Words By Andrea McDonnell, Art By Hailey Renee Brown
Andrea McDonnell
Andrea McDonnell is a media scholar and author who studies the intersection of celebrity, gossip, politics, and media discourse. Her research attends to representations of fame across media platforms and to the ways in which gendered conceptions of gossip influence popular understandings of news and information. She is the author and editor of five books, including Celebrity: A History of Fame (2019, NYU Press) and the forthcoming Gossip (2026, MIT). Dr. McDonnell is Professor and Director of the Communication program at Providence College.
Hailey Renee Brown
Hailey Renee Brown (Ren) is a professional illustrator born and raised in Mid-Michigan. A former field biologist, they moved across the country from Michigan to Pennsylvania, also moving from science to commercial art. A professionally-trained artist, they attended the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in Dover, NJ, where they were selected as the recipient of the 2017 Norman Maurer Memorial Award, as well as the 2019 Joe Kubert Jumpstart Project. They have since worked for a variety of clients, from Dark Horse Comics and Dynamite Entertainment to Brink.
