Julia Allison

Julia Allison (born February 28, 1981)^[1] is an American journalist, media personality, and entrepreneur.

Julia Allison
Allison in 2013
Born	(1981-02-28) February 28, 1981 (age 44) Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.
Education	Georgetown University (BA) Harvard Kennedy School (Masters)
Occupation(s)	Journalist, columnist, media personality, entrepreneur, speaker
Partner	Noah Feldman (2020-present)
Website	juliaallison.com

As of 2025, Allison is a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy for Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, where her work explores the intersection of social and legacy media with a focus on technology, culture, and social impact.^[2]

Early life and education

Allison grew up in Wilmette, Illinois.^[3] She earned a degree in government from Georgetown University in 2004 and received a master's degree from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2025.^[1][4]

Career

Early career

While at Georgetown University, Allison worked for Mark Kirk, then a member of the House of Representatives from Illinois,^[5] and she subsequently covered politics on-air during the 2004 general election for Comcast.^[5]

Allison was among the earliest figures to explore the emerging intersection of personal storytelling, technology, and digital identity. Through her blogs and presence on platforms such as Twitter and Tumblr, she developed a serialized narrative style that would later become central to influencer culture. Long before social media "influencers" were a defined category, she referred to her practice as “lifecasting,” a continuous, multimedia documentation of her daily life, work, relationships, and creative pursuits.^[6][7]

As one of Tumblr’s early adopters in 2007, Allison used the platform to merge confessional writing, visual aesthetics, and direct audience interaction, helping to shape the language of personal branding in the digital age.^[6] She was also an active participant in the early social web community, serving on the "prom committee" for the inaugural Webutante Ball in 2010 — an event celebrating the rising generation of online creators and digital innovators.

In 2002, while attending Georgetown University, Allison began writing Sex on the Hilltop, the university's first sex column. This column was notable for being among the first of its kind at a Catholic university, addressing topics that were considered taboo within the institution.^[8][9] The column attracted national attention and she published articles in magazines such as Seventeen and Cosmopolitan.^[6]

Allison served as a Legislative Correspondent and Legislative Assistant for the 107th United States Congress, the youngest full time legislative staffer at the time.^[10]

Media career

After graduating in 2004, Allison moved to New York City, where she continued her writing career with a weekly column in AM New York. In 2005 she started a blog, where she posted details of her daily life and work. She became a television commentator, appearing on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and E!.^[6]

In 2007 she became the dating columnist at Time Out New York.^[5] She also was a columnist for Elle and was a tech columnist for Tribune Media Services.^[11] Her fame led to a profile in the New York Times and a cover story in Wired,^[12] both in 2008, in addition to network television appearances.^{[6][13][14][15]}

Business ventures

She founded a social media talent agency called Non Society in 2007 and pitched the idea of a collaborative living space for social media content producers, now called a collab house; Bravo filmed a pilot of a projected reality show, IT Girls.^[6] She acquired corporate endorsement deals and co-starred in a major campaign for the Sony Vaio laptop alongside Justin Timberlake and Peyton Manning, spoke at business conferences, and attended the annual World Economic Forum meeting and the White House Correspondents' Dinner.^[6] In 2010, she moved to Los Angeles, where she co-starred in Miss Advised, a documentary series about her writing a column at Elle and living and dating in LA that ran for one season on Bravo.^[6]

In 2012, Allison withdrew from the public eye, erasing or making private most of her social media posts.^[6][16] In 2014, she moved to San Francisco and became a change activist, founding a company called Reimagine Media.^[17][18] As of 2025 she received a master's degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.^[6]

In 2025, she was appointed as a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.^[2]

Personal life

Allison dated Congressman Harold Ford Jr. when she was a college student.^[6][14] In 2010, she dated Jack McCain, a son of Senator John McCain.^[3] Allison lived in New York for her 20s, California for about ten years, and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2021.^[19]

In 2023, she became engaged to Noah Feldman, a professor of law at Harvard.^[19] They married June 15, 2025.