The Vaccine-Friendly Plan
PBS Frontline
Global Magazine
Business of Baby
KOBI5
KOBI5
Desert News
Newsday
Oregon News Network
Fund For Investigative Journalism
More Magazine
The Morning Call
NBC News
Quoted in a very biased article on kids and vaccines on MSNBC, which includes an audio slide show interview of Jennifer Margulis, whose view that parents have the right to educate themselves led to bloggers around the U.S. to call her a moron and a buffoon. Click on the “play” button to hear the audio file.
“I think a child’s immune system is so immature,” said Jennifer Margulis, 39, an Ashland writer who didn’t vaccinate her three children at all for years, and then selectively immunized them only for a trip to West Africa. “You’re putting known toxins in a child before they’re 2 years old.”
“If you read the list of ingredients about what you’re putting intramuscularly into your child, it’s scary,” said Margulis. “They’re not just giving you a little dose of dead bacteria.”
Literary Mama
Interviewed by Andrea Buchanan on Literary Mama about Toddler: Real-Life Stories of Those Fickle, Irrational, Urgent, Tiny People We Love.
Mama Zine
Interviewed by Mama Zine about why Toddler was banned.
I think despite the women’s movement the Madonna/Whore complex is very much alive in our society (and perhaps even more accentuated now that we have a president who is a born-again Christian). The story the good people on the PTO and the superintendent objected to the most is called “Slow to Warm.” It’s really raw and honest and very funny, though I think some of the humor was lost on those readers. In it the writer Brett Paesel—an actress in L.A. who has a book coming out next year called Mommies Who Drink—fantasizes about sex while the other mommies talk about how to get little Johnny to eat vegetables. At one point she writes, “What I really wanted to say is ‘I don’t know about you ladies but what I could go for right now is a big hairy cock.’” She doesn’t mince words. At the same time, if we good mommies didn’t have sex there would be no toddlers.
There’s a postscript to that book banning story that I’d like to share with you. We sold the books contraband to Lincoln School parents and I donated all of the money to the kindergarten class that my daughter was in. The teacher used it to do six weeks of music with the children and also to do some wonderful end of the year crafts projects.
MSN Living
Quoted in an article by Jeremy Greenberg, “Mommy, What are my ‘Lady Lumps’?” on MSNBC.com:
When a child asks a direct question, always provide a direct answer. Dr. Margulis adds that a good parent should even take it a step further. Most parents would rather change the subject than explain to their daughters that “lady lumps” is perhaps the dumbest slang for boobs since frat boys started calling them “fun bags.” But Dr. Margulis advises us that rather than turn away, this is “an opportunity for an amazing conversation.
Smithsonian Magazine
Profiled by Smithsonian’s editor in chief Carey Winfrey in his editor’s note in the November issue of the magazine.
Jennifer Margulis has been interested in Niger’s free-roaming giraffes for some 15 years, ever since she lived in that parched country working for a nonprofit development agency in 1992 and 1993. “It’s hard to put into words how incredible it is to see these animals in nature,” she says. “They are so tenaciously holding onto life—it’s incredible there’s even one left. But they are so well adapted to such a harsh climate.” They share that trait, she adds, with Niger’s citizens, with whom the animals must compete for scarce resources. “The history of the giraffe is very much tied in with the political situation in Niger. It’s a country that’s surprising because it’s so hot and so poor, and yet life is flourishing there.”
Reporting our cover story (“Looking Up,”), Margulis, who lives in southern Oregon and also writes about parenting, spent several days with French scientists observing the giraffes. “They are so affectionate,” she says. When they’re not nibbling on acacia trees, “they’re weaving their necks in and out and rubbing up against each other—just constantly physical and touching each other. It’s almost like they’re doing some kind of intricate ballet. To see the affection they have for each other—it’s just so beautiful.”
Medford Mail Tribune
Quoted in an article in the Medford Mail Tribune about the upcoming media training workshop:
So much time, money and energy is wasted because businesses don’t have basic training,” said Jennifer Margulis, a freelance writer and one of the presenters. The other is Mike Green, former Web editor for the Daily Tidings in Ashland.
Pregnancy Magazine
Why is your baby crying and what can you do about it? Quoted in an article in Pregnancy Magazine, “What’s the Fuss?” by Dawn Papandrea.
Crying, even a lot of crying, really is normal and is not an indication that you’re a bad parent or have a bad baby.
CBS News
Quoted in an AP article by Jeff Bernard about the CDC coming to Ashland to find out why parents in this community are choosing to research the safety and efficacy of vaccines:
Jennifer Margulis moved here with her husband and three kids from Massachusetts, where her mother is a cellular biologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences. Though she chuckles at some of Ashland’s personality quirks, she embraces the city’s strong sense of community and many people’s distrust of mainstream medicine.
“I never questioned the efficacy or intelligence of doing vaccines until I was in the hospital with my newborn daughter and a doctor tried to get me to give her hepatitis B vaccine,” she said. “Hepatitis B is a sexually transmitted disease. I knew I didn’t have hepatitis B. I knew my husband didn’t have it. I knew there was no way she would come in contact with anyone with hepatitis B.
“You have this tiny, frog-like baby and they want to shoot her up with things.”Afterward, Margulis’ pediatrician supported her choice. “I decided it was my responsibility as a parent to research each and every vaccine to make an informed, intelligent decision, not to just follow what doctors told me,” she said.
Parenting Magazine
Quoted in a Parenting Magazine article about why you should let your 1-year-old baby smush her birthday cake all over the place.
One-year-olds are hyper-attuned to tactile sensations; they figure out the world by feeling and tasting everything. So a piece of cake is perfect for exploration: intensely mushable, squeezable, and, unlike many of the other objects they pop into their mouths, tasty. “Most parents don’t want their child flinging food around the kitchen,” says Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., author of Why Babies Do That: Baffling Baby Behavior Explained. “But when you let your baby dig his hands into a birthday cake and try to get some into his mouth, you’re letting him explore a natural fascination — and do something he usually doesn’t get to without being scolded.” Happy birthday!