Sarah Tressler, the former Houston Chronicle society writer who moonlights as a stripper, had her say on national TV Friday morning for the first time since the story about her second job broke earlier this week — and she had a lot to talk about on Good Morning America.
"The idea of somebody outing me seemed like it would be, like, such a mean thing to do that I never thought anybody would do it," Tressler told ABC reporter and Houston native Bianna Golodryga in the three-minute segment. "I'm a bit naive, though."
"The idea of someone outing me seemed like it would be, like, such a mean thing to do that I never thought anybody would do it."
Over the past week, the media has been abuzz with the sensational story of Tressler, who chronicled her evening job as an exotic dancer on her blog, Diary of an Angry Stripper, while working full-time at the Chronicle, which ABC called "one of the country's most prestigious newspapers."
GMA used two photos of Tressler at a recently society event she covered for the Chronicle, "Hats in the Park," benefitting the Hermann Park Conservancy. She is wearing a fascinator, while posing with society denizens Jackson Hicks and Milton Townsend.
Tressler marked her blog private just hours after the Houston Press broke the story, but has since made it public again. It includes photographs, obvious indications of her location, with multiple references to the fruitful Offshore Technology Conference), and even mentions of her day job — "I've been writing for a legitimate publication recently," Tressler wrote after a blogging hiatus.
Tressler told GMA that the Chronicle fired her for not revealing her off-duty job and that she has been dancing in gentlemen's clubs for nearly eight years, sometimes making up to $2,000 in one night. She said she first got into stripping because the economy was bad. "It boils down to money," she said. "...I couldn't get a job at a bookstore, like at a Barnes & Noble."
Though she'll presumably no longer be welcome among the ladies who lunch, Tressler shrugged it off. "I had three jobs, I lost one of them. I have two jobs," said Tressler, who also lists a position as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston on her resume.
"I think I'm doing pretty well," she said. "I was a stripper/reporter/professor. Now I'm a stripper/professor. I don't think that's too bad."
As for the Houston Press' role in the story, editor Margaret Downing defended the publication's decision to run the exposé. "We're not prudes. We're hardly very conservative about these things. We have nothing against her," Downing told ABC. "It was just — it's a good story."
Downing's right — it is. Do we foresee a book deal? A reality television show?
Meanwhile, Tressler was meeting in New York with a literary agent. And she seemed relieved the segment had aired. "Phew . . . short and sweet," she tweeted.
See the Good Morning America interview here:
