Donate in Molly’s Memory
In honor of Molly Michaela Holtzinger and her tenacious, fierce, empowering drive to make the world a better place for female (and all underrepresented) creators to live and work in, her family and friends organized a memorial fund on her behalf to benefit the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Molly loved and lived everything this wonderful organization stood for; in fact, Geena Davis was often referred to as the “patron saint” of Molly’s podcast, The Lady Parts. Molly’s legacy will live on in all those she touched with her talent, her joy, her light, her love, and now, with our shared hope for a future Molly would want us all to live in: one where women are seen, heard, believed, supported, and celebrated.
PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING IN MOLLY’S MEMORY
The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media is humbled, thankful, and proud of the passion Molly had for the vision we all share.
About Molly
Molly Michaela Holtzinger was, among many extraordinary things, a beloved daughter, a cherished friend, an incredible filmmaker, a talented writer of screenplays, Mad Libs, music, and joke-poetry, an expert editor, a passionate podcaster, a chicken nugget fan, a lover of every cat, body of water, button-down shirt, and trucker hat she encountered, and an irreplaceable, unrelentingly adventurous traveler of the world.
Nothing about Molly is able to be summed up in writing. She was to be experienced, which is why she was such a believer in and avid consumer of the life she lived and loved so much. She loved it so much, in fact, that one of the defining (and most endearing) characteristics of Molly was her near-constant filming. Yet despite her documentarianism, she never failed to live in the present, and to remind everyone around her to do the same. Her very essence gave us the best of both worlds: the ability to live fully and wholly and openly as it all happened, and the very rare gift of being able to see it back. And the way Molly could show it back to us was unparalleled. No one would’ve made a better movie about this whole terrible ordeal than Molly. And no one would appreciate the morbid irony of that more than her, either.
Molly’s parents were a constant source of light for her. Each and every tradition they shared — from their Thanksgiving meals to their frequent movie outings to Phillies games to Broadway shows — was inconceivably and never-endingly special to her. Her beloved cat, Betty, made their family complete, and there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that Betty and Molly’s connection will remain for at least nine more lives.
Molly grew up in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, a small town which she remained loyal and dedicated to her whole life. She attended Camp Hill High School while balancing coursework at Capital Area School for the Arts charter school in Harrisburg. There, she studied acting for one year and film & video for two. She was the star of everything she did, from her high school’s softball team to its plays. Molly went on to study film at Hofstra University, where she became involved in the film department and the university’s culture in a big way. Despite loving her college experience, she graduated a semester early. She was just like that: so determined, so good, and so ready for the next thing. She worked in the equipment lab, she was a part of several film clubs, she joined the school’s comedy show Thursday Night Live, for which she wrote, directed, edited, and starred in sketches. For all who knew her there, she leaves an inspiring legacy of creativity, absurdist comedic timing, and near-constant script writing. Like, a new script every week. Like, an unthinkable amount of scripts.
With this tenacity, she entered the workforce, where she quickly became a coveted freelance editor for brands like Netflix, Instagram, and Vogue. She was consistently working on extra-curricular projects, like the travel videos she made on her pursuit to see all 50 states. If you’d like to check out any of Molly’s work, it can be found here or here.
Molly loved movies. She loved TV. She loved the hilarity of the Philadelphia sports teams’ mascots. She loved listening to musicals and crying. She loved TikTok and her trampoline. She loved JackBox games and Cards Against Humanity. She loved fireworks. She loved being able to use her voice on her podcast, in her social media, in her everyday life to lift others up and to speak for those who needed bolstering. She loved nature. She loved so much.
And all the love she had endures. Love, like energy, cannot be created or destroyed, and with the high rate of energy at which Molly loved, it is certain to all those who experienced her that the love remains. It is everywhere she was and everything she did. It is in her work, which remains for us all to take comfort in. It is in her parents and her most beloved Betty. It is in her friends, who will continue to live like her and live for her. It is in every song from Hairspray and every movie directed by a woman. It is in every true crime podcast. It is in every hot dog and every bottle of Heinz ketchup. It is in every hilarious Oscar speech or fat animal meme. It is in the lens of every camera her loved ones will look through, and it is waiting on every blank page we will write on. It is in the ocean. It is the ocean.
Just as Molly lived so generously and with an innate and admirable drive for justice and grace for others, she leaves us having given the greatest gift possible in the decision to be an organ donor. The families whose lives will change because of this will serve as a reminder of Molly’s reverberating spirit and undying presence, and we all take comfort in knowing that the world is a better place because parts of Molly are still in it.
