After Deb Amlen had kids, she needed a creative outlet, so she started designing crossword puzzles. Eventually, her puzzles found their way to several major newspapers, including The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Now, Amlen has also dipped her toe into journalism and commentary writing. She heads up the Wordplay blog about crossword puzzles for the Times as well as Buzzology, a column about online trends for Yahoo! Tech.