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One of the most chilling observations in Tajja Isen’s Some of My Best Friends is about how power responds to critique—not with change, but with appetite. The essay “Do You Read Me?” unpacks how Zakiya Dalila Harris’s novel The Other Black Girl completely drags the publishing industry... and how publishing responded by fighting over the chance to publish it. That level of self-awareness without accountability is its own kind of pathology. When institutions embrace criticism of themselves, when they turn it into profit and PR fodder, it reveals something bleak: they know they’re untouchable. It's like when record labels let artists diss them on their own albums. The critique doesn't hurt them—it flatters them. It signals that they’re “open to criticism,” without ever changing anything. Isen’s "Do You Read Me?" is brilliant at parsing this dynamic. She gets at what makes so much of today’s satire feel a little off—how the rich, the powerful, the tastemakers, are so unbothered by being roasted that they actively enjoy it. It becomes a kind of flex. You’re rich enough, secure enough, to be the punchline. That’s why I love this book—it’s not just smart, it’s unnerving in the best way. If you’re interested in power, privilege, race, and how criticism gets commodified, you need to read Some of My Best Friends.

One of the most chilling observations in Tajja Isen’s Some of My Best Friends is about how power responds to critique—not with change, but with appetite. The essay “Do You Read Me?” unpacks how Zakiya Dalila Harris’s novel The Other Black Girl completely drags the publishing industry... and how publishing responded by fighting over the chance to publish it.

Getting Roasted Is a Status Symbol

You don't need to be a sad rich girl to enjoy reading about the oh-so miserable lives of the way-too-privileged⛲️

Sad Rich Girls💖

Sanibel Lazar

My Real Name

You've reached Sanibel, author and sometimes rage-baiter. I do not identify as a sad rich girl but I am an ✨expert ✨on them thanks to years of reading about tragic heroines who refuse to exercise their free will. 