Leandra Medine Cohen (born December 20, 1988) is an American author, blogger, and humor writer best known for Man Repeller.
Early life and education
Medine was born on December 20, 1988 in Manhattan. Her father, Mois Medine, is of Turkish-Jewish descent, and her mother, Lyora "Laura" Medine, is of Iranian-Jewish descent. She grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household.
Medine attended the Ramaz School in Manhattan. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the New School's Eugene Lang College in May 2011.
Career
Early career
Medine began writing online in 2009, while a student at The New School. After studying abroad in Paris, Medine started a blog called Four Months in Paris, later renaming it Boogers + Bagels.
Man Repeller
Medine started the Man Repeller blog in May 2010 . The idea for the blog reportedly came during a shopping trip with a friend. Medine recalled, "We were laughing at how everything was so man-repelling: acid-washed harem pants and enormous shoulder pads, and I just said, 'That's it! That's the blog.'"
A few days after it launched, the blog was featured on the fashion website Refinery29. Medine began collaborating with magazines like Lucky and Harper's Bazaar.
In 2012, Medine was featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 as one of the year's "most influential trendsetters," while Man Repeller was recognized in TIME's "25 Best Blogs of 2012", and received "Best Overall Blog" at the 2012 Bloglovin' Awards.
Initially, the blog was written solely by Medine, but later grew to include contributions from several writers and editors. In September 2013, Grand Central Publishing published the book Man Repeller: Seeking Love, Finding Overalls.
Medine announced in June 2020 that she would “step back” from her involvement in Man Repeller after allegations of racism. In September 2020, the site was rebranded to Repeller. On October 22, 2020, it was confirmed that Repeller would be shutting down due to financial constraints.
Brand Partnerships
Medine has collaborated with designers on limited collections of clothes and accessories, including Gryphon, shoe companies Del Toro and Superga, jewelry line Dannijo, and clothing line PJK.
In 2012, Medine signed with the Creative Artists Agency, an entertainment talent agency headquartered in Los Angeles, California. In 2016, Medine collaborated with Net-a-Porter to launch the shoe line MR by Man Repeller. Later, Medine created her own shoe line Leandra Medine.
On October 29, 2019, Medine launched a partnership collection with Mango.
Publications
Medine Cohen released her first book, an essay collection, and a memoir titled Man Repeller: Seeking Love, Finding Overalls, in 2013.
Personal life
In December 2011, Medine announced her engagement to Abie J. Cohen, a financial advisor at UBS, whom she had met when she was 17 years old.
Medine and Cohen married in June 2012. They live in the East Village. In a ManRepeller article published in December 2016, Medine revealed she had suffered a miscarriage. On March 1, 2018, Medine gave birth to twin girls, Laura and Madeline.