Marcus began writing in the format of self-published zines in 10th grade,[1] first as part of the riot grrrl movement in and around Washington, D.C.[2] and then through her first year of college, where she also worked on student publications.

"[7] Through personal activist and musical connections developed both during the Riot Grrrl years as well as later, Marcus had access to major figures of the movement, including Kathleen Hanna, Nomy Lamm, Ananda La Vita, Molly Neuman and Allison Wolfe.

"[8] Marcus left her full-time job and enrolled in Columbia's MFA program to pursue the project, then completed it during two stays at the MacDowell Colony.

[7] Reviewing the book in the Los Angeles Times, Evelyn McDonnell says Marcus's book "Riot Grrrls' raw, emo agit-pop with a poetic fervor that matches its subject," though close to her subject—Marcus and McDonnell both were participants in the movement—McDonnell suggests Marcus "chronicles the brief-lived rebellion's sometimes nasty downward spiral with perhaps too much sympathetic regret.

"[2] In Bookforum, Johanna Fateman of Le Tigre wrote, "In passionately describing Riot Grrrl's radical propositions as the youth movement that formed the sharper edges of both feminism's third wave and '90s punk rock, Marcus argues powerfully that it's a spirit of urgency and confrontation still needed in the feminist struggle for girls' lives.