Leslie Harpold wrote to me after seeing my webzine RiotGrrl and told me that she wanted to be a part of it... and I would want her to be. So of course I took notice, and I ventured over to her own media/culture webzine Smug, just to see what this chick who was stacked with hubris could possibly be about.

And I was blown away. She wanted to write for me? Smug in its first beta was more together than webzines which have been online for years. It had (and still has) a clean, icon-based interface with ambitious sections like "Feature" (the centerpiece of Smug); "Net Worth" (what's going on with the Net); "Bumping Uglies" (the sex column); "Feed Hollywood" (movies and such); "Target Audience" (advertising coverage); "Three Dollar Bill" (the gay perspective); "Compulsion" (Leslie's latest compulsion); "Mystery Date" (where guests from rock stars to Web stars have their say); and many more.

Leslie is at the core of Smug, producing, designing, and writing most of it. She is a one-woman powerhouse holed up in a fourth floor walk-up in Hell's Kitchen, giving the business and sass to a medium that sorely needs it. Every month like clockwork Smug appears, each issue better than the last.

First, you have to get writers you admire. Then, you have to learn to love them.

How does she do it? How does Leslie deconstruct and transform the usual media bile month after month? It requires total dedication, total belief that the media has to be challenged, that our own consumption of the Madison Avenue blitzkrieg must be confronted. Says Leslie, "When I decided to do Smug, I knew it was going be a lot of work, but I didn't realize how much. Sometimes it's overwhelming, but I realized if I didn't love Smug and care for it, no one else would. So you just do it..."

In reading Smug you will hang out with Leslie and her talented crew, some famous and some infamous (Suck's co-founder Carl Steadman wrote the now well-circulated "Suicide Note" for Smug). How does a penniless webzine attract such talent? According to Leslie, "First, you have to get writers whose work you genuinely admire. Then, once you coax and convince then to write for you, you have to learn to love them in such a way that they trust you with their work, to really try to bring out the best in them. We stick to the first person, without getting emotional, and try to give readers something to relate to."

And what readers seem to really relate to is media deconstruction. But what sets Smug apart from other media deconstruction webzines, like Suck, Synapse (HotWired), Stating the Obvious, and the Drudge Report? After all, Smug's title alone would seem to make it a close relative in tone and attitude to Suck. But Leslie says, "We're many things, but one of them isn't smug, which is our secret. Smug isn't smug because we acknowledge that the only difference between our readers and us is that we are the writers — in other words, the difference is that we have a column and they don't. We regularly nod to that in the webzine, and we're always going on about how we exist for them, then showering them with digital love business." Smug is hip and smug at the same time, without being smug at all — get it?

Smug is hip and smug at the same time, without being smug at all — get it?

That, and those other webzines don't have Leslie. Leslie writes with such astonishing clarity and honesty about every topic that no matter how different your opinions might be from hers — or from the other Smug contributors — you find yourself thinking, "Yeah, it really could be exactly like Leslie says. I really could use some lip balm like that, drink that soda and like it, or mock that ad campaign or not see that movie because she says so. Right on, Leslie!" She can take it all down, without making herself into a Web martyr or telling you how smart she is. She doesn't have to. Each issue of Smug is filled with Leslie's take on the urban contemporary dream, its failures, its misgivings and how we all live in big glass houses and are throwing a lot of stones. As she puts it, "We know readers have a life on- and offline, so we write about real things that really affect real people. And although we don't hesitate to talk about things that we don't like, we also make a point of saying what we like, to give a better idea of where we stand."

So what lies ahead for Smug?

Leslie's accomplished so much out of that little apartment that she now gets calls from big companies about doing Web sites for them, and calls from interactive media agencies asking her how she's done it all. She even gets quoted on Wired News when a good story breaks. But although she considers herself open to new avenues that could be revenue-generating, she's being very careful about developing advertising for Smug, as she has seen how advertisers can influence the content of other webzines.

"And what about you, Leslie?" I ask.

Leslie is characteristically brazen. "Tell them this: Leslie Harpold wants us all to think she is so net.cool, but we really know she is a thumbsucking wussy girl who still calls her mother 'mommy' and sleeps alone with her stuffed baby elephant 'Shibbles.'"

"No, Leslie, I mean it." I say.

"So do I."

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Nikki Douglas is the mastermind behind RiotGrrl.
Illustration by Federico Jordan