About Jennifer Brown

Writer, author, and the redhead behind Redhead Ranting.

Hi, I’m Jennifer.

I’m the redhead behind Redhead Ranting, a Minnesota author, humor writer, and Gen X observer of the ridiculous things people do, including me.

I write about dating, aging, family, relationships, modern culture, and all the little absurdities that make life both maddening and funny.

I tend to write about the things we’re all thinking but don’t always say out loud. Sometimes that’s dating after divorce. Sometimes it’s menopause, manners, caregiving, or why returning your shopping cart shouldn’t require a medal.

The common thread is humor. Life gets messy. We might as well get a good story out of it.

Redhead Ranting started because I was writing a book.

I knew even then that I probably wasn’t going to be picked up by a traditional publisher. Publishing was already changing, self-publishing was losing its stigma, and it was becoming possible for independent authors to find readers without waiting for someone in New York to decide they were worth publishing.

But that also meant finding those readers myself. I knew I needed to build an audience while I wrote the book, so I started Redhead Ranting, a humor and personal essay blog. I just didn’t expect the “while I wrote it” part to last nearly 20 years.

The book has had more than a few titles over the years. Today it’s Before the Streetlights Came On, a memoir about growing up in Minnesota in the 1970s. Life intervened more than a few times, and the book was put away and pulled back out again. But Redhead Ranting kept going.

Over the years, I’ve written about raising kids, relationships, divorce, aging, politics, pop culture, caregiving, and whatever happened to be irritating or amusing me at the time. The subjects changed because life changed. So did I.

These days, Redhead Ranting has expanded beyond the blog. I’m Jennifer Brown, an author and humor writer, and today I write books, make videos, host conversations, and occasionally turn on a camera with every intention of discussing one thing before wandering somewhere completely different.

And now, nearly 20 years later, I’m finally finishing the book that started the whole thing.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped just writing about writing a book and actually published a few. My books cover dating, aging, social media, and the small ways we can make life a little better, usually with humor and a healthy appreciation for how rarely things go according to plan.

Redhead Ranting isn’t just a blog anymore. I make videos about life, dating, aging, Gen X, Minnesota, caregiving, culture, and whatever else I can’t stop thinking about. I also sit down for longer conversations with people whose stories and perspectives interest me.

Sometimes I have a plan. Sometimes I wander. Usually that’s where the interesting stuff happens.

I’m usually somewhere online talking about what I’m writing, what I’m watching, what’s irritating me, or whatever rabbit hole I’ve wandered into that day. You can find Redhead Ranting across social media and follow along wherever you prefer.