Elizabeth Jenkins is a wife and mother of two, a freelance writer, a self-proclaimed etiquette expert and a pretty good gift-wrapper. A native Houstonian with a lifelong love of sports, Elizabeth ended up marrying a sportswriter and giving birth to a four-year-old boy and two-year-old girl who are currently mastering how to share a metal bat in order to take turns hitting off the tee. Before settling in Los Angeles, Elizabeth attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and later lived with her husband Lee in New York (okay, technically it was Hoboken) where she was an editor at InStyle. After four years on staff, she quit—coincidentally, on the very same day she learned she was pregnant with her first child—to launch her freelance career. She has now written for two dozen publications including Parenting, Real Simple, Redbook, Allure and Health.
What was your favorite toy as a child?
My Brother P-Touch Label Maker. My obsession with binders, file folders and file cabinets started in elementary school. Everything had to be in its place, including report cards, letters from camp friends and CD cases. I didn’t fully understand how atypical my O.C.D.-like behavior was until it came up during more than one speech at my rehearsal dinner.
