Helena Andrews
Helena Andrews is the author of Bitch is the New Black (HarperCollins). She writes a weekly column for The Root, a division of The Washington Post, and is a contributing editor at xoJane, an online women's magazine founded by Jane Pratt. Helena's essay on "Reserve" is featured in the Rebecca Walker-edited anthology Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness (Soft Skull Press).
Helena's work has appeared in Marie Claire, Glamour, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Essence, OUT, GOOD and Uptown magazines, among other fancy pants national publications. She also has on-air experience including appearances on CNN, "Inside Edition," Fox News and XM Radio
Grey's Anatomy creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes optioned Bitch is the New Black as a feature film for Fox Searchlight Pictures. Rhimes described Helena's first collection of essays as "outrageously funny and heartbreakingly honest." The Associated Press wrote that Bitch is the New Black was "bitingly funny" and The St. Petersburg Times dubbed Helena an heir to famed funny lady Dorothy Parker.
After graduating from Columbia University in 2002 with a degree in English literature, Helena scored a sweet $5.15/hour internship at O, the Oprah Magazine. (Like all good indentured serv... er, interns, she survived on Ramen noodles and the kindness of strangers.) In 2005, Helena earned a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, which provided the solid reporting foundation necessary to answer phones and find plastic forks as a news assistant in the Washington bureau of The New York Times.
From there Helena went on to cover Capitol Hill for Politico, which resulted in an allergic reaction to politics that was cured only slightly by writing a book. She is currently working on the film adaptation of Bitch is the New Black and (as a former professional cheerleader) living vicariously through So You Think You Can Dance? and every awesomely bad dance movie ever made, including but not limited to the Step Up franchise.