Amanda Hess

I am a critic at large for the Culture section of The New York Times, covering the intersection of internet and pop culture.

What I Cover

As a critic, I’m interested in paying close attention to works that fall outside of the traditional boundaries of arts criticism. I have written about my parasocial relationship with a meditation app; how Meryl Streep uses eyeglasses in her acting work; how we are processing climate change on social media; the conversion of politics into online fandoms; and TikTok videos that humiliate babies. My work incorporates elements of memoir and reporting, investigating our relationship with digital technologies. I also contribute essays to The New York Times Magazine, and have reported profiles of figures including Sinead O’Connor, Charo, Tina Turner, Greta Gerwig and Rachel Maddow.

My Background

I joined The Times in 2016 as a David Carr Fellow, covering internet culture through a critical lens and creating the collage-based video essay series “Internetting with Amanda Hess.” Previously, I worked as a freelance writer, an internet columnist for Slate magazine, an editor at GOOD magazine and a columnist and blogger at the Washington City Paper.

My work has been published in the anthologies “Best American Sportswriting” and “Best American Magazine Writing.” In 2015, I won the National Magazine Award for Public Interest for my reported feature on the online harassment of women. My first book, a work of memoir and criticism about becoming a mother in the digital age, will be published by Doubleday in 2025. I grew up in Wisconsin, Nevada, Washington and Arizona and am now based in New York City.

Journalistic Ethics

Like all journalists at The Times, I am committed to upholding the standards outlined in our Ethical Journalism Handbook. Criticism is subjective, and my writing draws on my own opinions, judgments, feelings and life experience. Art creates personal experiences (as does TikTok, in its own way), and exploring those relationships is an element of my work. I strive to do this in a spirit of independence, fairness and transparency. I do not write about anyone I know personally, and I do not accept gifts, trips or other compensation from the industries that I cover.

• Email: amanda.hess@nytimes.com

• X: @amandahess

• Instagram: @astromwallhess