New website Chick Talk Dallas launches

by Sarah Blaskovich

DALLAS — When Joanna Cattanach's employer began charging her for plastic forks in the cafeteria, she realized something's gotta give. She left her job and spent last month creating the brand-new site Chick Talk Dallas. It officially launches tonight (June 26) with a party at Iron Cactus to discuss all things femme.

Cattanach hopes the new site will allow women to gossip, commiserate, and share girly news that isn't found in other media sources. As a former writer at the Dallas Morning News, Cattanach sparred with an editor who told her that categorizing wedding dress-frenzied “bridezillas” wasn't appropriate. “There were 100+ women who sprinted into a room and were ripping dresses from each other, screaming 'no toulle!'” Cattanach said. “I felt that a lot of the times, stories about women that I found interesting -- and would be considered more girly, more feminine --were kind of being thrown to the side a little bit.”

As she left her writing post in mid-May, most people gave her half-hearted pats on the back, waiting for the day to say I-told-you-so. But with the help of her techie wiz husband, Fadel El Hajj, the blog started quietly in early June with the website following close behind.

The topics include anything pertaining to “real women in Dallas,” she says: Today's post touches upon the “vibrating in her pants” – her cell phone, get your mind out of the gutter – and a real housewife dilemma: She lit a candle for Michael Jackson and now the wax is stuck in her carpet. Moms out there, how does she get it clean?

She really just wants to serve an underserved market. “I want it to become the go-to site for women in Dallas,” she says, noting that she would ultimately like for it to become a franchise in several cities. “I would love the concept to be very localized and very central. This is about talking to women in your city.”

• Staff
• Verified User
• Anonymous