Eleanor Whitney Reflected On The Lessons She Learned From Her Apartment Burning Down

For Architectural Digest, Eleanor Whitney reflected on what she learned from her 2019 experience of having her Brooklyn apartment burn down. The essay offers tips for those who just lost their homes due to the recent LA wildfires. These tips range from leaning into your community and grappling with the sense of loss on your own terms. 

“Absorbing the news of the staggering and sudden losses of homes in the LA wildfires, I felt a flash of recognition of what I went through in 2019 when I lost my Brooklyn apartment to a fire,” Whitney told Study Hall. “While much of the reporting and resources focused on the immediate aftermath, for Architectural Digest I shared what I learned about what happens after the media attention has moved on, the immediate sense of crises has passed, and you are faced with a profoundly different future than the one you imagined, without the home that you loved.” 

Whitney’s writing has appeared in Business Insider, The Rumpus, and other outlets. 

She’s the author of Riot Woman: Using Feminist Values to Destroy the Patriarchy.