Jennifer Lewallen is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Communication, with a research appointment in the Reynolds Journalism Institute, at the University of Missouri (B.A., Communication, University of California Santa Barbara, 2008; M.A., Mediated and Mass Communication, Pepperdine University, 2012). Her research interests include representations of women, youth and non-dominant cultural groups in popular media and the influence of media on perceptions of the self and other. She has conducted content analytic and experimental works on communication in both traditional and new media contexts. For example, her dissertation explored how priming body consciousness in a laboratory setting impacts experiences in either fitness-focused or appearance-focused virtual reality conditions. Jennifer has presented several single and co-authored papers at the National Communication Association and Central States Communication Association conferences. Her work has been published in Mass Communication and Society; Communication Studies; Social Media + Society; Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking; Journal of Social Media in Society; and Psychology of Popular Media Culture. She currently has three manuscripts under review and several ongoing projects. Jennifer has had the privilege of teaching a variety of courses, including Children, Adolescents, and the Media and Public Speaking (both at MU and Columbia College). She was also a teaching assistant for Media Communication and Society and has served in various capacities as the Assistant Course Director, lead teaching assistant, and honors instructor throughout her time at MU. She received the Loren Reid Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award in May, 2015.