Fern developed a writing style that closely reflected her pugnacious personality, with its common-sensical optimistic approach, Always leavened with a dash of humor. She was an individualist who sought answers to social problems through individual personality development rather than politicized organizational movements. She did tackle such major issues as prostitution, divorce, child labor, and the horrors of slum living. Instead of calling for the radical reconstruction of society, she told her large audience of middle-class women to improve their health and their minds, urging downtrodden wives to be patient and bore from within.