After 600 Anonymous Sex Diaries, The Cut's Editor Opens Up About Her Own Intimate Transformation

Alyssa Shelasky, the editor behind The Cut's long-running 'Sex Diaries' column, has spent over a decade reading the most intimate details of strangers' lives. Now, she is turning the lens on herself. In a personal reflection, Shelasky reveals how editing more than 600 anonymous diaries since 2014 reshaped her own relationship with sex, intimacy, and self-acceptance, according to The Cut.

The CutHow Editing 600 ‘Sex Diaries’ Changed the Way I Think About Sex

Shelasky described a gap between her public persona and private self. As a young woman in New York, she was sexually adventurous but emotionally guarded. The raw honesty of the diaries, she says, helped her confront her own insecurities and desires. The Cut reported that she shared how the column's unfiltered accounts forced her to reckon with the difference between who she presented to the world and who she was behind closed doors.

"the raw honesty of the diaries helped her confront her own insecurities, desires, and the gap between her public persona and private self."

Shelasky's reflection marks a rare moment of transparency from an editor who has kept her own intimate life private for years. She moved from a sexually adventurous phase to a more grounded, partnered life, and credits the diaries with helping her navigate that evolution. The Cut noted that she had remained guarded about her own experiences precisely because of her role as the curator of so many others' stories.

The piece serves as both a retrospective on a decade-long cultural fixture and a personal confession. By finally sharing her own journey, Shelasky highlights how the act of editing others' truths can become a mirror for one's own. The Cut's column, known for its unfiltered look at modern sexuality, has now prompted its own editor to step out of the shadows.