carroll's column became known due to her opinions on sex, her insistence that women should "never never" structure their lives around men, and her compassion for letter-writers experiencing difficult life situations. amy gross, former editor-in-chief of "elle" and currently the editor-in-chief of "o, the oprah magazine", describes the "ask e. jean" debut as "though we had put her on a bucking bronco and her answers were the cheers and whoops and hollers of a fearless woman having a good ol time."