In the fall of 2017, when Nina Garcia, the fashion editor and “Project Runway” judge, became the editor in chief of Elle magazine, E. Jean Carroll felt she needed to fight for her job.

Ms. Garcia was remaking the staff and was scaling back on lucrative contracts the magazine offered freelance contributors like Ms. Carroll, who had written the Ask E. Jean advice column since 1993.

But rather than dash off a pleading email, as many writers might, Ms. Carroll did something more in line with her outsize personality: She showed up at the offices of Hearst Magazines, the publisher of Elle, with a stack of hula hoops. “I said, ‘Here’s some hula hoops, let’s get it going girl!’” she recalled in a phone interview.

Ms. Garcia appeared to love it.

“Oh, my God, I adore E. Jean!” she said in a 2018 interview, about a year after taking over. “She’s just so perfect for this generation. Her voice is so modern, quirky, and cheeky. While everybody on Twitter thinks they could be the E. Jean, she is the E. Jean!”