Biography

Ellen Freeman Roth launched her journalism career after two decades as a hospital medical writer, editor of an award-winning corporate magazine, and freelance marketing communications consultant.

Her work took a turn after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. For several months, she and a network of friends exchanged revealing emails. Freeman Roth incorporated those insights and surprising twists into a book, currently in progress with the working title Dancing with the Boogeyman. Her SELF magazine article (March 2008) is adapted from that book.

She draws her essays from the gems that drop at her feet. Why didn’t earning the lion’s share of the family income net her husband the alpha home office? Is a son ever too old for his childhood birthday ritual? And still to come: What happens when you’re in a traffic jam and urgently need a restroom?
 

Her reported articles look at convention and what challenges it. She’s covered a conference of people who are changing the world, and girls who are changing outfits. She seeks stories that are meaningful, fun, provocative, or quirky.

Freeman Roth earned a B.A. in English and American Literature from Brandeis University and an M.S. in mass communications from Boston University.

She’s married to a guy who figures that since she does the laundry she’s allowed to air it. They live in metropolitan Boston with their two teens and two big black dogs.