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J Wortham (formerly known as Jenna Wortham) is an American journalist. They work as a culture writer for The New York Times Magazine. Wortham was co-host of The New York Times podcast Still Processing with Wesley Morris, which ran from 2016 to 2022. In 2020, with Kimberly Drew, Wortham published Black Futures, an anthology of Black people art, writing and other creative work.
Wortham began their journalism career freelancing in San Francisco, then worked for Wired before joining the Times in 2008.
Wortham's work has also appeared in Matter, The Awl, Bust, The Hairpin, Vogue, The Morning News, and The Fader among other publications. Pi.co calls them "one of those rare writers who is able to explain the shapeshifting culture of the younger and newer internet." In 2012, Wortham was included in The Root 100 list. The Fader named Wortham's piece on The Shade Room "Instagram's TMZ" to its list of "The Best Culture Writing of 2015".
In addition to praise for their technology reporting, Wortham has been recognized for their commentary on a range of cultural topics. At The Village Voice, Mallika Rao described Wortham as "skirting the edges of tech, culture, and identity in (their) writing — carving out (their) own corner of the internet wherein (they are) a rightful star. (A shimmering Lemonade essay prompted a thank-you note from the Queen herself, signed "Love, Beyoncé" and 'Instagram by Wortham.)" Other topics in Wortham's writing have included queer identity and race and gender on television. At Rookie, Diamond Sharp praised Wortham's "incisive writing, and the generous way (they move) within the world. (They) is, with no hyperbole, one of the most important minds working in media." Wortham's work appears in the anthologies Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for New York (2014) and An Experience Definitely Worth Allegedly Having: Travel Stories from The Hairpin (2013).
Wortham is also writing the essay collection Work of Body, about their "formative experiences as a queer Black person, against the backdrop of technology and the larger history of Black bodies in America". Work of Body will be published by Penguin Group.
In November 2014, Wortham debuted an ongoing project called Everybody Sexts which "collects anecdotes of people's sexting decisions, accompanied by nudes from said sexting incidents that are then recreated by an array of artists," including Melody Newcomb. Vice Media's technology vertical Motherboard said Wortham's treatment of sexting was "one of the first to transcend hand-wringing or how-to guides, and present the sexual behavior as something worthy of inspiring art."
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