A yenta, in Jewish tradition, is a woman who without invitation meddles in other people’s business.

Merissa Nathan Gerson, 28, who grew up in Washington, D.C., and spent summers in Chilmark, (her mother is cookbook author Joan Nathan, her father Allan Gerson, an attorney), has launched a Web site and advice column called Ask Your Yenta.com, in the process single-handedly reinventing the role for the new generation.

For one thing, her advice is solicited. Twentysomethings contact her to sort out life’s persistent problems. For another thing, her feedback is softened by the nonjudgmental awareness that comes of living an examined life.

“I’ve made mistakes of my own,” she admits, “and that helps me to help others.”

This yenta is gentle with people with a serious problem. To a young man with sexual issues who wonders about hiring a sex surrogate, she advises to beware of surrogacy that’s plain old sex for hire, but encourages him to seek legitimate therapy. She recommends books and Web sites: Zora Neale Huston in Tell My Horse, The Illustrated Manual of Sex Therapy by Helen Singer Kaplan, Sacred Sexual Healing by Baba Dez Nichols, and an article he can click onto via the Internet that will educate him about credible prescriptions in that field.

Ms. Gerson, who calls her people “dude” and “homeboy” and “girlfriend,” takes a brisker tack with someone requiring an attitude adjustment. She reminds a young woman who just broke up with a serious boyfriend that she needs to heal and grant herself some time to be single.

In an interview on a recent Saturday morning on the porch of Alley’s, the advice columnist, writer and artist revealed herself to be a striking woman with long curly auburn-tinted brunette hair and sage green eyes. She wore a twirl of red and gold scarves and dangling gold elephant earrings which she makes and sells.

In her young life, Ms. Gerson has already had as many adventures as a Zora Neale Hurston heroine herself. In high school she was part of a theatre troupe that traveled with a play about sex education (an expertise that has come in handy in her column). At Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., she pursued a major in women’s studies (also a strong element in her Web site when she urges young women to fully empower themselves). After college, she engaged in a summer of farming. Later she explored progressive, Buddhist-infused psychology at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colo., and taught art. She has since pursued several writing and art residencies at the Santa Fe Art Institute, the Norman Mailer Writers Colony in Provincetown, and the Studio Center in Vermont.

In fact, Ms. Gerson has been so busy following her bliss around the country and around the world — she’s visited Brazil, El Salvador, Italy, and South Africa — that at the moment she claims no home base. But she feels a strong connection to the Vineyard. Her jewelry is on display at Citrine and Alley’s. Perched on Alley’s porch last Saturday, she met Eric Bassett, poised to open his own art and apparel store, Shindig, in Edgartown, who invited her to stop by later in the day and show him her wares. Her earrings are made from plastic toy animals, then coated with glitter, Modge Podge and Gak. She also makes jewelry from dried flowers, Tarot cards and feathers.

So how did Ask Your Yenta come about? She says: “Last year when I visited Joanne and Tom Ashe [also of Chilmark] in Santa Fe, they asked me for family advice, and after I gave it, they encouraged me to launch an advice column.” Simple as that. “I went on Word Press and spent seven hours developing a Web site. I wrote the first questions myself, then asked friends to submit queries, and finally strangers started to weigh in.”

Ask Your Yenta is now syndicated in the Jewish Journal.com. In addition, Ms. Gerson recently hosted a two hour radio show on WVVY, and said she would love to have her own talk show.

This enterprising artist has clearly only begun her quest for creative new ventures.

Meanwhile, Ask Your Yenta provides an outlet for this wise old soul in a young woman’s body.

Ms. Gerson left the porch and went to her car to show off samples of her jewelry. Then she sallied off in her bright colors for a day of continuing adventures.