"It's nearly impossible to escape this world untouched by pop culture: moviegoing, TV watching, music listening," writes pop culture critic Aisha Harris in the introduction to her book, "Wannabe." "It doesn't all just happen to us — it helps shape us and informs how we move about the world, whether we're conscious of it or not."
The veteran writer and podcaster explores the myriad ways pop culture has affected her life and identity over nine essays in "Wannabe: Reckonings With the Pop Culture That Shapes Me," stream-of-consciousness-style ramblings that touch on topics as disparate as the cult of celebrity and parasocial relationships, popular Black American names and the trope of the sidekick Black BFF, among other things.
Harris grew up in Hamden, Connecticut, a town just outside New Haven, before decamping to the Midwest for college at Northwestern University. There she studied theater and, later, film studies at NYU. "I thought for a little while that I might be on Broadway or be the next Disney Channel star because I could conceivably play a high schooler while I was still in college," she said. "But I realized I didn't really want to be a 'starving artist' and auditioning all the time, and I really loved film and TV and being able to write about it."
