美国国家公共电台 NPR Blogger Luvvie Ajayi Is Judging You With Her New Book

Blogger Luvvie Ajayi Is Judging You With Her New Book

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If you follow the television show "Scandal" and even if you don't, you may have come across the hilarious 2 recaps of the show by blogger Luvvie Ajayi. For her longtime fans, those columns, which even caught the eye of "Scandal" show-runner Shonda Rhimes, were just the on-ramp to Luvvie Ajayi's popular humor blog Awesomely 3 Luvvie. Born in Nigeria raised in Chicago, Luvvie riffs on everything from NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick's decision not to stand for the national anthem 4 to why people need to leave first daughter Malia Obama alone.

Now Luvvie is upping her game with her first book. It's just out. It's called "I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual." It includes much pointed 5 advice about upping your game on everything from why you need to leave that bad boo alone to snappy retorts to people who ask stupid questions about Africa and much else. And Luvvie Ajayi is with us now from our bureau in New York. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.

LUVVIE AJAYI: I'm so excited to be here.

MARTIN: And I'm a little nervous that you're judging me.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: So how did you start blogging? How did you come up with that voice?

AJAYI: So I started blogging in 2003 when I was in college, and then when I graduated from college in 2006, I started what is now awesomelyluvvie.com where I was talking about pop culture, race, travel, politics and shenanigans - whatever I felt like talking about. This voice is actually me in real life. This is who I am. This is who's at brunch 6 and who is kicking it randomly 7 at home. That's how it became a thing.

MARTIN: What do you think it is that people are responding to?

AJAYI: People love my voice because they say I say what they were thinking, but dare not to say because they had a filter or a job. I am the best friend in their head who happens to be the good angel on their shoulder, but is saying all the things that they were like, oh, I probably shouldn't say that. And I said it for them, and they're like thank you.

MARTIN: But it's not gratuitous 8 meanness.

AJAYI: Right.

MARTIN: I just want to be clear. That is not you. You have a particular - it's not just that you're judging people, but you really do want them to do better. Right?

AJAYI: Yeah. You know, I'm judging people, and I'm judging myself along the way. But I think really what I'm saying is in general in my voice and what it really is about is I'm basically the conscience, the conscience who's very self-aware because I understand that I'm also not perfect.

MARTIN: There's some very poignant 9 biographical information here that, you know, I did not even know, even though I'm a close reader of you. There's a chapter called Zamunda is Not a Country Neither is Africa, and you talk about being this little girl who coming here at the age of 9 growing up in Nigeria where you wanted for nothing, raised to be proud of who you are, coming from a family that's well-known and very respected and then going all of a sudden to this being in the fifth grade in a new country, a new city where people are asking you all these crazy questions about Africa. Tell me about that.

AJAYI: One thing I wanted to make sure was in this chapter especially is the impact of where I'm from and how it kind of shaped who I am today. So it was really good to start with that just to give people who have an idea of my perspective and why it really grinds my gears about the conversations we have about Africa.

And I use myself as an example so people can actually put themselves in my shoes and also relate to somebody who they respect and like and understand how being othered as somebody who's African can affect you. I happen to push past it and learn to love my culture as a Nigerian, but a lot of people never do. It makes me want to make sure there's a 9 year old who's coming from Nigeria. She never has to feel embarrassed about where she came from.

MARTIN: And let's get back to the fun, though - you're a social media historian. You said you saw that title on LinkedIn.

AJAYI: (Laughter).

MARTIN: But you also do give a lot of love advice, like for people to talk about - and I can't, unfortunately, because I'm not trying to lose my FCC license 10 - I cannot get you to read the part where you kind of discuss with some women how their choices in some men need to improve and that they shouldn't be overly reliant on one particular quality.

AJAYI: Yeah.

MARTIN: You've got to read something for me just so people can get the flavor.

AJAYI: I promise you, Michel. You will not lose your license.

MARTIN: OK.

AJAYI: (Reading) Who needs soap operas now when we have social media timelines? Now you can get a similar drama fix by just paying attention to your friends and family members' Facebook pages. It's "Days Of Our Lives" real life edition. I especially love that friend or several that we all have who keep everyone updated on their dating life like their writing Carrie Bradshaw's column. I refer to this person as the bleeding heart. They make social media interesting because they're the person who is in love with love but love might not love them that much. They're the ones who you might not have seen since you were in middle school together, but you can track their entire dating history including start and end dates just by going on their page. You can almost chart their cycles in dating because at this point, everyone sees the pattern but them. They're as predictable as the moon, but not as bright.

MARTIN: Oh, my goodness (laughter). OK. Let me - now I have to ask. Now that you've got the book out, what now? Does it feel like an accomplishment 11 like having like a physical book that you can download or put actually in your hands? I mean, does your mom now think, yes, you do have a job, Luvvie?

(LAUGHTER)

AJAYI: Right. I'm not just Tommy from "Martin."

(LAUGHTER)

AJAYI: It feels like a dream come true like I'm holding my dreams in my hands. It actually feels surreal because to be writing online for so long, writing a book was important because I wanted something that people could hold onto, but I have been asked what's next and I'm thinking - I was challenged that I should try stand-up comedy.

MARTIN: I thought that's what you were doing.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: Just sitting down doing it.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: That was blogger Luvvie Ajayi. She is the author of "I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual." It's her first book, and she was kind enough to join us from our bureau in New York City. Luvvie, thank you.

AJAYI: Thank you so much.