adolf Hitler. And obviously a horrifyingly large part of the US-populace had chosen their Adolf. And now you have to suck it up! Sorry, but this is all your own fault! This guy had had a term in the oval office and “you” still chose him _again_ … :-(((
PLLLLEEEEEEAAASSSEEEEE come to Frisco, TX!!!!
Congratulations! Also, I love your Today Show shoes! Brand??
Haha, don’t worry about your dress! Just look at what Gillian Anderson wore to the Golden Globe.
Jenny, thank you for sharing so openly and generously. Can’t wait to read your book. Bummed that you’ll be in CA, but Huntington Beach just isn’t that close to where I am in L.A. and traffic here really is worse than you think.
Well. I think you do things left. Not wrong, not right, but left… it’s the best way. Hmm, that’s not a left hand thing. I’m not left handed. Are you left handed? That would be weird if you were. I wasn’t trying to refer to your hands. I am sure they are wonder hands. Wonder hands? That was supposed to be wonderful. But wonder sounds better.
I’m not crazy. Just excited about reading your book.