Jen Smith

Who is Jen Smith?

Jen Smith is an artist, musician, zine editor, and activist from the United States.

Jen Smith is credited with being the inspiration behind the term Riot Grrrl and being one of the architects of the movement. Writing in Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital, Mark Andersen and Mark Jenkins report that while living in Washington, D.C., Smith reacted to the violence of the Mount Pleasant race riots in the Spring of 1991 by prophetically writing in a letter to Allison Wolfe, "this summer's going to be a girl riot." Other reports say she wrote, "we need to start a girl riot."

That summer, Olympia, Washington, students Wolfe and Molly Neuman, editors of Girl Germs zine, to which Smith had contributed, moved to Washington, D.C. Having already formed their band Bratmobile, they asked Smith and Christina Billotte to join, and the band released one cassette tape, called Bratmobile DC, with this line-up.

As written about in Bikini Kill zine by Kathleen Hanna, Jen proposed they all collaborate on a zine called Girl Riot, which would serve as a networking forum for young women. Molly Neuman began the zine, released under the title riot grrrl, with contributions from Smith, Wolfe, and the members of Bikini Kill.