Jeanne Phillips

Jeanne Phillips (born 1942), also known as Abigail Van Buren, is an American advice columnist who has written for the advice column Dear Abby since 2000.

She was born in Minneapolis to Pauline Esther Phillips, who founded Dear Abby in 1956.

Jeanne Phillips' Dear Abby column is syndicated in about 1,400 newspapers in the U.S. with a combined circulation of more than 110 million.

Dear Abby's website receives about 10,000 letters per week, seeking advice on a large variety of personal matters.

Jeanne Phillips began assisting her mother, Pauline Phillips, with the Dear Abby column at the age of 14 in order to earn an allowance.

When Jeanne asked her mother for an allowance, Pauline answered, "What are you going to do for it?"

Pauline then said that her Dear Abby column received a substantial amount of mail from teenagers and that Jeanne could reply to some of them.

If Jeanne's responses were "good", her mother would use them in the column.

If her responses were not good, Jeanne would rewrite them.

Jeanne spent her allowance money on watching movies and plays.

She went to San Francisco several times to see the play, Li'l Abner.

In the 1970s, Phillips helped her mother write over half of the columns for her nationally syndicated radio show on CBS News.

In 1980, she became the radio show's column executive editor, and in 1987, she became its co-editor.

Phillips spent six years helping with the radio show.

Beginning in 1987, she worked with her mother on the nationally syndicated Dear Abby column.

She began writing a majority of the columns since the early 1990s, though her mother did not publicly acknowledge her as the column's co-writer until 2000.

Jeanne worked as the writer, while Pauline edited.

While Pauline remained at home, Jeanne would manage the office and their paid staff.

Mother and daughter were listed as the writers after a December 12, 2000, letter to readers.

A photo of the two was affixed to each column.

On Valentine's Day in 2001, the Dear Abby radio show was honored with the 2,172nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Around 60 family members and friends took part in the 30-minute ceremony.

Jeanne Phillips paid the $15,000 sponsorship fee for the star and its maintenance to honor her mother.

The Dear Abby radio show lasted for 12 years.

Jeanne wrote and produced Pauline's shows; Pauline was the host.

Beginning on July 22, 2002 Jeanne was attributed as the only writer,

adding "Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips" at the bottom of each column.

Kathie Kerr, a spokeswoman for Universal Press Syndicate, the distributor of the column, said: "Over the past couple of years, Pauline Phillips hasn't had any day-to-day activities with the column."

The column's photo, which had both the mother and daughter, was replaced with only the daughter's photo.

As of 2009, her column reaches 110 million people through syndication in about 1,400 newspapers.

Every week, she gets from 5,000 to 10,000 letters and emails asking her for advice.

Owing to email's growing usage, by 2013 less than 10% of her letters were through postal mail.

Phillips said she yearned for tangible letters for being more intimate because as described by the Palm Beach Daily News she could see "tear stains on the stationery, the smell of cigarette smoke in the paper, the penmanship style and other things that reflect the individual writing".

Reading and replying to the mail sometimes takes her more than eight hours a day.

After crafting a response, Phillips sets it aside.

A few days later, she reviews it to ensure that her feelings about the subject remain unchanged.

When she is not knowledgeable about a subject, she consults experts from various fields, including "medical, psychiatric, legal, ethical", and religious.

Phillips noted that the column touches on numerous topics, including "organ donation, domestic violence, mental health, child safety, volunteerism, civility, alcohol abuse, inhalant abuse ... and the dangers of tobacco".

According to Pernell Watson of the Daily Press, Phillips will send an unprinted, confidential reply to readers who send a "self-addressed, stamped envelope".

In 2018, Phillips counseled a letter writer not to name their kids with "unusual" names.