Why Were 2000s Rom-coms So Obsessed With Magazine Girlies?

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Everett Collection

Welcome to modern rom-com week at The Daily Beast’s Obsessed! In honor of two big romance releases this week—The Fall Guy and The Idea of You—we’re celebrating everything we love about the last 15 years of romantic comedies.

As a journalist who came of age during the early aughts, I have a bone to pick with rom-com screenwriters. When I think back on the movies that raised me—stories like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The Devil Wears Prada, and 13 Going on 30 (which has personally victimized me by turning 20 this month)—almost all of them have one thing in common. They each told the story of a journalist, usually a magazine writer but sometimes a TV reporter or a tabloid photographer, who fell in love in the most improbable of ways. Now, as a reporter in her thirties who has seen the New York dating scene (and media) for herself, I have to ask: Why did you all lie to us like this?!

I recognize that most rom-com writers are not interested in sharing the gritty reality of dating, or New York, or their protagonists’ careers. And humor aside, I’m not that mad at the glamorous sheen they’ve historically painted over journalism as a career choice. (Although I will say, I had extremely inflated expectations for my shoe budget.) Still, like the famous New York Star columnist Carrie Bradshaw (who made her debut in 1998 and certainly helped kick off this trend) I couldn’t help but wonder… What was it about the magazine girlie that got screenwriters so excited? After carefully studying all of the subgenre’s most famous entries, I’m ready to pitch my think piece. Let me just grab my tri-fold board and balloons and get out my pointer.

Read more at The Daily Beast.