| Gloria Steinem turns ninety tomorrow, a milestone in a life that has been full of them. Steinem had recently ended a yearlong celebration of her eightieth birthday when Jane Kramer profiled her in The New Yorker, appraising the writer and activist’s role in the feminist movement while also making clear that Steinem, for one, considered her work far from over. The Ohio-born granddaughter of a prominent local suffragist, Steinem fantasized about becoming a dancer before turning her attention to discrimination and gender. After formative travels overseas—a journey that included getting an illegal abortion—Steinem first gained a national reputation as a journalist, publishing a widely read account of her brief stint as a Playboy Bunny. The article made a splash, but the response also mirrored the condescension and looks-based commentary that would always trail her, a topic that Steinem comments on candidly. Amid a grinding schedule of writing, speaking, and coalition-building efforts, Steinem would go on to start her own magazine, Ms. Kramer also charts Steinem’s thinking about L.G.B.T. rights, intersectionality, and Black Lives Matter, and writes about a moment when Steinem alienated some with her analysis of the Democratic primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. As Steinem turns ninety and the tributes roll in, well-wishers are advised to take care with how they frame the question of her legacy. “People are always asking me, ‘Who will you pass the torch to?’ ” Steinem told Kramer. “The question makes me angry. There is no one torch—there are many torches—and I’m using my torch to light other torches.” | 
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