I read the Buzzfeed article about Kate Siegel and her Instagram account @Crazyjewishmom last year like a lot of people who live on the Internet. I’ve followed her account on and off (she gets a bit self promoting/ product shilling sometimes) since then; I wasn’t planning to buy her book but it was half off on Barnes & Noble.com, I had a 20% off coupon and get free shipping because I’m a member… I figured it was worth $9. And that’s about right.
Kate Siegel’s mother, Kim Friedman, is a former TV director who gives her daughter’s phone number to single men everywhere, moved across country to be near her daughter after high school and firmly believes her daughter is God’s gift to the world. Kate was raised to believe she could do anything she wanted. Her mother hired a photographer to get professional photos done for Kate’s pop demo, lent her house out to film a gay Jersey Shore style reality show for Kate’s post-college television producer aspirations and of course, it’s Kim who is the true star of the CJM Instagram page. It was fun to have Kim become a little more fleshed out, particularly her cancer fears (her beloved Aunt died young from cancer), rape whistle obsession (she was accosted as a young girl) and hear more about her early activism. She should be the one writing a book.
But Mother, Can You Not? is Kate’s tribute to her mother and it reads like a high school senior’s “who inspires you the most” essay. I’d be surprised if this turns in to a full-fledged non-CJM related writing career for Kate but I wish her the best!
On a side note- does anyone else following CJM on Instagram believe Kate has told her boyfriend he isn’t allowed to propose to her until the fame train starts to stall??