Anne Helen Petersen

In 2007 Petersen earned an MA in English from the University of Oregon and then a PhD in media studies in 2011 from the University of Texas where she studied the history of the gossip industry.[3] She began a personal blog in grad school, Celebrity Gossip Academic Style (which has since morphed into a Facebook private group with 8700 members.)[4] While a visiting professor at Whitman College, Petersen began writing about popular culture topics for online news and entertainment sites (including the Scandals of Classic Hollywood series at the Hairpin) [5] and found that she enjoyed non-academic writing.[6] In May 2014 she moved to New York to write for Buzzfeed News, abandoning her search for a tenure track position in academia.[6]

In 2014, her first piece for Buzzfeed, Jennifer Lawrence and the History of Cool Girls, went viral. She also authored her first book, the non-fiction Scandals of Classic Hollywood. Informed by her scholarship, she continued to write about celebrities throughout her time at Buzzfeed, including Adam Driver, Keira Knightley, Taylor Kitsch, Charlize Theron, Justin Timberlake, Kate Hudson, Margot Robbie, Jennifer Aniston, and Kim Kardashian. In 2017 Petersen wrote a controversial piece analyzing actor Armie Hammer's star image from 2007 to 2017. The article provoked pointed criticism and backlash from Hammer, film industry figures, and other journalists.[7] Subsequently, Petersen received online harassment. [8]

Her work at Buzzfeed was not limited to celebrities. She reported on the pandemic, student loans, Native American politics, expanding Medicaid, refugee resettlement, religion, #metoo, and bachelorette parties. A native of Lewiston, ID, she was able to bring a Western small town and rural perspective[9] on Antifa, guns, politics, and lockdown protests to a national audience.

In 2019, Petersen wrote a piece on millennial burnout for Buzzfeed News that has had over 7 million views. She then expanded that piece into a book that was published in 2020, "Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation."

Petersen is 39 years old[10] and has two dogs, Steve and Peggy. She is of Norwegian descent.[11]

Steve and Peggy

• Scandals of Classic Hollywood. New York: Plume, 2014.
• Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman. New York: Plume, 2017.
• Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020.