Blanchard embodies true crime and celebrity, UB pop culture expert says

USA Today quotes David Schmid, associate professor in the Department of English, in a story about the nation’s true-crime obsession with Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Blanchard, who pled guilty to second-degree murder in 2016 after conspiring with her then-boyfriend to kill her mother, recently wrapped up her prison sentence and went straight to social media stardom. She has millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok. “In many ways, (Blanchard) is the perfect embodiment of the fusion of these two passions (true crime and celebrity),” says Schmid. “Combine that fact with the tabloid-like 'truth is stranger than fiction' characteristic of (Blanchard's) story, and you've got a perfect storm of factors coming together to launch both a million memes and what could be a long-standing career in the public eye.”