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Jackie Goldschneider on the Importance of Telling Her Own “True, Raw” Story
The Real Housewives of New Jersey friend opened up about her law background, her writing career and upcoming book release, and the job she “never talk[s] about.”
When viewers were introduced to Jackie Goldschneider on Season 9 of The Real Housewives of New Jersey, they learned that she was a “journalist writing articles about parenting” (and she ended up clashing with Jennifer Aydin because of one of those articles).
As Jackie later shared on the show, she’s also an attorney, and she manages her family’s real estate deals and properties. Though Jackie has a law background, her greatest passion has always been writing.
Back in February 2023, Jackie announced that she had taken on her biggest writing project yet, her forthcoming memoir, The Weight of Beautiful. The book, which Jackie referred to as her “greatest professional accomplishment,” tells her story — including her Staten Island upbringing, her law career roots, and her longtime struggle with an eating disorder — and it’s told entirely in her own words.
Jackie spoke with BravoTV.com to reveal more about her unique story and how her love for writing has been woven into her every career move.
A Great Debater
As Jackie admitted, her road to becoming an attorney was paved by her mom’s influence.
“I was always a really strong debater and had always really thrived on being organized with my ideas and presenting clear arguments… Law made sense for me,” Jackie shared with BravoTV.com. “I wasn’t as passionate about it as I wanted to be, but my mother really pushed me toward law school.”
The New York native attended the Fordham University School of Law, which she “loved.” However, when it came to practicing law, Jackie had a different perspective altogether.
A “Brutal” Law Career
After obtaining her Juris Doctor degree from Fordham University and passing the New York State Bar Exam, Jackie practiced law in New York City.
Though she had enjoyed her time in law school, she found practicing law to be “a little bit brutal” — and it made her wish she had gone to journalism school instead. However, she found the right fit for her career when she shifted to focusing on real estate law.
“Toward the end of the last few years that I practiced, I did real estate law. I just did closings, so selling people’s houses [and] buying people’s houses,” she explained. “I did all the paperwork and everything, and I loved that.”
When Jackie got married and made the move from New York City to New Jersey, she stopped practicing law since she did not take the bar exam in the Garden State.
On the Career She “Never Talk[s] About”
Though Jackie wasn’t still actively practicing law after she started her family — which includes two sets of twins, Adin and Jonas, and Alexis and Hudson — she did use her real estate law background for her next venture.
“One career that I never talk about, that I don’t think anyone really knows about is [that] I run a small real estate management company,” Jackie said about the business, which consists of “family-held investments and personally held investments.”
“I manage all of them, so with my legal background, I do all the leases and I do all the paperwork because I know what I’m doing. I can draft leases myself, I can draft riders, I can do everything legal myself, but it’s not really in a legal capacity. It’s just that I know how to do it,” she said. “I manage a lot of residential units, [and I do] everything from replacing appliances to just making sure the renters are happy, to making sure that apartments are filled. That takes up a fair amount of my time.”
Her Return to Writing
In addition to managing her investment properties, Jackie has also worked as a freelance writer in the years since she stopped practicing law.
“More than the pay, I love seeing my stuff in print,” she said about her parenting-focused articles, which have appeared in publications such as Good Housekeeping, Bergen Record, USA Today, and HuffPost, among others.
Jackie took on her biggest project to date when she started writing her book, The Weight of Beautiful. She wrote the memoir without a ghostwriter, co-writer, or other collaborator, and she did it all from her desk at home.
“It was really important to write it myself,” Jackie said about her decision to write the book alone. “I don’t think that anyone else could’ve captured the true, raw emotion of what I felt.”
She also opened up about her writing process.
“The story had lived in my head for so long that I had a really specific way of writing, and I think this came from years of experience,” Jackie said. “I would, every single day, sit down and, no matter what, just write until 500 words came out. After maybe a week of doing that, I would make sure all my ideas were out, [and] I would start redrafting it and redrafting it. I’d go through, like, seven drafts until it had all the emotion that I wanted and all the words that I wanted, that it flowed beautifully. I could write a great chapter in two weeks.”
She listened to music she associated with different points in her life while she wrote. This allowed her to “feel really emotional about certain scenes.”
“The whole process was really enjoyable actually, [and] a little scary because I was always nervous that the next chapter wouldn’t be as good as the one before,” she said. “But the whole thing turned out so unbelievable and really complete. I think it’s going to really help a lot of people, which matters to me a lot.”
On Balancing Writing Her Book with Her Family Life
Jackie may have “loved” sharing her story, but there were times when it was more difficult to do so — like when her husband, Evan Goldschneider, and her four children were home.
“There were many days when everyone was home and I had to find that time, so I would stuff my ears with silicone earplugs and shut my office door and just do it. Sometimes I would have to do it at night instead, when I definitely don’t have as much focus. Sometimes I would sit down to write and then the school nurse would call and tell me I have to pick up one of the kids. I had to work around it,” Jackie said. “I had to find the time no matter what.”
On Whether She’ll Let Her Kids Read Her Book
Jackie’s memoir will handle difficult topics like her eating disorder, but she’s ready for the world to get to read it, and that includes her four children.
“I will let them read the book one day when they’re ready,” Jackie said. “I definitely think my daughter will be reading it as she reaches her later teenage years.”
Her Career Bucket List
Jackie had such a positive experience putting her life story on paper that she has plans to keep going.
“I actually loved writing a book and can’t wait to write another one,” she revealed, but that’s not all she wants to do.
“I love talking about diet culture, and I have so many things to say about it. After the book, I’m hoping to do some kind of speaking engagements — maybe go around to different schools [and] different universities,” Jackie said, before adding that she’d also love to host a podcast and continue her freelance writing.
“I would love to just really stay in the public eye so that I can have a loud voice about eating disorders and really be a voice of recovery,” she concluded. “Because there’s not that many public figures who speak openly about eating disorders and recovery, and I’d love to be the loudest voice on that.”
You can see Jackie on The Real Housewives of New Jersey.
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