RIBON, Pamela 1975-

PERSONAL: Born April 4, 1975, in Bloomsburg, PA; daughter of John (a hotel manager) and Paula (a hotel manager; maiden name, Duska) Ribon. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of Texas at Austin, B.F.A., 1997.

ADDRESSES: Home—Los Angeles, CA. Agent—Kim Witherspoon, Witherspoon Associates, 235 East 31st St., New York, NY 10016. E-mail—pamie@pamie. com.

CAREER: Web technologist and novelist. University of Texas, Austin, developmental fundraiser, 1994-97; Tivoli Systems/IBM, Austin, TX, worked in tech support, 1997-2000; Pervasive Software, Austin, Web developer, 1999-2000.

WRITINGS:

Why Girls Are Weird, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor to Webhead. Author of online journal pamie.com.

SIDELIGHTS: In 1998 Pamela Ribon started an online journal, pamie.com (also known as Squishy) that, within only a few years, was recording close to a million "hits" per month. A former techie and Web developer based in Austin, Texas, Ribon decided that the popularity of her site meant that her life as a twenty-something must be of interest to someone, somewhere, and decided to create a fictional version. She published her fictionalized story, enhanced by her perceptions as a self-styled "pop culture princess," into the 2003 novel Why Girls Are Weird. While Ribon maintains that her novel is fictional, it contains many of her online journal entries. As Cathy Matusow noted in the Houston Press, the entries "interspersed throughout the book" are "modified somewhat to fit the plot. May of them are truly hilarious, and it's easy to see why Ribon has gained such a following."

Why Girls Are Weird follows main character Anna Koval as she goes from being an ordinary school librarian to Web celebrity Anna K, all with the click of a button. Through a series of revealing journal entries, Anna discusses the trials and tribulations of everyday life with her growing number of fans. Ultimately she reaches a point where she realizes she has gone too far, and that some things are better kept to oneself. Masked under the anonymity of online communication, Anna sometimes lets fantasy get the best of her. In one case, she allows her fans to believe that she is still in a romantic relationship, while in reality that relationship has long since gone sour. Called "light and entertaining" by Deborah Donovan in a Booklist review and "a book that is likely to make you cry when you least expect it" by Phoebe Flowers in an online review for the Miami Herald, Ribon's debut novel provides readers with what Flowers characterized as a "hilarious" glimpse into the "conflicted world of the mid-20s crisis," when young women view the "incredibly accomplished" adults they aspire to become and come to terms with the fact that this woman "has yet failed to show up and take possession of . . . [her] body."