"[2] Allen grew up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and attended the private all-girls school Brearley.
"[4] Her senior thesis was a series of collages that included "family photographs, Polaroids, and crappy photos I'd taken of my friends...obscure books, manuals, and catalogs of dolls.
"[6] After college, she worked as a bookseller at McNally Jackson in SoHo and as a freelance writer covering art.
[5][7] Her first position at The New Yorker was as assistant to editor Susan Morrison, working on pieces in the "Talk of the Town" section.
[8] She had friends working as stand-up comics and writing for late-night shows, and she caught the attention of editor David Remnick for her ability to draw in fresh humor writers.
Allen says that when Bob Mankoff passed on the role of cartoon editor to her, he gave her the following advice: "You pick what's funny.
"[6] She has built a reputation for selecting cartoons from a large, diverse group of cartoonists,[10] and she told Washington Post that she has tried to publish humor that reflects "the incredibly vast world of comedy I was seeing at clubs and on TikTok.