It's a testament to how successful Lisa Birnbach '78 has become that not only is she receiving two Gracie Awards this year for her radio show, "The Lisa Birnbach Show," but she's also gained approval from another radio host working in the same building. "I guess you don't suck," she recalled humorist and Senate hopeful Al Franken telling her.
Though Birnbach is an accomplished author and radio host, she said she was "just another fun-loving, pass/fail-taking member of my class" during her days at Brown. She said she came to Brown for its creative writing program.
As a student, Birnbach was heavily involved in a number of activities: She wrote for The Herald and its now-defunct weekly magazine, Fresh Fruit, hosted her own show on WBRU called "Women's View" and participated in student government and a peer counseling program. "Brown gave me the opportunity to try everything, and I managed to cram in a lot," she said.
As an aspiring writer, Birnbach said, "I had some idea that I wanted to work in journalism or media within New York, but I didn't realize all of the possibilities then. I came to a point where I realized that the New York Times wasn't sitting there waiting for me to graduate and give me a job right out of college. It's just unrealistic to think that way."
So instead of working for the Times, Birnbach landed a dream job at the Village Voice a few months after graduation, writing a column for the newspaper called "Scenes."
"It was a great job because I was doing what I loved to do," Birnbach said. It was also a job that gave her the idea for her most famous book to date, "The Official Preppy Handbook," published in 1980.
"My big break was definitely with 'Preppy Handbook,' no doubt. I was working at the Village Voice at the time, and I got the offer to write the book - it originally wasn't my idea," she said.
With the chance to write a tongue-in-cheek book about the world of prepsters, Birnbach said she looked back at her own life and her college years for inspiration. "I remember I was going to play squash, and I wore a pink Lacoste polo shirt with a green sweater - now, I didn't know anything about matching those two colors together, but apparently it worked, and I found others who wore similar outfits too. One wouldn't think that you could find Preppies at a school like Brown, but I found them," Birnbach said. "You know, the polo shirts with the rugby shirts on top - so many layers!"
Birnbach quit her job in the summer of 1980 to write the book with a few friends. Surprising its authors, the book became a huge success - it sold 2 million copies nationwide and landed the writers on national talk shows. Thanks to the book, Birnbach joked, "I have the gift of discerning whether someone is hiding his or her preppiness."
With her new fame, Birnbach was offered the chance to write two television pilots for HBO and became a contributing editor for Parade Magazine. She has authored and co-authored 19 books since writing "The Official Preppy Handbook."
Birnbach said the success "didn't change my wardrobe, didn't change my friends or my apartment, but it did change my career."
On top of her success as an author, she was approached last year by GreenStone Media, a Internet talk radio network established in September 2006, which asked Birnbach to host her own radio show. "They asked me to do a demo, and I got three friends of mine on the phone with me, put mics on the conversation, and they liked it. I wasn't nervous or anything because I was just having a conversation with my friends," Birnbach said.
The show airs live on the Web weekdays 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Eastern time, and since its launch seven months ago, it has won two Gracie Awards from the Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television.
"No one even told me I was nominated," she said. "It's thrilling that the show is being recognized in this way. I think it shows that what we do at GreenStone is different. The feedback and the phone calls that we get from the listeners are so moving."
Birnbach was particularly glad she won an award for a show that featured actor and comedian Robin Williams as a guest. "I'm glad that the listeners enjoyed it," she said. "Robin is an old and dear friend of mine, and since he ordinarily doesn't bother with radio, I just wanted him to have a good time on my show and feel like it wasn't a total waste of time or vanity act. I love playing with him. With him you speak first and think - if you must - later."
But despite her professional success, Birnbach said she most enjoys being "a great single mother" for her three children. "Being a mom is definitely my biggest accomplishment, and it puts me in the same boat as a lot of my listeners. Whether you live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan or in a small town in Rhode Island, we share many fundamental commonalities as parents, and in many cases, including mine, as a single parent," she said. "I like to tell listeners about the little crises du jour: sick kid at home, problems at the slumber parties, et cetera. Sometimes it even makes me feel less alone."
One thing Birnbach has learned from her hectic schedule is to take things one at a time. "If there is one thing I learned, especially from being a mom and handling a career, is that you can't have it all at once. Maybe eventually or at different times, but definitely not all at once," she said.
But for now, as Birnbach is happy and loving her job, and for now, there appears to be nothing left for her except, as Williams said on her show, to "go ahead on, girl."
