Jenna Guillaume

Jenna Guillaume covers entertainment and youth culture through a pop culture lens that centres body image, feminism and the realities of growing up online.

She is a freelance entertainment and lifestyle journalist whose work appears across outlets including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, BuzzFeed, Flicks, Junkee, ABC, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, SBS, Vogue and Metro UK. Her coverage is shaped by years in senior editorial roles at a major digital outlet and a teen magazine, and by her parallel career writing young adult romantic comedies. Across platforms she writes with a voice that is direct, funny and emotionally attuned to younger audiences, using accessible formats to unpack how popular culture intersects with identity and self‑worth.

Pop culture, body image and feminism

A constant through Guillaume’s work is her focus on the intersection of pop culture with body image, feminism and self‑acceptance. She writes features and columns that treat entertainment as a way into conversations about how people see themselves, how they are represented, and how those representations can either reinforce or challenge harmful norms. Her professional biographies describe a particular interest in body positivity, the intersection of feminism and pop culture, and empowering young people, and those priorities are reflected in stories that tackle bullying, body image and the pressure to conform, alongside coverage of films, TV and celebrity culture.

At The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Guillaume contributes entertainment pieces that often fold advocacy into coverage, such as profiles of television stars and feminist activists who frame their work as “no bullshit conversations” about issues like representation and mental health. Her writing connects the on‑screen personas of actors and creators to broader debates about activism and accountability, positioning entertainment figures as catalysts for cultural change rather than simply promotional subjects.

This combination of pop culture literacy and values‑driven framing distinguishes her from more generic entertainment reporting that stays closer to plot summaries and publicity angles.

Young adult stories and rom‑com fandom

Guillaume brings a deep commitment to young adult storytelling to her journalism, informed by her own work as the author of several YA rom‑coms and a novella. She gravitates toward stories about teens and young adults, and her articles often explore the emotional terrain of girlhood, friendship, desire and self‑esteem through the lens of books and screen adaptations. In Q&As and related coverage she highlights narratives that balance humour and heart with themes like grief, perfectionism and what healthy relationships look like, showing a clear preference for romantic comedies that respect their young audiences.

Her BuzzFeed archive underscores this fandom‑driven approach, featuring meme round‑ups for titles such as To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and personality quizzes tied to properties like Dumplin’, which invite readers to locate themselves within the stories they love. She uses these interactive formats to celebrate YA media while reinforcing messages about relatability and acceptance, emphasising that the characters and tropes of “kissing books” can be both fun and meaningful.

Across outlets, she consistently centres the tastes and experiences of teens and young adults, treating their media as worthy of serious attention rather than niche or disposable.

Social media, online toxicity and youth culture

Another strand of Guillaume’s work examines how social media shapes identity, community and harm, particularly for younger people.

She writes and speaks about social media, online toxicity, digital media and mental health, approaching these topics from the perspective of someone who understands both platform dynamics and the emotional impact of being extremely online. Her coverage bridges the worlds of entertainment and social platforms, showing how fandoms, memes and shipping culture can create connection while also amplifying pressure and conflict.

On BuzzFeed she has written personal essays about labels and class‑coded identities, such as an exploration of realising she is a “bogan” and why others might share that experience, using humour to interrogate shame and cultural stereotypes. In other pieces she dives into in‑universe artefacts like the fictional‑turned‑real book Marriage Vacation from the TV series Younger, offering detailed breakdowns of its narrative and the show’s meta storytelling.

These articles illustrate her skill at reading digital and televisual culture closely, treating social media conversations and fan texts as serious material for analysis while keeping the tone accessible and lively.

Nostalgia, parenting and everyday life

Alongside pop culture reporting, Guillaume writes lifestyle features that use nostalgia to illuminate how everyday life has changed over time. In work such as her photo‑driven exploration of how parenting has shifted across decades, she curates vintage images to show changing expectations, technologies and family dynamics, drawing out both humour and social commentary from the contrasts. She often threads 80s and 90s pop‑culture callbacks through her storytelling, linking generational memories to contemporary questions about how people grow up and parent in an always‑on media environment.

Across these lifestyle pieces she maintains the same focus on empathy and relatability that marks her entertainment coverage, using ordinary experiences - whether childhood, family life or navigating digital spaces - as material for thoughtful reflection. Her ability to shift between listicles, personal essays, interviews and service features while keeping a clear voice and point of view makes her a distinctive presence within the entertainment beat.