Here For All the Reasons

Iftin Abshir is currently working on her doctorate degree in Cinema and Media Studies through the University of California, Los Angeles. Her dissertation research is a pop culture interrogation of dating on reality TV focusing on the intersection of culture, gender, sexuality, race, and class. Other research interests include: Fan studies, transmedia studies, social media and influencers, and Disney studies. Her work has been presented at conferences such as the Society of Cinema and Media Studies, Popular Culture Association, and Pacific Ancient and Modern Languages Association.

AN is a freelance writer passionate about storytelling in all its forms. As a growing writer, she's building a diverse portfolio, with some of her work currently in the editing process. Rather than limiting herself to a single niche, she enjoys exploring a wide range of topics, pushing creative boundaries, and experimenting with different styles of narrative. Writing is her way of connecting with the world-whether through in-depth analysis, cultural essays, or human interest stories.

Joy Alicia is the author of So Drunk A Tooth's Gotta Go and the founder of Online Dating Savior, a dating coaching service. She's also the host of The Worstship podcast.

Her work has been published in Newsweek, The Daily Mail, Blavity, Metro UK, The Bold Italic, and more. Joy has performed stand-up comedy in California, Texas, and Oregon, captivating audiences with her observational humor. She currently calls Southern California home, where she lives with her dog, who she's convinced pretends to have an avoidant attachment style to score extra treats.

Samantha Allen is the author of Patricia Wants to Cuddle, Roland Rogers Isn't Dead Yet, and Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States.

Claire Fallon is a co-host of the Bachelor recap podcast Love To See It (previously Here To Make Friends) and co-author of the culture newsletter and podcast Rich Text. She previously worked as a books and culture critic at HuffPost, and her work has also appeared in Vice and Cosmopolitan. She lives in Jersey City with her husband and two sons.

Ness Ilene Garza is an autobiographical comic artist from Riverside, California.

Sarah Gerard is an award-winning author of four fiction and nonfiction books, including Binary Star, Sunshine State: Essays, True Love, and, most recently, Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession With the Unthinkable. She is a private investigator in Denver.

Emma Gray is a writer and Webby-nominated podcaster. She co-hosts the Love To See It podcast (previously Here To Make Friends), and co-authors a newsletter, Rich Text. She is the author of A Girl's Guide To Joining The Resistance. Her work, which focuses on gender, culture and politics, can also be found in The Washington Post, Elle, The Guardian, Vice, Cosmopolitan, MSNBC, Jezebel, and HuffPost, where she was previously a senior reporter and editor. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and plants.

Carolyn Huynh loves writing about messy Asian women who never learn from their mistakes. The Fortunes of Jaded Women is her debut novel and was a Good Morning America book club pick and selected as one of the best books of 2022 by NPR. Her sophomore book, The Family Recipe, came out in spring 2025, and her third book is forthcoming fall 2026. After living up and down the west coast, she now resides in Los Angeles with her partner and her demon girl dog. When she's not writing, Carolyn daydreams about having iced coffee on a rooftop in Ho Chi Minh City.

Alana Hope Levinson is a magazine writer and editor interested in culture, trends, gender, and design.

Jeanna Kadlec is the author of Heretic: A Memoir (HarperCollins, 2022) and the creator of the New York Times-featured newsletter "Astrology for Writers." She lives in New York City with her wife.

Erin Kayata is a writer, journalist, and pop culture enthusiast. Her work has appeared in Tangled Locks Journal, The Manifest-station, Reader's Digest, and USA Today. She has also worked as a staff writer for Boston magazine and Hearst newspapers. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and their cat.

Shir Kehila is a freelance writer, editor, and translator. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Boiler, Kiaros Rivista, The Albion Review, and others. She holds an MFA from Columbia, and received scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Tin House Summer Workshop, and the Monson Arts Residency.

Jessica Masterson is a professor and researcher in the Pacific Northwest. When not professing, she obsessively consumes pop culture and occasionally writes about it.

Tamara MC, PhD, is a poet, writer, and scholar with a PhD in Applied Linguistics, specializing in the Middle East. Her work explores themes of identity, exile, coercive control, and survival, often blurring the boundaries between language, memory, and resistance. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, HuffPost, and over eighty other publications. She has received fellowships and residencies from Bread Loaf, Sewanee, VCCA, Ragdale, and more. Learn more about her at www.tamaramc.com.

Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez was born in Managua, Nicaragua, but calls Nashville, Tennessee, home. She is a feminist, theologian, storyteller, and advocate.

Mojica Rodriguez got her Masters of Divinity from Vanderbilt University's Divinity school in the Spring of 2015. She is a respected storyteller who has traveled across the USA telling stories to countless college and university students. Mojica Rodriguez merges storytelling with pedagogy to help folks understand the larger forces at play, also known as systemic oppression.

As a first generation student and immigrant, her passion is in naming the experiences of first generation students navigating systems not built for them. As the oldest immigrant daughter, she explores the ways that sexism impedes the development of girls and women. As a graduate from a white-serving institution, she names systemic racism as a roadblock for success, and decolonizes western notions of said success. Prisca also explores the relationship between religious trauma through Christianity and white supremacy within the USA empire, which is where her theological training really shines.

To date she has participated in the Young Adult anthology Nevertheless, We Persisted. Recently Prisca also participated in an anthology edited by Lynda Lopez titled, The Fearless Rise and Powerful Resonance of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

She started the platform Latina Rebels in 2013, and currently it boasts over 300,000 organic followers online. She has been featured in Telemundo, Univision, Mitu, Huffington Post Latino Voices, Guerrilla Feminism, Latina Mag, NBC, MTV, Cosmopolitan, Everyday Feminism, PopSugar, and the list goes on. Because of Prisca's extensive body of work, she has also worked with the United Methodist Church, National Endowment of the Arts, Smithsonian, NALAC, Planned Parenthood, and was even invited to the Obama White House in 2016.

She is unapologetic, angry, and uncompromising about protecting and upholding the stories of Latinx communities. Que viva la gente!

Currently, she has two full-length books published through Seal Press, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group.

Julia Moser is a writer and Emmy winning producer who's worked on shows including Good Morning America and BuzzFeed News' AM to DM. She holds an MFA in screenwriting from UCLA and her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Betches, and elsewhere. Julia is perhaps best known for going viral in the spring of 2020 for getting dumped on Zoom prompting The Guardian to coin the term "zumped." Julia lives in Los Angeles with her partner, dog, cat, and so many plants.

Milo R. Muise is a trans writer from New England. An alum of the University of Idaho's MFA program and the Tin House Summer Workshop, they also received a 2018 Oregon Literary Fellowship in poetry. Their debut chapbook, TL;DR, is out now with Newfound Press. Milo lives in Portland, Oregon, with their loves and their dog, Rigatoni Collette. You can reach them at www.milo-muise.com.

Zainab Omaki is a Nigerian writer pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She holds a master's degree in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, where she received the Miles Morland African Writer's Award. Her essays, fiction, and literary criticism have been featured in Callaloo, Five Points, L.A. Review, Passages North, Transition Magazine, The Rumpus, and more. Her novel-in-progress has received support from the University of Bayreuth in Germany, the Jan Michalski Foundation in Switzerland, and the Nebraska Arts Council.

Renee Reizman is an interdisciplinary artist and writer based in Los Angeles. She writes about arts and culture for publications like The Los Angeles Times, Art in America, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Hyperallergic, and Observer. She was nominated for Art and Design Critic of the Year at the 2024 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and was a California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellow from 2023-24. Currently, she teaches visual communication design and community engaged art at Pepperdine University and the University of Southern California. Find her at https://reneereizman.com and on Instagram at @reneereizman.

Emma Rohloff is a writer and graduate from Rochester Institute of Technology. She writes about pop culture on her newsletter, Planet #1248, and is based in Austin, Texas.

Samantha Paige Rosen writes about chronic illness, mental health, queerness, arts and culture, and social justice for publications including Slate, Washington Post, Them, BOMB, and Literary Hub. Her first book, A Home for Tomorrow, an anthology about building community through shared space and shared values, is forthcoming from Beacon Press in 2026. Sam tutors and coaches writing outside of Philadelphia and earned her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. After a lifetime of resisting The Bachelor franchise, she's glad she finally became a fan.

Adriane Stoner is an instructor in the College of Communication at DePaul University. In addition to teaching courses on interpersonal communication and digital communication, Adriane has developed a course that explores the Bachelor franchise.

Courtney Tenz writes about European arts, culture, and travel. Her work has appeared in The Cut, Harper's Bazaar, The Guardian, and more.

Chrissy Tolley has worked as a professional psychic since 2017. She writes regularly on her Substack, Ask Your Psychic, a monthly advice column. Before starting full-time metaphysical work, she was a public school teacher and received her Master's in Education from the University of Arizona. She lives in Tucson, AZ with her husband and their black cat, and can be found online at www.chrissytolley.com and @chrissytolley.

Alisa Ungar-Sargon received her MFA from Northwestern University. She loves examining different techniques of storytelling, especially if it means turning an academic lens on reality television. For more pop culture close reads, you can find her on Substack at https://alisa.substack.com/.

Sophie Vershbow is a freelance journalist and social marketing strategist living in New York City. Her writing has appeared in Esquire, New York Magazine, Vogue, The Atlantic, Jezebel, and beyond.

Serena Zets is a creative nonfiction writer and journalist based in Washington, DC, by way of Appalachia, whose writing focuses on the intersection of social movements and queer arts and culture. Serena is here to make friends.