Valenti is the author of six books: Full Frontal Feminism (2007), He's a Stud, She's a Slut (2008), The Purity Myth (2009), Why Have Kids?

[10][independent source needed] In 2002, Valenti received a master's degree in Women's and Gender Studies with a concentration in politics from Rutgers University.

[11] After graduating from college, Valenti worked for the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund and for the Women's Environment & Development Organization.

She writes that Valenti "felt the full force of being a pioneer," her involvement with the site attracting online abuse, even threats of rape and death.

[20] In 2008, Valenti was the co-editor of Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape with Jaclyn Friedman.

[1] A documentary film based on the book, called The Purity Myth, was released in 2011 by the Media Education Foundation.

Valenti's writing has appeared in Diane Mapes' Single State of the Union: Single Women Speak Out on Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Happiness (2007), Melody Berger's We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists (2008), and Courtney E. Martin and J. Courtney Sullivan's book, Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists (2010).

[17] In July 2016, Valenti announced she was taking a break from social media, after receiving rape and death threats aimed at her then five-year-old daughter.

[36] In 2009, Valenti married Andrew Golis, former deputy publisher of Talking Points Memo, former general manager of Vox Media,[7][37] and currently the chief content officer for WNYC.