[1] She attended Bryn Mawr College, where she wrote a column for The Bi-College News and majored in English.

[3][4] During Hesse's junior year of college, she interned at AARP: The Magazine, an experience that led to a full-time job at the publication after she graduated.

[1] In 2007, Hesse interned for the Post's Style section, later becoming a permanent feature writer.

[2] Her 2017 book American Fire reports on a string of arsons in Accomack County, Virginia.

[7] She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, "for columns that convey the anger and dread that many Americans felt about losing their right to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v.