NOTE
From now on you can find my pieces for The New York Times here. That is your
source for All Things Molly. I'm saying this prophylactically because I am 100%
certain that I will forget to update this page each time I write something. End
transmission.
November 2023
Tis the season where I encourage you to buy zine gifts for your loved ones!
This one is raunchy/frivolous/historical. This one is true crime/murder/sociology.
Both arrive lovingly wrapped (by my own paws) in satin ribbon.
November 2023
Notes on a book party--and trendspotting in Koreatown--in this post. It is
"locked" but only optionally so; see here for discussion of Substack abuse.
November 2023
Another month. another blog. This one is wistful! Oh boy!
October 2023
Some notes on my psychiatrist, hopefully without violating any rules...
October 2023
Here are my Strong Opinions about Nabokov.
October 2023
Notes on bananas featuring: isoamyl acetate, the fantasy of fragrance photorealism,
a recipe for banana soup.
October 2023
Belatedly, a piece about octagons for the New York Times.
September 2023
New scribbles have been scribbled on the blog, such as this.
September 2023
Both zines sold out, and both are now back in stock. As you can see, I am improving
my restocking skills. You can find the zines here (scroll down).
August 2023
Some thoughts on how to arrange flowers.
July 2023
It's about time I was on the Paris Review homepage eating a turkey leg, jeez.
June 2023
Happy summer. I've started being Diligent about writing posts on Substack,
and so far it is really fun. I do not send them out by email--a choice that seems
to annoy 49% of subscribers and delight the other 51%. At some point I'll type
out the logic behind this policy, but for now it will remain a mystery. Here are
the posts.
Topics include books, writing, plants, art, language, the internet, history, insomnia,
fashion, "etc". If you bookmark that page you can visit whenever the spirit moves
you, and your inbox will remain unmolested.
There is a paywall option but if you do not have $ for yet another Substack, you
can email and I will "comp" you. Or, if you are sick of the tyranny of subscriptions,
you can Venmo any amount between 1 penny and 100 million dollars and I will
add you. Just include your email address in the Venmo to @mollybethyoung.
(If anyone from Substack is reading this, please overlook my abuse of your platform.)
Oh, and there are some free posts so you can get a taste.
April 2023
Happy Easter. Another thing that has been resurrected today is my blog.
Here is a post.
February 2023
We have a micro-edition of Kate Riley's brilliant novel for sale. Once these are gone,
they are gone forever. Click here to learn more.
Author photo below: a goose shitting on Kate's leg.
January 2023
It has come to my attention that I do, in fact, have a candle in this funeral.
December 2022
A tub of thoughts about The Scarlet Letter.
November 2022
A few words about learning to read.
October 2022
Whence come you, PKD? By what right do you drink from my flagon of life? And
when I put it to my lips--lo, they are yours and not mine.
October 2022
Here is a review of insomnia (the condition, not the Christopher Nolan movie). Even
though it is hosted on substack, it is not a newsletter...nor does it cost money...it is
simply a blog entry.
March 2022
Zines are now available at Browser Books in San Francisco! 2195 Fillmore Street.
Support your local bookstore / burnish your zine collection / say hello to the legendary
Hana Metzger who is responsible for stocking them :)
February 2022
The zine is back in stock. I managed to narrow down the "out of stock" window
from my customary two years to a reasonable 4 months. Not bad, Young.
February 2022
Filmmaker Alex Ross Perry and artist Anna Bak-Kvapil look very nice in their
Nautilus of Time gear. Let's take a moment to admire them. You can purchase
your own nautili here, if you wish.
December 2021
I wrote about disgust and the amazing Paul Rozin for the New York Times Magazine.
November 2021
We have designed some new garb for the holidays. It can be found here.
There are options for both poets and nautilus-lovers, which should cover
pretty much everyone on your gift list :)
October 2021
For my last piece at New York magazine, I fulfilled a monthslong dream and
reviewed a government PDF from 2005. Enjoy?
September 2021
Looks like I'm the only gal in town who didn't flip for the new Franzen!
Well, that's the beauty of critics and snowflakes and flowers: no two are alike.
This is my last review for New York before I move on to another publication
with "New York" in the name: The New York Times. See you at a slightly
different URL.
September 2021
Thanks, Sewanee Review, for featuring my zine on your list of suggested
books to read over the weekend! Here is the article, and here is where you
can fetch a zine. As always, if your zine budget is maxed out, you can
email me for a free pdf.
May 2021
Thanks, Vanity Fair! I'm so pleased when zines (mine or anyone else's) sneak
onto book lists...
March 2021
I've spawned another zine. It's a true story about multiple murders, Cape Cod in
the 1990s, geodesic domes, "etc." It's all connected! You can buy a copy here,
if you wish.
March 2021
We're all just bags of flesh, processing information. Some thoughts on Happy
the Elephant, loneliness, and the Bronx Zoo.
March 2021
All Of My Current Thoughts On Fashion Can Be Found Here. Thank you.
February 2021
Why write zines? Some hastily organized thoughts on the subject.
December 2020
Nick Kroll! What's not to love. A profile for the New York Times Magazine.
December 2020
Some thoughts on saunas, the Donner Party, plump pillows, Iceland, an
interesting new memoir and how we will get through this winter, if we do.
December 2020
Can Adriene Mishler--YouTube yoga celebrity, angel of mercy, saint of
Austin, Texas--change the way we we use the internet? A profile for the
New York Times Magazine about the future of influencing.
October 2020
Greta hosts a podcast called Nerdette. Greta is delightful. Greta had me on to
talk about the Tiers of Fun, which is a philosophy of living that I did not invent
but learned from my friend Lake, who is also delightful. You can listen to the
podcast here. I come in midway through.
July 2020
A review of Zadie Smith's new essay collection, for New York.
May 2020
Would you like a little treat in your mailbox? A zine might do the trick.
This one is 56 pages, offset print, and rated R.
May 2020
Everybody stop what you're doing and think about eels for ten minutes.
May 2020
If you can't live normally, why not find little harebrained ways to warp reality?
(For the New York Times Magazine)
February 2020
Why do corporations speak the way they do? I wrote about the ancient
phenomenon of garbage language, for New York
February 2020
A review of a wild novel, for New York
November 2019
I spoke with the sharpest tool in the shed (Margaret Atwood) for New York
magazine about the past decade of outrages and insults and Kylies and cages.
August 2019
Some personnel news: Starting this instant I am the literary critic for New York
magazine. How long will it take for me to get cancelled? Meantime, enjoy this
press release.
August 2019
The shirt is back. Still made of cotton, still recycled, still soigne.
May 2019
It's a federal crime to spray cheese in someone's eye and now you know.
Here is another helping of frivolous legislation, in a book review for the
New York Times.
April 2019
The good news is we made a t-shirt. The bad news is that it sold out in a couple of
days, so there are no more and it is officially a relic. Some lessons learned from
making a tiny run of high-quality t-shirts: 1) the margins are terrible. 2) more
terrible than you can imagine. 3) but the high of seeing people looking good in
your shirts is, possibly, worth the numerous pains in numerous asses.
November 2018
I contributed in a minor way to this project by A24 and the idea (which I did
not come up with; they did) is fucking genius. The horror candle smells like
being locked in a mildewing basement pre-murder. I, uh, imagine.
August 2018
I was tickled to create an installation in the pop-up museum Color Factory.
(Tickets available now if you're in the NYC region.) My installation is a
live-action flow chart, which you can see in the first picture below.
It is designed to make you Think and also to make you Feel.
If you have a chance to visit, please let me know what you thought and felt.
April 2018
Escape games are life. The rest is just details.
April 2018
We've entered the matrix. Our book is nestled comfortably in the
BRILLIANT / HIGHBROW quadrant, which is an honor and a
pleasure. Our next effort will be geared specifically toward the
LOWBROW / DESPICABLE quadrant. Count on it.
March 2018
Snatch a copy of the New York Times Book Review for our back page special.
(Or read it here.)
March 2018
Feeling less than fabulous? Turn that pout inside out and join me
for a chat and a vape with Donatella Versace in this month's GQ.
March 2018
I wrote this month's ELLE cover story. The subject?
Kim Kardashian West. The pictures? Sexy "af"
January 2018
Gossamer, the new green-lensed magazine, came over for an afternoon.
We ate jellybeans and sat upon mushrooms.
January 2018
Happy new year! The new issue of Kinfolk is out, which means a new
puzzle by me can be found in the back pages. This one is sure to make
a "vas deferens" in your life. Find it wherever Kinfolk is sold.
November 2017
A bit of horny speculation on the future of driverless cars for a special
issue of the New York Times Magazine.
October 2017
Just in time for the holidays, our Periodic Table of NYC Trash poster
is back in print. It makes an eerily specific gift for a certain kind of
person.
It looks ravishing in a white frame.
September 2017
A new issue of Kinfolk means a new puzzle by Molly.
May 2017
This is what lifestyle gurus do.
January 2017
In the history of humanity, the vast spectrum of private weirdness has
never been so public. Here's what I think about THAT.
January 2017
Just another Jewish peddler in the New World, grasping at the seeds
of mobility! Here I am at the Canal Street Market, where you can
now purchase the Periodic Table of NYC Trash.
November 2016
I published a crossword in the New York Times. Here's a copy for your
solving plezh.
November 2016
New York Magazine featured our Periodic Table of NYC Trash poster in its
holiday gift guide. Neat!
November 2016
Sotheby's wrote a nice little piece about the Old Master emoji. Read it to
find out which emoji is most beloved by their head of auction sales.
October 2016
Hyperallergic claimed that our stickers are better than Cindy Sherman's
stickers. Look, I'm not taking a side here. You be the judge.
October 2016
National Art Critic Ben Davis at Artnet wrote a very nice post about the lurid
backstory of our Old Masters sticker pack. Take a gander, why dontcha.
October 2016
Another iOs sticker pack by Molly Young and Teddy Blanks?
How many sticker packs does one woman NEED? The answer is:
precisely two. Our second pack includes 30 stickers for
injecting flair into SMS exchanges.
Buy it at the app store for 99 cents.
October 2016
A picture is worth a thousand words. A thousand words is
hard to type with your thumbs. We made an iOs sticker
pack of historical emojis to solve this problem.
The Wall Street Journal called it their "new favorite iOs
sticker pack" and it is available for 99 cents on the app store.
Go on, snatch it!
September 2016
My husband and I collaborated on a post about all of our smelly,
unlikable friends for the New Yorker website. It's nasty.
Posters are available here.
< back