Jill Smokler died on June 22, 2026, at 48 years old, after more than two years fighting glioblastoma, the aggressive brain cancer that is among the most difficult to treat.
She was the founder of Scary Mommy, the website she started on March 21, 2008, with four words, "Here goes. Day One." She had no way of knowing those four words would reach millions of people.
Her family's statement said everything that needs to be said. It read:
"Jill spent her life telling the truth about motherhood, that it could be wonderful and impossible in the very same breath, and in doing so, she gave millions of women permission to stop pretending and feel a little less alone. She was funny, fearless, generous, and entirely herself. More than anything she built, Jill was proudest of her three children, Lily, Ben, and Evan. We are heartbroken to lose her, and endlessly proud of the mark she left on the world."
When Smokler started Scary Mommy, she was a stay-at-home mother of three writing honestly about parenting at a time when "mommy blogs" were new and the expectation was still that mothers performed contentment rather than described reality.
She wrote about the hard parts. The funny parts. The things other mothers were thinking but no one was saying.
The community that formed around that honesty became one of the largest parenting platforms on the internet, and it was built on a single original premise that she proved was true, women wanted a place where they could be real.
She was a New York Times bestselling author. She appeared on Good Morning America and Today.
She built something that is still running, still finding new mothers who need exactly what she created it for. She was 48. Her family has asked that donations in her memory go to The Brain Tumor Network.