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Jill Smokler, creator of the website “Scary Mommy,” whose raw and honest writing inspired a generation of mothers to bond over the understanding that parenting isn’t always rainbows and sunshine, has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer at age 46. “I’m doing pretty much how you’d expect,” Smokler tells in her first interview since receiving her glioblastoma diagnosis. “Not great.

I keep alternating between feeling so profoundly sad and so pissed off.” In 2008, Smokler started a blog called “Scary Mommy” to document her pajama-clad reflections as a stay-at-home mom. The blog wound up attracting millions of readers in search of connection and acknowledgement that motherhood could be wonderful, complicated and a bit scary.



Smokler grew it into an empire, becoming the first mom blogger to sell her brand to a media company. Somebody understands me and I’m not alone.” “Jill started a community that gave women a voice and a connection to other women walking the same road,” says Nicole Brown Meyers, a mom in Louisiana who belongs to a Facebook group for fans of the original Scary Mommy.

“We were able to say, ‘Hey, somebody understands me and I’m not alone.” The origin story of Scary Mommy won't surprise anyone who knows Smokler. She had just relocated from Tennessee to Maryland with her then-husband Jeff and their three children, Evan, Ben, and Lily, who were all under the age of 4.

One day, a neighbor rang with cookies to welco.

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