In her latest essay slash memoir slash fanfiction, Gevinson’s subject is someone who focusses on youth and nostalgia: Taylor Swift. (She’s a singer by all accounts…) Whether you’re sick of hearing about her or not, Swift is the perfect case study for this deep-dive into parasocial relationships, having branded herself as ‘Your Very Own Best Friend’ her whole career. Gavinson’s friendship with Swift, who she was a huge fan of as a young teen, is a real-life example of how our relationships with media can impact our perception of reality; the allure of favouring the shiny, cinematic tale over the often disappointing and complicated truth. An academic zine written about a popstar isn’t for everyone, but if you’re a big pop culture nerd, and you spend too much time on the internet and you’re prone to romanticising everything that’s ever happened to you, you might just eat this up the same way I did. MG

Self-published