Though she doesn’t strictly consider herself a sex columnist, a Harvard College sophomore is unapologetically standing by the lurid accounts she posts online of her many sexual exploits in a blog that is quickly gaining a passionate love-hate relationship from her readers.
Harvard sophomore Lena Chen, author of the blog “Sex and the Ivy,” said her blog stands out because she writes at a sexually conservative campus.
“I think talking about your personal sex life is somewhat taboo [at Harvard],” she said. “That’s something that makes me probably a little bit different.”
Chen, who said she began keeping a journal at 8 and started writing online at 15, began posting on the controversial blog in August. Soon after, she began posting detailed accounts of her sexual encounters, from hookups to condom mishaps.
“I didn’t start the blog to liberate myself sexually,” she said. “I was writing it because I express myself in words.”
Harvard sophomore and friend of Chen, Jason Burke, said her willingness to discuss provocative topics often draws “almost exclusively negative publicity” from Harvard community members.
“If you talk about sex openly or write about it, you get listed as a slut,” Burke said. “That’s what’s happened to her, unfortunately.”
Harvard junior April Yee, who edited Chen’s articles for the Harvard Crimson, said she was “blown away” by the quality of Chen’s blog entries.
“Something that might be characteristic of her writing is sort of that punchy ending,” Yee said. “That’s sort of what I like about her writing, and it’s very honest. She has a very authentic voice.”
Yee said she encouraged Chen to submit a piece to the Boston Globe Magazine’s Coupling section, the magazine’s relationship-oriented segment, after learning it was looking for college-age writers.
“She’s funny, and she’s smart and she’s hard-working. She was a really good voice for the Coupling section,” said Globe Magazine assistant editor Anne Nelson about Chen.
Despite her popularity, Chen said she does not aspire toward a career in writing about sex. In recent posts, she has moved away from the controversial topic.
“It’s really hard to keep the separation between my online life and my real life,” she said. “It’s good to have a certain distance. I don’t want what I start writing about to start impacting my personal life.”
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