Hadley Freeman

Hadley Clare Freeman (born 15 May 1978)[2][3] is an American British journalist. She writes for The Sunday Times,[4] having previously written for The Guardian.[5]

Hadley Freeman
Born
Hadley Clare Freeman

(1978-05-15) 15 May 1978
New York City, U.S.
EducationCambridge Centre for Sixth-form Studies
Alma materSt Anne's College, Oxford
Employers
Known forJournalist, author
Children3
RelativesCatie Lazarus (cousin)[1]

Early life

Freeman was born in New York City to a Jewish family. Her father worked in finance.[6][7] The family moved to London when Freeman was 11.[8] She has dual British and American citizenship.[9]

Freeman suffered from anorexia and was treated in a psychiatric unit during six different periods between ages 13 and 17.[10] After taking her A-level examinations while boarding at the Cambridge Centre for Sixth-form Studies,[3] she read English literature at St Anne's College, Oxford and edited the student newspaper Cherwell.[11]

Career

After a year in Paris, Freeman worked on the fashion desk of The Guardian for eight years.[12] She joined The Guardian in 2000 and has worked for the newspaper as a staff writer and columnist and contributes to the UK version of Vogue.[13] Following an article for The Guardian in July 2013 criticising misogynistic behaviour, Freeman received a bomb threat on Twitter.[14]

Freeman's books include The Meaning of Sunglasses: A Guide to (Almost) All Things Fashionable, in 2009[15] and Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies in 2013,[16] which was described by Jennifer Lipman in The Jewish Chronicle as "a detailed attack on how women are both portrayed and conditioned to act in public life".[17] Life Moves Pretty Fast appeared in 2015.[18]

In March 2020, House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family, was published.[19] It is an account of the lives of her grandmother Sala Glass and her three brothers Alex, Jacques, and Henri in Poland, France, and the United States during the course of the twentieth century.[20][21] Karen Heller wrote in The Washington Post of Freeman being "an exacting historian" who "tackles anti-Semitism, Jewish guilt and success".[22]

Freeman ended her Weekend Guardian column in September 2021 to concentrate on interviews for the newspaper.[23] In November 2022, Freeman announced that she would be leaving The Guardian and would write for The Sunday Times.[4]

Her memoir Good Girls: A story and study of anorexia, recounting her teenage experience of anorexia, was published by Fourth Estate in April 2023.[24][25]

Views

In June 2018, Freeman denounced the treatment of undocumented child immigrants arriving in America, drawing parallels with her grandmother's experience of escaping from the Holocaust. Freeman described it as deliberate cruelty by the Trump administration, and a reflection of latent racism amongst its supporters.[26]

In November 2018, U.S. journalists from The Guardian published an opinion piece criticising a Guardian editorial about the Gender Recognition Act, claiming it was transphobic.[27] In tweets, Freeman defended the editorial.[28] She has since been cited as expressing views that some have considered transphobic, particularly in regards to trans people seeking healthcare, and trans people struggling with suicidal ideation.[29][30][31] In June 2021, Freeman used her regular opinion column in The Guardian to describe that she had "lost at least a dozen friends over this ... friends who have told me my beliefs are transphobic".[32]

In December 2022, Freeman said there was an "atmosphere of real fear" at the Guardian over their coverage of trans issues, not allowing her and others to write on gender issues and barring her from interviewing J. K. Rowling and Martina Navratilova who have known gender critical views on transgender people. After 22 years of working for the Guardian she left the newspaper when she was refused permission to follow up on the controversy surrounding the charity Mermaids, which supports transgender youth in the UK.[33]

Personal life

Freeman often discusses cinema, particularly from the 1980s, in her articles and occasionally in broadcasts. She has said that her favourite film is Ghostbusters[34] and that she has a collection of related books and articles.[35]

She has twin sons and a daughter.[21]

References
  1. Hadley, Freeman (2 January 2021). "My naughty cousin Catie Lazarus was the funniest woman in any room – how I'll miss her". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  2. Freeman, Hadley (12 May 2018). "I can't wait to turn 40. After four decades of getting things wrong, I know some stuff". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  3. "Alumni Profiles". Cambridge Centre for Sixth-form Studies. Archived from the original on 1 November 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  4. Bron, Maher (2 November 2022). "Long-serving Guardian columnist Hadley Freeman leaves for Sunday Times". Press Gazette. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
  5. Freeman, Hadley (4 July 2012). "Cricket and other baffling British habits". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  6. Groskop, Viv (19 May 2013). "Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies, by Hadley Freeman – review". The Observer. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  7. Freeman, Hadley (6 November 2012). "Sick of US news? Don't worry: there are lots of other things to discuss". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  8. Gil, Natalie; Forster, Katie (4 November 2012). "Interview: Hadley Freeman". The Tab. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  9. Freeman, Hadley (4 February 2017). "I'm American and British. Can I save the special relationship?". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  10. Freeman, Hadley (25 November 2017). "It wasn't feminist theory that cured my anorexia – it was having something to eat for". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
  11. Levy Gale, Sadie (10 August 2013). "Interview: Hadley Freeman – How to be Awesome". Cherwell. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  12. Freeman, Hadley (10 May 2013). "I was banned from a slew of shows and never brushed my hair: Hadley Freeman's life as a fashion misfit". Evening Standard. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  13. "Hadley Freeman". RCW agency. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  14. Batty, David (1 August 2013). "Bomb threats made on Twitter to female journalists". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
  15. Freeman, Hadley (5 February 2009). The Meaning of Sunglasses: A Guide to (Almost) All Things Fashionable. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-670-01867-3.
  16. Freeman, Hadley (25 April 2013). Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies. Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-0-007-48570-3. Archived from the original on 29 May 2018. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  17. Lipman, Jennifer (30 May 2013). "Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  18. Ellen, Barbara (17 May 2015). "Life Moves Pretty Fast review – a funny, absorbing study of 80s Hollywood". The Observer. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  19. Freeman, Hadley (5 March 2020). House of Glass: The story and secrets of a twentieth-century Jewish family. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780008322632. Archived from the original on 2 March 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  20. Hennigan, Adrian (24 March 2020). "Picasso, Dior, Auschwitz and an Ayatollah: Uncovering a Secret Jewish Family History". Haaretz. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  21. David, Keren (27 February 2020). "The family secrets found in a shoebox". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  22. Heller, Karen (30 March 2020). "In 'House of Glass,' Hadley Freeman unearth's the World War II-era secrets of her family's past". The Washington Post. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  23. Freeman, Hadley (18 September 2021). "Opinion writing has changed a lot since I started out. It's time for something new". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  24. Chandler, Mark (17 March 2021). "Fourth Estate buys Freeman's 'ground-breaking' memoir". The Bookseller. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  25. Sturges, Fiona (5 April 2023). "Good Girls by Hadley Freeman review – anorexia from within". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  26. Freeman, Hadley (19 June 2018). "Donald Trump's child cruelty shocks us, but it shouldn't surprise us". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  27. Levin, Sam; Chalabi, Mona; Siddiqui, Sabrina (2 November 2018). "Why we take issue with the Guardian's stance on trans rights in the UK". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  28. Persio, Sofia Lotto (3 November 2018). "Guardian US journalists denounce newspaper's "transphobic" editorial". PinkNews. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  29. Hansford, Amelia (10 January 2023). "Journalist Hadley Freeman condemned for 'dangerous' comments about suicidal trans kids". Pink News. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  30. Valens, Ana (2 April 2018). "There's nothing feminist about attacking trans women". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  31. Ewens, Hannah (16 June 2020). "Inside the Great British TERF War". Vice. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
  32. Freeman, Hadley (26 June 2021). "People have told me I'm on the wrong side of history, but I still want to be their friend". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
  33. Singh, Anita (5 December 2022). "Hadley Freeman: 'Atmosphere of fear' governs Guardian trans coverage". The Telegraph. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  34. Freeman, Hadley (27 October 2011). "My favourite film: Ghostbusters". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  35. Freeman, Hadley (27 October 2011). "Why I owe it all to 1980s movies". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
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