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In May of 2023, Gender Gazette didn’t begin as a grand vision or a long-term plan. It started as a class assignment.

I was taking a Public Relations writing course and was asked to create two blog mockups: one informational and factual, and one rooted in opinion, creativity, and analysis. For the second, I made up a fictional blog called Gender Gazette — a space where I could analyze gender and sexuality across TV shows, movies, books, news, and pop culture.

What was supposed to be a mock project quietly became something real.

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Where My Academic World Met My Creative One

As a Communications major with minors in Sociology and Women & Gender Studies, I started realizing that nearly every project I touched circled back to the same lens:
how media constructs gender, sexuality, power, and identity.

Even before Gender Gazette officially existed beyond a class grade, I was already doing this work subconsciously — breaking down narratives, questioning representation, and connecting pop culture to feminist and sociological theory.

Many of the earliest Gender Gazette posts were actually school assignments I later edited and reshaped to fit the blog’s voice and mission. Essays became articles. Discussion posts became media critiques. Academic analysis became accessible storytelling.

And somehow — it stuck.

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Turning a Thesis Into a Public Conversation

One of the biggest milestones of this journey was transforming my undergraduate honors thesis into a series of blog posts.

My thesis focused on Baz Luhrmann’s Red Curtain Trilogy —
Strictly Ballroom,
Romeo + Juliet, and
Moulin Rouge!.

Across more than 55 pages, I philosophically analyzed how gender, sexuality, performance, and queerness operate within each film — tying them to broader cultural narratives, feminist theory, and pop culture trends.

Instead of letting that research live only in an academic archive, I shared it through Gender Gazette so it could exist where these conversations belong: in public, accessible spaces.

That moment cemented for me that this blog wasn’t just a hobby.
It was a bridge between academia and everyday media consumption.

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Growth, Pauses, and Finding the Spark Again

Last year, while writing and defending that thesis, I took a small step back from posting regularly. My brain was deep in rigid philosophical frameworks, citations, and formal analysis.

But something shifted after graduating.

Now, nearly a year and a half later, that creative spark is back — only freer.

I still analyze media through gender and sexuality lenses, but without the pressure of academic perfection. I get to be curious again. Passionate again. Angry, joyful, critical, playful — all of it.

Gender Gazette has become my space to process the world as I consume it.

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From Fictional Blog to Passion Project

What started as a fake website for a class assignment somehow became a three-year-long creative constant.

Through graduation.
Through research burnout.
Through evolving politics and media landscapes.
Through discovering my voice as a feminist writer and analyst.

Gender Gazette has grown with me — and so have I.

It’s where I unpack reality TV and religion.
Where I critique capitalism and patriarchy.
Where I celebrate resistance, softness, rage, and joy.

Most importantly, it’s where I get to think out loud.

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Looking Forward

As I mark three years of Gender Gazette this May, I feel nothing but gratitude.

Gratitude for a project that began in a classroom and turned into a creative home.
Gratitude for a space that lets me question everything.
Gratitude for readers who engage with ideas that matter.

I’m excited to keep writing.
Keep analyzing.
Keep connecting theory to the media we live inside every day.

Thank you for being part of this journey — whether you’ve been here since the beginning or just found Gender Gazette recently.

Here’s to many more years of feminist analysis, pop culture breakdowns, and thinking critically together. 💜