Marie Lyn Bernard (born 1981), known professionally as Riese Bernard, is an American writer and digital media executive. She is best known as the CEO and co-founder of the lesbian and queer women's interest website

Autostraddle Autostraddle is an independently owned online magazine and social network for lesbian, bisexual, and queer women ( cis and trans), as well as non-binary people and trans people of all genders. The website is a "politically progressive queer femin ...

. Bernard received a 2017

GLAAD Media Award The GLAAD Media Award is an accolade bestowed by GLAAD to recognize and honor various branches of the media for their outstanding representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their live ...

nomination for her article, “105 Trans Women On American TV: A History and Analysis”.

Early life and education

Bernard was born and raised in Michigan. Her father, Victor L. Bernard, a scholar, researcher and professor in the field of financial statement analysis, died of a heart attack when she was 14 years old. Her mother came out to her as gay shortly after her father's death. She graduated from

Interlochen Arts Academy Interlochen Center for the Arts is a non-profit corporation which operates arts education institutions and performance venues in northwest Michigan. It is situated on a campus in Interlochen, Michigan, roughly southwest of Traverse City. In ...

in 1999 with a major in Creative Writing. After graduating from

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

with a bachelor's degree in English in 2003, she moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to pursue a career in writing.

Career

In 2007, Bernard created The Road Best Straddled, a spin-off of her personal blog This Girl Called Automatic Win, to recap ''

The L Word ''The L Word'' is a television drama that aired on Showtime from January 18, 2004 to March 8, 2009. The series follows the lives of a group of lesbian and bisexual women who live in West Hollywood, California. The premise originated with Ilene Ch ...

'', then in its fourth season. This led to collaborations with The L Word Online and

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

and her blogs gained sizeable followings. She also interned at the now-defunct website ''

Nerve A nerve is an enclosed, cable-like bundle of nerve fibers (called axons) in the peripheral nervous system. A nerve transmits electrical impulses. It is the basic unit of the peripheral nervous system. A nerve provides a common pathway for the e ...

'' and worked for the Donald Maass Literary Agency. Bernard has published writing in ''

Marie Claire ''Marie Claire'' is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937, followed by the United Kingdom in 1941. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on wo ...

'', ''Curve'', ''GO'', ''

Queerty ''Queerty'' is an online magazine and newspaper covering gay-oriented lifestyle and news, founded in 2005 by David Hauslaib. As of June 2015, the site had more than five million monthly unique visitors. History ''Queerty'' was founded by David ...

'', ''Bitch'',

Jezebel Jezebel (;"Jezebel"
(US) and ) was the daughte ...

and Emily Books. Her article “105 Trans Women On American TV: A History and Analysis” was nominated for a 2017 GLAAD Media Award. In 2018, Bernard's profile of

Hayley Kiyoko Hayley Kiyoko Alcroft (born April 3, 1991) is an American singer, dancer and actress. As a child model and actress, she appeared in a variety of films including ''Scooby-Doo (film series), Scooby-Doo!'' film series (2009–2010), ''Lemonade Mouth ...

was the cover story for ''Nylon'''s first-ever Pride Issue.

Autostraddle

At the end of the final season of ''The L Word'' in 2009, she created Autostraddle.com with her then-girlfriend Alex Vega, with the intention of creating a digital website focused on gay women. Bernard stated she was inspired to create the website because nothing else like it existed at the time. The website received a

in 2015 and receives 4 million unique page views per month. In 2012, she created A-Camp, an annual 5-day "curated conference/camp/retreat combo" for queer women and trans people, located in

Ojai Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

, California.

Personal life

Bernard first began to identify as a bisexual, and then as a lesbian, in her twenties. Bernard is Jewish.

Accolades

* 2010 – 100 Women We Love, '' GO'' *2011 – 100 Women We Love, '' GO'' *2016 – 100 Women We Love, '' GO'' * 2017 – GLAAD Media Award (nomination),

GLAAD GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...

* 2018 – Queero, ''Them''

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard, Riese 1981 births Living people Jewish American writers 21st-century American businesspeople American women chief executives Writers from Michigan American online publication editors American lesbian writers University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Lesbian feminists LGBT people from Michigan LGBT Jews American technology chief executives American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American businesswomen Interlochen Center for the Arts alumni 21st-century American Jews