Rebecca Odes
Born (1969-09-11) September 11, 1969
West Orange, New Jersey, United States
Other namesOdes
EducationWest Orange High School
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Media entrepreneur
  • author
Years active1987–present
Spouse
Craig Kanarick
​
(m. 2001)​
Children2
Musical career
Genres
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • bass guitar
  • guitar
Labels
Formerly of

Rebecca Odes (born September 11, 1969)[1][2] is an American media entrepreneur, author, and former musician. From 1987 to 1992, she was the bassist and vocalist for the band Love Child. In 1994, she debuted as a solo artist under the stage name Odes with the song "Meltaway", later releasing the extended play Me and My Big Mouth (1996).

Odes is the co-founder and creative director of the now-defunct website Gurl.com. She was awarded a New York Magazine Award in 1997 in recognition of her work. She also co-authored three books based on content from Gurl.com, beginning with Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL (1999). Following her work on Gurl.com, Odes co-wrote the book From the Hips: A Comprehensive, Open-Minded, Uncensored, Totally Honest Guide to Pregnancy, Birth and Becoming a Parent (2007). In 2013, she also co-founded Wifey.tv. In 2016, she was listed under Forbes Forty Over 40.

Early and personal life

Odes was born in West Orange, New Jersey in the United States,[3] and she was childhood friends with Esther Drill;[2][4] the two attended West Orange High School,[5] where they both participated in the French club, Ski club and the Cauldron school newspaper.[6] Odes attended Vassar College and graduated with a degree.[3][5] After graduation, she worked for an indie music magazine in Boston, Massachusetts.[5]

Odes attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to study painting,[2][3] but she dropped out due to her activities with Love Child.[5] After Love Child's disbandment, Odes worked as a painting and studio assistant, as well as a design assistant for a Christmas tree bow manufacturer.[5] After learning how to use design programs on her computer,[5] she later enrolled at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University and graduated with a master's degree.[3][7]

Odes married Craig Kanarick, the co-founder of Razorfish, on October 27, 2001, at the Angel Orensanz Center.[2] The two had met in 1996 when Odes took an interaction design course that Kanarick was teaching at New York University.[2] Odes and Kanarick have two children.[8]

Career

Music career

At the end of her freshman year in Vassar College, Odes formed the band Love Child with two other students and was the band's bassist and vocalist.[2] On June 20, 1994, Odes (under her last name only) released "Meltaway" as a 7-inch vinyl single through Merge Records, with "Honey Gets Hard" as its B-side.[9] On February 20, 1996, Odes released her extended play, Me and My Big Mouth.[10]

Writing career

As high school students, Odes and her childhood friend Esther Drill conceived the idea of curating their own magazine with alternative media after noticing that the teen magazines available to them did not properly address their concerns.[7][11][4] While they were graduate students at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, they, along with fellow student Heather McDonald, decided to form a female-positive online space aimed at teenagers, as the Internet lacked communities for girls in the 1990s.[7][4][12] Gurl.com was then created as Odes, Drill, and McDonald's Master's Thesis project.[12] The website was launched in May 1996.[7] Odes acted as the creative director of Gurl.com.[13] She, along with Drill and McDonald, were given the New York Magazine Award in 1997 for their work on the website.[14]

Throughout the years of working on Gurl.com, Odes, Drill, and McDonald released three books based on the content of their website through a partnership with Scholastic.[15][16][12] The first book, Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL, was released on September 1, 1999,[7][12] becoming a national bestseller and selling 100,000 copies in the United States by January 2000.[17][18] It was awarded the I.D. Magazine Award in the Graphics category in July 2000.[19] The second book, The Looks Book: A Whole New Approach to Beauty, Body Image, and Style, was released on October 1, 2002.[12][17] The final book, Where Do I Go from Here?: Getting a Life After High School, was released in 2004.[20] Following her work on Gurl.com, Odes co-wrote the book From the Hips: A Comprehensive, Open-Minded, Uncensored, Totally Honest Guide to Pregnancy, Birth and Becoming a Parent with Ceridwen Morris, with the book releasing on May 1, 2007.[21]

In 2013, Odes founded Wifey.tv with Joey Soloway, an Internet-based platform for women.[3][22] In the same year, she was a co-contributor to the book Unscrolled with Sam Lipsyte in a segment titled "10 Commandments."[23][24]

In 2016, Odes became the executive producer of the film The Skinny.[25] She was also listed in Forbes Forty Over 40 in the same year.[22] In 2018, Odes co-founded CherryPicks, a review aggregator website for female and non-binary content, with Miranda Bailey.[26][27]

Discography

Extended plays

Title Year Album details Peak chart positions Sales Certifications
US
Me and My Big Mouth 1996 — — —
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Singles

Title Year Peak chart
positions		 Sales Album
US
"Meltaway" 1994 — — Non-album single
"—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Publications

As author

Year Title Publisher ISBN Notes
1999 Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a gURL Pocket Books ISBN 9780671041571 Co-author with Esther Drill and Heather McDonald; illustrator
2002 The Looks Book: A Whole New Approach to Beauty, Body Image, and Style Penguin Books ISBN 9780142002117 Co-author with Esther Drill and Heather McDonald; illustrator
2004 Where Do I Go from Here?: Getting a Life After High School Penguin Books ISBN 9780142002148 Co-author with Esther Drill and Heather McDonald; illustrator
2007 From the Hips: A Comprehensive, Open-Minded, Uncensored, Totally Honest Guide to Pregnancy, Birth and Becoming a Parent Three Rivers Press ISBN 9780307237088 Co-author with Ceridwen Morris; illustrator

As contributor

Year Title Publisher ISBN Notes
2013 Unscrolled: 54 Writers and Artists Wrestle with the Torah Workman Publishing Company ISBN 9780761169192 "10 Commandments"; co-contributor with Sam Lipsyte

References

  1. ↑ "[Love Child] wishes a Happy Birthday to Ms. Rebecca Odes (born Sept 11) of Love Child, Wifey.tv, Gurl.com, Ma'am, andmore. A rocker's rocker!". September 11, 2018. Archived from the original on October 16, 2022. Retrieved December 12, 2021 – via Facebook.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Eakin, Emily (November 4, 2001). "WEDDINGS: VOWS; Rebecca Odes and Craig Kanarick". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 28, 2022. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "200 Women: Rebecca Odes". 200 Women. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 Symonds, Alexandria (August 14, 2014). "The Forgotten Pioneer of Teenage Pop-Feminism". The Cut. Archived from the original on June 27, 2021. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Drill, Esther; McDonald, Heather; Odes, Rebecca (February 3, 2004). Where Do I Go from Here?: Getting a Life After High School. New York: Penguin Books. p. vi. ISBN 9780142002148.
  6. ↑ "The Last Roundup '84" (PDF). West Orange High School. 1984. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 5, 2022. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Heather McDonald, Esther Drill, and Rebecca Odes, authors: A chat about life as a "gURL."". CNN. September 17, 1999. Archived from the original on May 9, 2015. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  8. ↑ Durand, Faith (May 24, 2019). "What's Cooking This Weekend, Craig Kanarick and Rebecca Odes?". The Kitchn. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  9. ↑ ""Meltaway" b/w "Honey Gets Hard"". Merge Records. Archived from the original on April 18, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Me and My Big Mouth". Merge Records. Archived from the original on October 16, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
  11. ↑ Copage, Eric V. (May 9, 1999). "NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: NEW YORK ON LINE; Girls Just Want To ..." The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 17, 2017. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Mitchell, Claudia; Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline (December 30, 2007). Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia. California: Greenwood. p. 334. ISBN 9780313339080.
  13. ↑ "Weaving improved web sites". Women's Wear Daily. November 23, 2000. Archived from the original on September 1, 2022. Retrieved August 31, 2022.
  14. ↑ "The 1997 New York Magazine Awards". New York. Vol. 30, no. 49. New York: New York Media. December 22, 1997. pp. 93–98. ISSN 0028-7369. Archived from the original on June 14, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2021.
  15. ↑ "PW: Children's Bookbag". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 244, no. 37. September 14, 1998. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Internet Islands in Indian Ocean". Wired. July 22, 1998. Archived from the original on November 24, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  17. 1 2 "The Looks Book: A Whole New Approach to Beauty, Body Image, and Style". Publishers Weekly. October 1, 2002. Archived from the original on June 27, 2021. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  18. ↑ Lodge, Sally (January 31, 2000). "Self-Help for Teens". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 246, no. 5. Archived from the original on July 6, 2021. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  19. ↑ "Deal With It!". I.D. No. July/August 2000. July 2000. p. 113.
  20. ↑ Hays, Britta (May 24, 2004). "Life after high school". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  21. ↑ "From the Hips: A Comprehensive, Open-Minded, Uncensored, Totally Honest Guide to Pregnancy, Birth and Becoming a Parent". Publishers Weekly. February 19, 2007. Archived from the original on October 16, 2022. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  22. 1 2 "Rebecca Odes: Amplifying Women's Voices". Forbes. 2016. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  23. ↑ Heller, Steven (October 10, 2013). "After the Bar Mitzvah: Famous Artists and Writers Re-Interpret the Torah". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  24. ↑ Ulin, David L. (November 27, 2013). "Hanukkah, the Torah and 'Unscrolled'". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  25. ↑ Phillips, Jevon (January 26, 2016). "Sundance Film Festival: Time out for studio silliness". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 14, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  26. ↑ Erbland, Kate (March 23, 2018). "Alternative Rotten Tomatoes Will Offer Aggregated Reviews and Ratings from Only Female Critics". IndieWire. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  27. ↑ "CherryPicks Launches 'CherryPop,' a New Podcast on Sex in Movies With Hosts Beandrea July, Meg McCarthy (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. September 17, 2020. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
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