Emily Yoffe

Emily J. Yoffe (born October 15, 1955) is an American journalist and contributing writer for The Atlantic. From 1998 to 2016 she was a regular contributor to Slate magazine, notably as Dear Prudence. She has also written for The New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; The Washington Post; Esquire; the Los Angeles Times; Texas Monthly; and many other publications. Yoffe began her career as a staff writer at The New Republic before moving on to other publications.

In 2006 outgoing columnist Margo Howard turned Slate's "Dear Prudence" advice column over to Yoffe. The column appears four times per week, including one day of live chats and one day in which the letters are responded to using a video instead of text. In November 2015, Yoffe published her last "Dear Prudence" column.

She wrote a regular feature on Slate called "Human Guinea Pig", in which she attempted unusual activities or hobbies. For "Human Guinea Pig", she has tried hypnosis, took part in a nudist camp, and taken a vow of silence. She has become a street performer, a nude model for an art class, a bar mitzvah motivational dancer, and a contestant in the Mrs. America beauty pageant.

She has praised #MeToo, but expressed concerns about overreach. She wrote about "The Problem With #BelieveSurvivors", the consequences of Al Franken's resignation from the Senate, and the dangers of "endlessly expand[ing] the categories of victim and perpetrator." One of her most infamous articles on the subject tells college women to stop getting drunk, insisting this suggestion is about prevention and not victim blaming.

In March 2023, Yoffe interviewed Jamie Reed for The Free Press, whose claims that children were harmed through inadequate care at The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital have been disputed by several former coworkers and the parents of many patients. In April 2023, Yoffe wrote an article interviewing a mother whose child received gender-affirming care from the Washington University Medical Center, claiming that the receipt of this care made her child's mental health deteriorate. A Twitter user claiming to be the child has contradicted these claims on social media, saying that their deteriorating mental health at the time of receiving gender-affirming care had nothing to do with them being transgender and that they felt the article violated their consent. Yoffe made the choice in this article to refer to the child with he/him pronouns at the mother's behest despite the child stating they are nonbinary.