Jill Smokler, founder of Scary Mommy, dies at 48 of brain cancer
Through Scary Mommy, the writer created a place where mothers could be honest about the exhaustion, guilt, boredom, love, humor, and impossibility of parenting.
Jill Smokler gave millions of mothers permission to tell the truth: that motherhood could be the greatest thing in your life and the hardest, often at the same time.
BALTIMORE, June 22nd, 2026 — Jill Renee Smokler, the New York Times bestselling author and entrepreneur who founded Scary Mommy and built one of the largest and most honest communities for mothers in the world, died June 22, 2026, at her home in Baltimore after a more than two-year fight with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. She was 48.
She built her life’s work on a single, radical idea: that you could love your children more than anything in the world and still say, out loud, that the job is really fucking hard. Eighteen years ago, there was almost nowhere a mother could admit this without judgment. So Jill made the place.
Born July 1, 1977, in Boston and raised in Swampscott, Massachusetts, Jill graduated from Swampscott High School before earning her degree from Washington University in St. Louis. A former graphic designer, she started a blog in 2008 to write about the parts of motherhood that no one else would. She named it Scary Mommy after her son Ben, who, while watching a children’s movie, declared everything in sight “scary” — his mother included. Her first post went up on March 21, 2008, under a title that turned out to be prophetic: “Here goes. Day One.”
What began as one woman writing in her pajamas became a movement. Millions of readers found their way to Scary Mommy because it told the truth — funny, raw, sharp, self-deprecating, occasionally inappropriate, and always real — at a moment when the internet was full of people performing a flawless version of motherhood that no one actually lived.
She wrote about the parts of motherhood that weren’t supposed to be said aloud: the mess, the boredom, the guilt, the flashes of rage, and the love so big it somehow made it all worthwhile. Scary Mommy wasn’t just a website. It was permission: to laugh, to admit it was hard, to tell the truth, and to be a great mother without pretending to enjoy every single second of it.
That permission became the foundation of a major digital media brand. Long before “influencer” became a job title, Jill had built the kind of trust with her audience that brands were still trying to understand. She grew Scary Mommy from a personal blog into a company with millions of readers. She was a New York Times bestselling author, beginning with Confessions of a Scary Mommy in 2012 and Motherhood Comes Naturally (and Other Vicious Lies) in 2013. Her work and story were featured across national television, digital media, and print, and Scary Mommy earned multiple Webby Awards.
In 2013, she founded Scary Mommy Nation, a nonprofit that funded Thanksgiving dinners for families who could not afford them — because a community built on honesty, she believed, ought to take care of its own. She stepped away from Scary Mommy in 2018.
Those who knew Jill say she lived as fully and unapologetically herself as anyone they had ever known: funny, restless, brilliant, ridiculous, generous, and allergic to pretending.
“She taught me that being authentic mattered more than being right,” said her brother, Matt Epstein.
Asked once what quality she would change about herself, Jill answered: “The inability to just be content. I wish I had the ability to take a deep breath and enjoy the ride, or even enjoy the quiet, instead of always waiting for the next stage.”
Her family finds some comfort in believing she can finally take that breath and let herself feel proud of everything she built.
She is survived by her three children, who were, by her own account, the greatest thing she ever produced: Lily, a recent graduate of Boston University; Ben, a student at the University of Pittsburgh; and Evan, who begins at Wesleyan University this fall. She is also survived by her mother, Kathy Epstein of Baltimore; her father, Drew Epstein, and his longtime partner, Sandy Jacobs, of Swampscott, Massachusetts; her brother, Matt Epstein, his wife, Bari, and their children, Maxwell and Gabriel, of South Orange, New Jersey; and her best friend, Julie Bender of Olney, Maryland.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Jill’s memory to The Brain Tumor Network, which was an invaluable resource to Jill and her family.
A celebration of Jill’s life will be announced.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Jill shortly before she was diagnosed with Glioblastoma, in July 2024. In this interview, she talks openly about the ups and downs of growing and later selling Scary Mommy, her complicated relationship with money, and perimenopause.
“Glioblastoma was not on my 2024 bingo card, alas here we are. Life changes fast, friends.”
That’s the caption of Jill Smokler’s Insta post on May 3, 2024, just a few weeks after I interviewed her for The Midst to talk about anything but cancer. When we talked, she hadn’t been diagnosed yet, and we talked mainly about her new midlife lady project, She’s Got Issues, and Scary Mommy, her first publishing megahit that she sold in 2015. No thanks to health issues, Jill emailed her network in mid-May to say she’s “decided to step back from She’s Got Issues so I can focus on navigating this new road with my kids.”
Glioblastoma is an aggressive brain tumor that can be fatal if left untreated. Jill is in treatment and as Today.com reported May 21, she’s feeling “Not great. I keep alternating between feeling so profoundly sad and so pissed off.” That’s the kind of honesty that Jill’s known for — and rightfully so. The Cleveland Clinic reports that Glioblastoma has no cure and life expectancy is 12 to 18 months. Roughly 7% of glioblastoma patients live beyond five years.
When I checked in with her in July 2024, Jill said she’s almost through her first course of treatment, but needs to wait three months for follow-up scans to know the effects. “So we’re in this sort of holding pattern for now. The next step is either more chemo or going with some sort of trial instead,” Jill told me via email.
When Jill, now 47, started Scary Mommy as a personal blog in 2008, she became one of the first wildly successful “mommy bloggers.” She wrote raw, unapologetic stories about the chaos of life at home with three kids under 4. Her work drew millions of readers and created community around modern motherhood.
Burned out after seven years of extreme growth on a shoestring budget, Smokler sold Scary Mommy in 2015 — which then averaged about 10 million monthly readers — to a company called Some Spider Studios. She became chief content officer and in 2018, Jill stepped down from the website, which is now owned by Bustle Digital Group.
Jill Smokler on The Queen Latifah Show in 2013.
If acquisition stories tend to make you think about glamour, think differently.
In this interview, Jill and I talk about Scary Mommy’s tumultuous acquisition story, the joys of menopause, and the learnings along the way.
Amy Schroeder: Why did you start She’s Got Issues?
Jill Smokler: I started it because I got older and was no longer in the mommy phase of life. I grew out of Scary Mommy and found myself in the same position that I was in at the beginning of Scary Mommy, where I felt like there was nowhere to go to talk about the things I wanted to talk about.
She’s Got Issues really picks up where Scary Mommy and I left off. We have older kids. All the fun stuff — aging parents, being the sandwich generation, menopause.
I talk often with like-minded writers, community builders, and entrepreneurs in the midlife empowerment space. It seems less about competition and more about sharing information, resources, and building community. Are you finding camaraderie, too?
Yeah, there is such a need. A bunch of us sort of felt like we had to rise to the occasion and fill it, you and I being part of that. But I think you’re right. We have to attack it as supporting each other. When I look back, that’s how Scary Mommy was built — sharing blog posts and swapping and promoting each other. It became a very inclusive and collaborative environment.
We have the chance to do that again now. I think as much as it may feel like there’s so many of us on the content creation side who are suddenly here, I think compared to the general audience, there could be so many of us. There are so many Gen Xish women out there, I feel like there is a need for a plethora of places to provide information about [the midlife experience].
I like that you’re focusing on Gen X. At The Midst, because we’re targeting women in their 40s and into their 50s, that means we’re focusing on women who are Gen X and also Millennials! The oldest millennials turns 43 in 2024.
It’s funny, I’ve been surprised how many millennials follow us. But you’re right. I mean, they’re growing up like we are. And I don’t want to alienate them, but I think we’re really trying to hone in on that sort of sweet spot that we are in … sorry, I just lost my train of thought.
You have brain fog? I have brain fog. It’s so frustrating.
I’ll be in the middle of a sentence as now and then I just totally lose my train of thought. It sucks.
I’m more just kind of putting it out there as an observation. I agree with you that there’s such a need for multiple publications and businesses that are trying to help and support and empower women in midlife. I just think it’s going to be interesting to see how all of us evolve.
Did you know Jill or read Scary Mommy? How did she make a mark on your life?
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I’m not sad (of course I am for her family and our world) I’m pissed. We keep losing so many beautiful brilliant women far too early.
Ah fuck!