You guys tend to be a quiet crowd, reading and submitting by the thousands but leaving comments only occasionally. So sometimes we seek our validation in the next best place: writer’s resource magazines! Although it doesn’t appear to be online yet, word has it that Writer’s Digest’s latest edition of 101 Best Websites for Writers shouts out Six-Word Memoirs and Writers and Editors grooves on our personal storytelling vibe. Thanks, guys!

Abby Ellin, author of Teenage Waistland (and the awesome outtake we published on Memoirville), had a run-in with the power of feedback recently too. Alternet, which has millions of users, sometimes picks up SMITH pieces, and hers caused readers to weigh in (heh heh) like crazy. I can honestly say she outclassed and outsassed her detractors, pointing out that obesity and teen body image are essential national issues, not the self-involved province of gloomy high school girls.

For more on what happens when readers talk back, check out this Salon piece on user comments (and inexplicable internet vitriol). And because it can’t be said too many times: I love Rebecca Traister.