Cringeworthy

CHAPTER 1

The Awkward Age, Part 1

How come no one here likes Hanson?!! I exclaim weakly. I m reading aloud from a small spiral-bound notebook dark neon purple with multicolored swirls and stars purchased for $6.99 at a Claire s in 1997. It is my seventh-grade journal, and I m reading it now, twenty years later, to three people I only met this morning. I ve been getting pictures of them off the Internet almost all day today and they re so cute! How could anyone not like them?        I stop and look up from the journal. I feel like I should note that every time I write to, it s the number and not the word, I say to my audience. All four of us are seated in armchairs near the bar at Littlefield, a performance venue in Brooklyn. Before today, I ve only been here at night, and it s a little disorienting to see it in the muted light of a sunny January afternoon, though this is by far the least surreal aspect of what s happening right now.        The three strangers listening to me read are Stephen Chupaska, a bespectacled man with floppy brown hair and a skinny scarf, both of which he has a habit of tossing back with a flourish; Christina Galante, a woman with a wry smile and animated eyes who is taking notes on a laptop as I speak; and John Dorcic, an affable, extroverted guy with a neatly groomed goatee. They are producers for the New York City branch of Mortified, a live show in which performers read from their teenage diaries. Onstage. In front of hundreds of people. I think I ve had a version of that nightmare before, but in it I was only physically naked, not emotionally so.        This is my audition for a spot in the show later this year, and I feel like I m maybe blowing it. The word audition is in quotes because I ve been instructed by Dave Nadelberg, the creator of Mortified, not to call it that. It isn t one, not really, because anyone brave enough to volunteer to be in this show is welcome to

Melissa Dahl is a senior editor for New York 's The Cut, where she covers health and psychology. In 2014, she co-founded NYMag.com's popular social science site Science of Us. Her work has appeared in Elle , Parents and TODAY.com. Cringeworthy is her first book.

"Melissa Dahl provides a fascinating (and often hilarious) examination of the underdiscussed feeling of awkwardness. Her practical, penetrating insights reveal that understanding what's 'cringeworthy' can help us understand ourselves better--and create happier lives." --Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and The Four Tendencies

"In this deeply researched and frequently hilarious book, Melissa Dahl shows that our capacity for cringing with embarrassment--at our own ineptness or other people's--is no mere psychological oddity. Her surprisingly uplifting message: through understanding awkwardness, we can learn to find more joy in the fundamental absurdity of being human." --Oliver Burkeman, author of The Antidote

"Cringeworthy unearths all the reasons we wince, flinch, and recoil, and offers emboldening advice for how to take them on. Awkwardness has never been so delightful." --Bianca Bosker, author of Cork Dork

"A stunningly captivating, clever, and comical look at why social discomfort haunts us long beyond our teenage years.  This book didn't just help me make sense of my most awkward moments. It liberated me from feeling embarrassed by them.  Well, most of them."--Adam Grant, author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg