April 2, 2012

Sarah Tressler: Reporter By Day, Stripper By Night Fired From Job

Sarah Tressler, a Texas journalist who was working as a reporter for the society section of the Houston Chronicle by day and was a stripper by night, was fired by the newspaper Friday.

In an interview with ABC news , Tressler confirmed that she had been fired. She told ABC News that the newspaper had let her go for not informing her supervisors about the stripper job.

The Houston Press, the rival newspaper of Chronicle, exposed the double life of Tresseler Monday after publishing an article with the headline "Writer by day, stripper by night." The article also focuses on Tressler's blog - Dairy of an Angry Stripper - where she gives details about her double life.

"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 News. "I guess I was wrong."

"The reason I started dancing - it just boils down to money. The economy was bad and I couldn't get a job."

By day, Tressler was working as a reporter covering society beat for the Chronicle and, by night, she was working as a dancer at high-end gentleman's clubs. She said since 2004 she had been moonlighting as a dancer "on and off."

Tressler holds a master's degree in journalism from the New York University. The Houston Press also discovered that Tressler was an adjunct professor at the University of Houston.

"I worked from 1:30 to 11:30 last Thursday, which is long enough to hang out with some friends, make some new contacts, eat lunch and pull down about $750," she wrote on her blog, Angry Stripper.

In January, Tressler became a full-time reporter at the Chronicle and has also worked as a freelance reporter for Us Weekly. Tressler believed that her double life secret was safe until it was released by the Houston Press.

"Yeah, I guess so. I just didn't really think that anybody would want to do that," Tressler said.

Tressler's former colleagues told the Houston Press that they were "furious" about her double life because she would always show off her "stripper money" in the office. Staffers also said that Tressler was living double for the purpose of securing a book deal, ABC News reported.

According to Tressler, her former colleagues at the Chronicle wished her best when the news of her stripper life broke.

However, Tressler said that she had no regrets about leading her double life.

"I had three jobs, I lost one of them and now I have two jobs," Tressler said. "I was a stripper/reporter/professor and now I'm just a stripper/professor, and I don't think that's too bad."

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