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Romance Audiobook Narrator Andi Arndt Says Sometimes a Moan Is Required


But just because it’s a romance novel, it doesn’t need to be sexy all the time. That’s just not life. Usually contemporary romance is about a relationship in the midst of someone’s life, with characters who work, etc. So you follow the story. If there’s bubbly flirting going on, then that’s one kind of energy. If there’s that really intense intimacy, that’s another. It’s like water-skiing. The book is the boat, and I’m just being towed behind it.

On getting into the groove.

Now that I’ve done 400 books—two thirds of which are romance novels—I try to remember that every love story is unique. So it really depends on the book. I am very aware of my focus. My voice doesn’t get tired—because I’m not talking anymore strenuously than I would on the phone—so I don’t have to strain myself. But I get mentally fatigued and I notice distraction creeping in. I do everything I can to clear my mind and be ready to sit with the story for however many hours—I get paid by the finished hour—then I go for a quick walk at lunchtime. I have to eat something so my stomach’s not making noises into the microphone, then I do a couple of more hours and knock off around five. It’s a nice nine to five job, which is unusual for an actor.

On the romance stigma.

I tell people that I narrate audio books full-time and when the romance part comes up, I like to watch other people’s reactions. I like to take note of their reaction because they’re telling me about their relationship with that topic. I don’t take it as a judgment on the value of my work. Sometimes they’ll kind of get conspiratorially close to me and say, “Oh, I love those books.” Or sometimes they’ll get giggly or whatever. I just find it interesting to see what people’s relationship is to it, because frankly, I would rather talk about two people making each other feel awesome than a horror book where you’re talking about the really creative ways somebody can destroy another person’s body. I couldn’t do horror, but I love doing romance.

On embodying her characters.

I’ll do character work in the sense that I’ll look at the protagonist’s age, their background, what social class they’re in. If they are upper crust-y, they might take their time with things a little bit more. Or I just did a character last month who was an abandoned orphan as a child. So her expectation of the world was that she had to take care of herself and look out for herself. It made her harder when it came to other people. That’s a different character for me. I don’t do character voices, per se, in a cartoonish way. It’s more of how do you differentiate the men from the women, and the women from one another, in subtle ways that allow the listener to follow what’s going on, without my voice being a distraction?

On what keeps her coming back to the genre.

Everybody loves a good “how we met” story. The rush and the excitement of that. So whether you are single, or you’ve been with someone for a few years, or you’ve been married for 50 years, I think people are drawn to romance because of that rush. Those are some of the most wonderful moments of life.

One of the authors I love working with is Kylie Scott, who’s an Australian romance writer. What I love about her work is that the people are so real. They have real concerns and real bodies. She’ll write about women who are maybe not so happy with their body, and part of the excitement of the relationship is being completely accepted as beautiful—just as they are. I love her stories because they’re about two people with flaws meeting one another, right where they are, and loving each other. There’s also laughter in her romances, which I think makes things sexier because it means that the two people are really aware of what’s going on. They’re not only swept away, they’re really present with each other. I just love being a part of the story.

Samantha Leach is the associate culture editor at Glamour. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @_sleach.



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Charlize Theron's Speech at Glamour's 2019 Women of the Year Awards Is Required Reading


Charlize Theron gave an incredible speech when she accepted her Glamour 2019 Women of the Year Award on Monday night—and it should be required reading.

The actor, who’s set to appear in the upcoming movie Bombshell, took the stage at New York’s Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center on Monday, November 11.

She was introduced by her Bombshell co-star Kate McKinnon, who told the audience about the first time she was captivated by Theron—her Oscar-winning performance in Monster—and what it was like to share the stage with her on Saturday Night Live.

“For some reason I was asked to introduce Charlize Theron at this Glamour event, which is sort of like a bridge troll being asked to introduce a Queen, but trolls love snacks and green rooms, so here I am,” McKinnon joked. “What can be said about Charlize Theron, a person whose Helen of Troy-esque, ship-launching face, is absolutely the least remarkable thing about her? A person whose real-life bad-assness makes her character from Mad Max: Fury Road look lazy and selfish? A person so grand that when you meet her, it only feels right to get on the floor—but who is so nice and normal that you end up just kind of doing a little curtsey?”

She continued, “In my mind, the finest screen performance of all time is Charlize in Monster. A performance filled with so much compassion and so much humanity that I found myself thinking 1) my god, the pain of so many women in this world is so overwhelming that I can’t even move; and 2) my god I want someone to make out with me outside of a roller rink. Charlize’s finest screen work came in 2014, of course, when we did an SNL sketch together about two ladies working in a cat shelter, a sketch that would go on to win a BAFTA. But seriously, she kind of swooped in and turned a bunch of cat jokes into a fully-fleshed out drama dynamic and for that I owe her so much.”

McKinnon concluded with insight into their time together filming Bombshell. “What I owe her everything for is getting to be a part of her latest incredibly important film, Bombshell. Where she not only transforms into Megyn Kelly but she embodies every nuance of a horrifying and horrifyingly common situation, which is the Goliath that women face when they choose to come forward about sexual harassment. But these kinds of revelatory roles have become par for the course for Charlize. In whatever she does, she always stands for bravery, risk and making tough choices. She does it as an actor, as a producer, an activist, a philanthropist, and a mom. And that’s what makes her a Glamour Woman of the Year.”

Naturally, Theron’s speech was as inspiring as her work. Read it, below:

“What a night. I’m a mess, there’s nothing ‘glamour’ about my face anymore. You all fucked me up in the most beautiful way. Thank you, Kate for doing this. For asking me to be your cat lady. It’s been a privilege to work with someone so incredibly funny and talented. That is until the day you do an impression of me in a celebrity game show sketch…then you’re dead to me.

I also want to thank Sam and everybody from Glamour. It is an incredible honor to be named Woman of the Year when this is the kind of company I get to keep. Ava, Yara, Megan, Tory, Margaret, Greta, Erika, Lucia, Andrea, Mayra,…a thousand times I say yes, every time.



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Katie Hill’s Resignation Speech Is Required Reading


Representative Katie Hill (D-Calif.) joined her colleagues at the House of Representatives this morning to cast her final vote as a member of the House of Representatives and deliver her last speech on the floor. This comes less than a week after Hill announced her resignation from Congress, following 10 months in office. Hill chose to step down from her position following the House Ethics Committee’s announcement that it would be looking into allegations that Hill had a sexual relationship with a member of her congressional staff.

While Hill denies having a relationship with a congressional staffer, she admitted that she’d had a relationship with a member of her campaign team. (House rules bar members of Congress from having sexual relationships with their aides, but not campaign staffers.)

But these allegations aren’t the reason Hill decided to resign. Within the past week, multiple nude photos of her were published online, without her consent. Hill has accused her estranged husband, Kenny Heslep, of running a smear campaign against her that included leaking the photographs. Hill’s supporters have called the images’ release revenge porn, which is illegal under California law. Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) echoed them, telling BuzzFeed that she believes Hill is a victim of “cyber exploitation.”

“It was clearly meant to embarrass her,” Harris said in the interview, of the photos’ release. “There’s so much that people do about women and their sexuality that’s about shaming them.”

Hill addressed all this and more from the floor. She first apologized to her family, constituents, women, and the queer community, saying, “For every little girl that looked up to me, I hope one day you can forgive me.” She then went on to discuss her decision to resign. As Hill explained, ”I am leaving now because of a double standard. I’m leaving because of a misogynistic culture that gleefully consumed my naked pictures, capitalized on my sexuality, and enabled my abusive ex to continue that abuse.” She also called their release the ”dirtiest gutter politics I’ve ever seen.”

She told her fellow members that this was first time she’d left her apartment since the images were published. And that she was told there would be more photos leaked out “bit by bit.”

“I’m scared,” she said. “[I] went to the darkest places that a mind can go.”

But Hill ended her speech with resolve: “I’m leaving, but we have men who have been credibly accused of intentional acts of sexual violence, and remain in boardrooms, on the Supreme Court, in this very body, and worst of all, in the Oval Office.” Her parting words were simple and to the point: “Thank you, and I will yield the balance of my time for now…but not forever.”

Watch Katie Hill’s farewell address, in full, below.





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14 Women On the Books They Think Should Be Required Reading for Girls Everywhere


What books were on your high school English class syllabus? Maybe William Shakespeare’s historic plays like Romeo and Juliet and a A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Or perhaps you explored the great American classics of the lost generation like Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. While these are all essential reads, we chose to reimagine an ideal syllabus for young women all over the world in honor of International Day of the Girl. And we called upon some of our favorite writers and thinkers to help fill our list with the books that expanded their minds, taught them hard-won truths, and made them feel seen. Women like New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor, actress Josie Totah, and two of the 2020 presidential candidates.

Read on for the books that they’d love to see on the shelves of girls everywhere.

All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.



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This ‘Big Little Lies’ Finale Courtroom Scene Should Be Required Viewing


The key word here is unfairly. Too many women have suffered like Celeste, whether it be from domestic violence, sexual assault, any sort of physical abuse, or even being asked to defend their ability to mother. It’s unfair that women are asked to endure and persist and persevere. But they are, consistently. And they do, constantly.

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Celeste has always been painted as the daintiest member of the Monterey Five—she was the demure, stylish, slender wife to the stereotypically (toxically) masculine Perry. But I won’t say she was depicted as weak, because she is not and has never been weak. She’s been beaten down, physically and metaphorically, but in the season finale we see her rise.

As Mary Louise so graciously pointed out in court, Celeste had a slew of one-night stands, a scuffle with an Ambien haze which led to a minor car accident, and was tasked with raising two grief-stricken children while attending therapy for her own trauma. And through it all, she peeled every part of herself off the ground and sculpted herself into a composed, acute lawyer. A woman capable of winning her own custody battle. Watching Celeste win her courtroom battle in the face of such anguish was nothing short of heroic.

I’m grateful for the array of female characters women have to look up to these days, but unfortunately, in real life we don’t have masked or caped superheroes zipping through our skies and saving us from evil. So I think it’s important for us to reexamine and identify who gets to be called a hero. For me, especially right now, when our very rights and livelihoods are being called into question (yet again), those heroes are women like Celeste. Strong women who have every reason to stop pushing forward, women who are justified in giving up but who exorcise every iota of strength they have left. That’s real female strength and heroism, because we’ve seen that woman IRL. We see her every day.



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Redskins Cheerleaders Say They Were Required to Pose Topless In Costa Rica: Report


On Wednesday, The New York Times released a detailed and scathing report alleging the Washington Redskins sent its cheerleading squad to Costa Rica, only to then confiscate their passports and put their safety at risk during a 2013 photoshoot.

According to five Redskins cheerleaders who spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity, the team sent the squad to Costa Rica for its yearly calendar shoot. There, the women explained that a photoshoot took place at the adults-only Occidental Grand Papagayo resort on Culebra Bay where some of the women were allegedly required to be topless, while others wore nothing but body paint. While many assumed the shoot would be private, they apparently learned upon arrival that several high-level male sponsors were invited to watch.

“At one of my friend’s shoots, we were basically standing around her like a human barricade because she was basically naked, so we could keep the guys from seeing her,” one of the cheerleaders told the Times. “I was getting so angry that the guys on the trip were skeezing around in the background.”

Following the shoot, the women said that nine of their cheerleading teammates were told they had a “special assignment,” which was to escort those sponsors to an area nightclub.

“They weren’t putting a gun to our heads,” one of the cheerleaders told the Times, “but it was mandatory for us to go. We weren’t asked, we were told. Other girls were devastated because we knew exactly what she was doing.”

While the night did not involve sex, the women claimed it was tantamount to “pimping us out.”

“It’s just not right to send cheerleaders out with strange men when some of the girls clearly don’t want to go,” one cheerleader who attended the trip told the Times. “But unfortunately, I feel like it won’t change until something terrible happens, like a girl is assaulted in some way, or raped. I think teams will start paying attention to this only when it’s too late.”

Stephanie Jojokian, the director and choreographer for the Redskins’ cheerleaders, denied the claims made by the women in the report. According to the Times, Jojokian choked up when asked about the allegations and said, “It breaks my heart because I’m a mom and I’ve done this for a long time. Where is this coming from? I would never put a woman in a situation like that. I actually mentor these women to be strong and to speak up, and it kills me to hear that.”

In an additional statement provided to the Times, a spokesperson for The Redskins said, “The Redskins’ cheerleader program is one of the NFL’s premier teams in participation, professionalism, and community service. Each Redskin cheerleader is contractually protected to ensure a safe and constructive environment. The work our cheerleaders do in our community, visiting our troops abroad, and supporting our team on the field is something the Redskins organization and our fans take great pride in.”

Though the Redskins deny the allegations, several of the women told the Times that the trip was so damaging they chose not to return to the squad the next season.

“You kept telling yourself that it was going to get better,” one woman said. “But it never got better. Finally, I had to admit to myself, this is not what I thought it would be.”

The Redskins isn’t the only team facing serious allegations for its alleged treatment of cheerleaders. In early April, Kristan Ware, who spent three seasons as a Miami Dolphins cheerleader, filed a complaint against both the league and the team claiming she was discriminated against based on her religion and gender. According to Ware’s complaint, she was specifically told by two team coaches in an annual work review not to discuss her virginity.

“You have taken something that was once upon a time pure and beautiful and you’ve made it dirty,” Ware claims Dolphins cheerleading director Dorie Grogan said.

Additionally, in April, Bailey Davis, a former New Orleans Saints cheerleader, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against both the NFL and the Saints, claiming she was unfairly fired over “blatantly discriminatory” social media and fraternization policies that she says are different for cheerleaders than they are for the male players.

“The players have the freedom to post whatever they want to on social media,” Davis explained to NPR after she was fired for posting an image of herself in lingerie on her personal Instagram account. “They can promote themselves, but we can’t post anything on our social media about being a Saintsation. We can’t have it in our profile picture, we can’t use our last name for media, we can’t promote ourselves, but the players don’t have the same restrictions.”

Both cases are still pending, though both women have offered to settle with the NFL for $1 each if NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and league lawyers would agree to a meeting. “This was never about money for me,” Davis told ABC News. “This is about having respect for our sport and standing up for our sport and standing up for women.”

The NFL provided this official statement to The New York Times: “Everyone who works in the NF., including cheerleaders, has the right to work in a positive and respectful environment that is free from any and all forms of harassment and discrimination and fully complies with state and federal laws. Our office will work with our clubs in sharing best practices and employment-related processes that will support club cheerleading squads within an appropriate and supportive workplace.”

Related Content:
NFL Cheerleaders in California Will Finally Receive Employment Benefits
I’ve Tried Out for the Patriots Cheerleading Squad 4 Times and Still Haven’t Made It



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