How Lauren Weisberger ’99 Wrote a Novel—and Sparked a Phenomenon

Stories You May Like

Meet the Alum Who Helped Bring ‘Heated Rivalry’ to TV Screens

Which Alumni Bestseller Fits Your Personality?

Pitch Perfect Author’s Latest Is a ‘Really Dark Comedy’

Famously inspired by her year at Vogue, The Devil Wears Prada has spawned book sequels, two movies, and even a musical

By Joe Wilensky

It has been nearly a quarter-century since Lauren Weisberger ’99 wrote The Devil Wears Prada—a novel, published when Weisberger was just 26, that became not merely a bestseller but a cultural sensation.

“I don’t know if I would have been able to write and publish that book had I known what was going to come of it, all the good and all the bad,” Weisberger says of the sudden fame—and widespread criticism—she faced when Prada became a surprise hit.

“I was really young, surprised, and overwhelmed back then. No one had prepared me for that at all.”

I don’t know if I would have been able to write and publish that book had I known what was going to come of it, all the good and all the bad.

The novel spent six months on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list (and another six atop it in paperback) and was adapted as a 2006 film starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci that grossed $326 million worldwide.

It was even turned into a musical—composed by none other than Sir Elton John—that has played in London’s West End since 2022, as well as in Chicago.

A much-anticipated film sequel, The Devil Wears Prada 2, debuted in spring 2026, two decades after the original; it too has been a massive hit, grossing $666 million worldwide as of late May.

The publicity and red-carpet events around the sequel’s release have given Weisberger—who has published seven other novels since her blockbuster debut—reason to reflect on the legacy of the characters she created, and to marvel at how what was once controversial has become firmly embedded into pop culture.

“It’s funny; now you see Meryl Streep and Anna Wintour on the cover of Vogue together,” marvels Weisberger, who these days mainly lives on a trawler yacht—often at anchor in the Bahamas—with her husband and two children.

As Weisberger posted on Instagram: “Life is weird and wonderful.”

One thing that hasn’t changed in the more than quarter-century since she took the job at Vogue? “I have no actual working knowledge of the fashion world, whatsoever, truly,” she says with a laugh.

One thing that hasn’t changed in the more than quarter-century since she took the job at Vogue? “I have no actual working knowledge of the fashion world, whatsoever, truly,” she says with a laugh.

“I’m not saying I don’t love shoes or sometimes lust after a certain bag—but as far as actual knowledge of, or interest in, high-fashion runway shows, anything like that? Zero. Less than zero.”

A Pennsylvania native, Weisberger majored in English in Arts & Sciences with a minor in Near Eastern studies. By the fall after graduation, she was sleeping on a friend’s couch in NYC and applying for magazine jobs.

Much like Andy in The Devil Wears Prada, Weisberger arrived at Condé Nast’s HR department wearing a pantsuit and toting a briefcase, not knowing what position—or even which magazine—she was being considered for.

When the first interviewer told her it was Vogue, Weisberger balked, saying it wouldn’t be a great fit. Nevertheless, she was sent for more interviews that culminated in working for Wintour—already infamous as an astoundingly exacting boss—putting the young grad at the epicenter of fashion journalism during the heyday of print magazines.

Stories You May Like

Meet the Alum Who Helped Bring ‘Heated Rivalry’ to TV Screens

Which Alumni Bestseller Fits Your Personality?

It was, as numerous characters in the first Prada book and movie tell Andy, a job that “a million girls would die for.”

Weisberger stayed in the post for nearly a year before following a mentor to a newly launched magazine. She also enrolled in a creative writing workshop, where she struggled to find a topic.

“I had this crazy year I worked at a fashion magazine; it was funny and weird, and I saw a lot of famous people and a lot of excess,” she recalls. “So I just started working on it.”

I had this crazy year I worked at a fashion magazine; it was funny and weird, and I saw a lot of famous people and a lot of excess.

Months later, Weisberger shopped around a 100-page treatment—and both the book and the film rights sold within weeks.

“It’s Working Girl meets Cruella de Vil,” Newsday observed in a review, while USA Today noted that “Weisberger does an excellent job capturing the overwrought hothouse atmosphere of the fashion magazine cosmos.”

Other critics, though, saw the novel as spiteful, with the New York Times calling it a “mean-spirited Gotcha! of a book.”

She even had an onscreen cameo: she babysits Miranda’s twins as they read an unpublished Harry Potter book, which Andy has procured to satisfy one of her boss’s most comically over-the-top demands.

“I remember thinking, ‘This is a total once-in-a-lifetime thing. This is crazy. This never happens—and it’s certainly never going to happen again,’” says Weisberger, who in fact went on to spend time on the set of the second film, in which she has another cameo (she and her family briefly appear as tourists in Central Park).

I remember thinking, ‘This is a total once-in-a-lifetime thing. This is crazy. This never happens—and it’s certainly never going to happen again.’

Weisberger went on to publish two Prada sequels—Revenge Wears Prada and When Life Gives You Lululemons—though neither forms the basis of the second film. Her next novel is set for summer 2027.

Earlier this year, in a full-circle moment, she got her first Vogue byline, for an essay reflecting on her Prada experiences.

In it, she acknowledges that if she penned the novel today, it would likely be a more layered and empathetic portrait of the world it depicts.

“Still, the version of me who wrote that book had something I cannot easily access now: unfiltered honesty,” she writes.

“There is a boldness that comes from being young and outraged. You’re less careful, less diplomatic, not as concerned with the consequences. And there is real power in that.”

Top: Weisberger outside the Chicago theater showing The Devil Wears Prada musical. (All photos provided, unless otherwise indicated.)

Published June 3, 2026

---

Other stories You may like

• 

  • Alumni

  Alumna’s Galactic Quest Proved Existence of Dark Matter

• 

  • Campus & Beyond

  Sage Chapel’s Windows Illuminate and Inspire

• 

  • Alumni

  David Hackney ’87 Traces His Career in Public Service Back to Lessons Learned on the Hill