Her work has appeared in more than fifty periodicals, including The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Harper's, The Wall Street Journal, Allure (where she served as Contributing Editor) and Vogue.

[3] Newman's books include the memoirs You Make Me Feel Like an Unnatural Woman: The Diary of a New (Older) Mother [4][5] and To Siri With Love.

[7] Her father, Edmund Newman, was a district sales manager for the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company,[8] and her mother, Frances (née Fiorillo; 1926–2011), was a physician.

[10] Newman graduated from Scarsdale High School[11] in 1977[12] and received a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1981.

"Why some guy named SSSilvers [sic], who describes his interests as 'light opera, musical theater and global warming,' would take hours out of his day to noodle with a stranger's page is mysterious, and yet touching.

[38] A reviewer in The Guardian wrote, "[The Girl] might be the most important and invaluable book of the century so far ... an emotional rollercoaster ... smart and articulate".

A Publishers Weekly review noted: "While humorless and/or politically correct readers may bristle at Newman's antics, everyone else will be rolling in the aisles, reading out funny parts to perfect strangers.

"[4] In 2017, HarperCollins released Newman's To Siri with Love, a collection of stories about life with her autistic son, Gus.

[46] Newman and her husband, opera singer John Snowdon,[47] maintained separate apartments in Manhattan for the duration of their 25-year marriage.