Erika W. Smith always uses her middle initial because there are at least three other people working in the media industry who share her first and last name. Just call her the Tom Holland of journalism.

Every day, Erika contributes analysis of the day’s biggest news and culture stories to the Daily Skimm. She loves writing silly, snappy headlines and making comparisons between politics and pop culture. If you see a Succession reference, odds are it came from her.

Erika has been working in women’s media for over a decade. She’s held staff roles at Cosmopolitan, Refinery29, BUST magazine, and HelloGiggles and freelanced for publications including Vogue, Elle, and PopSugar. She’s also the author of the Astrosex book series, which gives you sex advice tailored to your zodiac sign, and the editor of The Cosmo Tarot: The Ultimate Deck and Guidebook, an Amazon bestseller. It’ll surprise nobody to learn that she’s a Scorpio.

While she’s worked on pretty much everything that you might read in a women’s magazine, Erika is particularly interested in culture — analyzing what lifestyle trends and pop culture moments can tell us about wider societal shifts. For example, she once wrote about how Survivor contestants’ pre-show beauty prep changed over the series’ first 50 seasons. Another time, she wrote about the growing trend of stay-at-home girlfriend influencers on TikTok — and what happens when they break up.

Erika has a bachelor’s degree from Boston University with a double major in journalism and English literature. And yes, she’s one of those annoying people who reads over 100 books a year. She particularly loves romance novels and “weird girl” lit fic. Erika moved from Brooklyn, NY, to Chicago, IL, in 2025 and spends her free time attending concerts, visiting art museums, watching movies, and wandering around the city. You can follow her on Instagram, read more of her work at erikawsmith.com, or subscribe to her Substack.