26-Year-Old ‘Try-Hard’ Hired as Managing Editor of The New Yorker

The New Yorker‘s managing editor Kate Julian took a job in Washington earlier this summer. David Remnick‘s choice to replace her? A 26-year-old (!) — Amelia Lester.

Age is nothing but a number these days, and Lester has earned the benefit of the doubt. Born in Australia, Lester graduated from Harvard, where she wrote for The Crimson, before working as a fact-checker at The New Yorker and, most recently, as an an editor at the Paris Review, reports The New York Observer.

We’ve taken the liberty of browsing her body of work in The Harvard Crimson archives. One article, “Australian Slang, From A to Zed,” caught our attention. Lester scans the alphabet, presenting a phrase or word from the Aussie lexicon for each letter, and then she gets to T:

Try-hard: A very harsh adjective to describe someone who, literally, tries just a little too hard, to the point of being irritating in their eagerness to please. Boys and girls, don’t try this at home: reserve for only the very worst of first dates.

We’ll do our best to avoid “tall poppy syndrome” (Australian slang for the tendency to criticize successful people): Lester might not be a “try-hard” herself, but she certainly is impressive.

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