Title:Alumna deliberates what’s ‘debatable’ in young adult novel

Like the main characters in her latest young adult novel, That’s Debatable, Jen Doll (C’98) was deeply involved with her high school debate team in Alabama—she was even captain. In fact, she argued the same one-on-one, Lincoln-Douglas style debate that her characters do. Doll was inspired to write That’s Debatable after witnessing the 2016 presidential debates, and watching Ella Schnake’s Nationals-winning 2019 performance “Debate Like a Girl” about sexism in the debate circuit.

“Growing up when I did, we just didn’t have the same language that people do today to talk about sexism and misogyny,” says Doll. “Those conversations weren’t happening the way they are now. Today’s youth are recognizing it and fighting back against it. Maybe being able to debate can help empower everyone a little more, making things feel less fraught.”

Wanting to put her rhetorical and language skills to work, Doll originally started out in the School of Foreign Science thinking she might go into law or diplomacy, but she had always wanted to be a writer, so she later switched her major to English.

“I think giving yourself the freedom to try things out is important. You shouldn’t feel like a failure if they don’t work out. Maybe you always dreamed of being a chemist, but you get into the chemistry lab and think ‘This is not what I thought it would be.’ You don’t have to stay there. Open yourself up to change in order to be your best self.”

After graduating from Georgetown, she eventually wound up as a staff writer at The Wire, a companion to The Atlantic, analyzing young adult literature in a column called “YA for Grownups.” Soon Doll was approached by a literary agent who asked if she wanted to write books of her own. She’s since published three, including 2018’s Unclaimed Baggage, and contributed to The New York Times, L.A. Times, New York Magazine, and others.

“My debate experience in high school really made me into a writer,” Doll says. “I suddenly felt like I had a voice and I could speak about what mattered to me. That’s probably the most important thing to learn. You can’t change everything, but at least you can say what you mean and share your viewpoint with others.”