Jill Smokler, Scary Mommy Blogger, Dies After Brain Cancer Battle

The blogging community is mourning the loss of a trailblazer. 

Jill Smokler, who founded her famed site Scary Mommy in 2008, died June 22 after a two-year battle with stage four glioblastoma, her brother Matt Epstein confirmed to Today.com. She was 48. 

“Jill spent her life telling the truth about motherhood—that it could be wonderful and impossible in the very same breath—and in doing so, she gave millions of women permission to stop pretending and feel a little less alone,” Epstein wrote in a statement. “She was funny, fearless, generous, and entirely herself.”

Smokler’s brother emphasized that despite her accomplished online writing career, she was most proud of her kids Lily, 22, Ben, 18, and Evan, 16, whom she shared with ex Jeff Smokler. 

Epstein added on behalf of Smokler’s entire family, “We are heartbroken to lose her, and endlessly proud of the mark she left on the world.”

Smokler stepped away from Scary Mommy in 2018, but the media company shared a tribute for its founder June 22, emphasizing the impact the documentation of her unfiltered motherhood journey had.