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Food

The ‘300 Sandwiches’ Lady Went and Got Herself a Book Deal, Hip Hip Hooray!!

stephanie-smith-fianceeCongratulations to Ms. Stephanie Smith, the New York Post writer behind the blog 300 sandwiches, who snagged herself a book deal about her journey to making her boyfriend ‘E’ 300 sandwiches before he’ll propose to her.

The idea behind the blog 300 sandwiches started out as a joke. One day Ms. Smith made her live-in boyfriend E a sandwich, a sandwich that he enjoyed so much that he proclaimed to his girlfriend, “You’re, like, 300 sandwiches away from an engagement ring!”

Ms. Smith, obviously a very smart, media-savvy woman (she’s a professional journalist, for chrissakes!) took the 300 sandwiches idea and ran with it. She created a blog that turned out to be foodies dream, and after a little more than a year of blogging about sandwiches the media caught wind of site and she ended up on the Today show in a cook-off. Win! for Ms. Smith. Of course, there were complaints that Stephanie’s blog was retrograde and was setting the woman’s movement back, blah blah blah, but she shrugged the haters off and kept on blogging. She even said she wasn’t looking for a book deal (don’t they all say that?), her site was just a fun idea she came up with to continue the joke between she and her boyfriend.

But now, less than two months after that Today show cook-off, Ms. Smith had indeed signed a book deal. And you know what? Good for her!

I’m a feminist and the idea of Stephanie getting a book deal doesn’t bother me one bit, and here’s why: White women have been doing the exact same thing (i.e., creating vacuous, self-centered, entertaining blogs whose premise came from some goofy personal experience) and getting book deals for some time now (Hello Stephanie Klein!), so why shouldn’t black women be able to do the exact same thing and profit from it? Hmm, lets see, there was Cat Marnell, a white women who grew up in a wealthy family who then became a drug-addict and writer for sites such as xojane, who got a book deal to write about (what else?) her drug addiction and the men she had slept with. And there was also Eat Pray Love, a book about a middle-aged white woman who goes off half-way across the world to find herself and ends up falling in love. Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat Pray Love also got a movie deal.

This list of white women who have received book deals to talk about food, love, finding themselves, or sex is a long list. I say we need more talented black women writers to get book deals for writing about the same things white women have been getting book deals for ages to write about.

While on the Today show, E was brought out and asked would he propose to Stephanie once she had made 300 sandwiches. He replied that Stephanie was already worthy of a proposal. On her blog, Stephanie has said that she and E have discussed children, marriage, and family but that E doesn’t want to have kids until he can afford to raise those children with a comfortable lifestyle. Here’s to hoping Ms. Smith’s book sells well and that she profits enough to afford those babies and the beautiful wedding that are her heart’s desire.

Follow Christelyn on Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. And if you want to be a little more about this online dating thing, InterracialDatingCentral is the official dating site for this blog.

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