Whitney Matheson (born April 21, 1977, in

Fredericksburg, Virginia Fredericksburg is an independent city located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,982. The Bureau of Economic Analysis of the United States Department of Commerce combines the city of Fredericksburg w ...

) is a pop culture writer. She was the author of ''Pop Candy'', a

popular entertainment Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in Reverse ...

which was part of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' from 1999–2014. She also wrote entertainment and pop culture features for the newspaper. Matheson has delivered pop-culture commentary on several television networks, including VH1, E!, and G4 TV.

Career

Matheson earned a journalism degree from the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th sta ...

in 1999, and joined ''USA Today'' and created ''Pop Candy'' that same year.Gorman, Allison
"How journalist Whitney Matheson found herself at the forefront of New Media,"
''Middle Tennessee State News'' (July 22, 2015). ''Pop Candy'' began as a weekly online pop-culture column that covered television, movies, comic books, and music. During this period, Matheson also wrote a daily blog, ''Hip Clicks''. As her web audience grew, Matheson merged ''Hip Clicks'' and ''Pop Candy ''in 2005 to form the ''Pop Candy'' blog. During its tenure, ''Pop Candy'' was cited in ''Wired,'' ''Slate'', ''The Rough Guide to Blogging'', and on many other entertainment blogs, including Stereogum, ''Entertainment Weeklys PopWatch, and RollingStone.com. ''

Editor & Publisher ''Editor & Publisher'' (''E&P'') is an American monthly trade news magazine covering the newspaper industry. Published since 1901, ''Editor & Publisher'' is the self-described "bible of the newspaper industry." Originally based in New York City, ...

'' and ''

Mediaweek ''Mediaweek'' is an online trade website serving the Australian media industry. It provides news regarding the Australian newspaper, television, radio, magazine and outdoor advertising industries. It was until the end of 2017 a weekly printed ...

'' awarded ''Pop Candy'' an

EPpy award The EPPY Awards are a premier accolade for media-affiliated websites, presented by '' Editor & Publisher'' magazine. Designed in 1996 to honor newspaper companies that did an "outstanding job in creating online services," the awards were originall ...

for the Best Entertainment Blog in 2008. In 2006, the Weblog Awards honored ''Pop Candy'' as the Best Culture Blog. On September 3, 2014, Matheson confirmed that she had been laid off as part of a ''USA Today'' drawdown. Soon afterwards she was invited by former ''USA Today'' editor-in-chief Ken Paulson to serve as Journalist in Residence at

Middle Tennessee State University Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU or MT) is a public university in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Founded in 1911 as a normal school, the university consists of eight Undergraduate education, undergraduate colleges as well as a college of Postgr ...

Murfreesboro, Tennessee Murfreesboro is a city in and county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 152,769 according to the 2020 census, up from 108,755 residents certified in 2010. Murfreesboro is located in the Nashville metropol ...

. On May 13, 2019, Matheson unveiled her digital

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

''We Make Comics'', illustrated by Genevieve Kote.Matheson, Whitney
"I Wrote a Kid's Book,"
WhitneyMatheson.com (May 13, 2019).

Personal life

Matheson lives in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. On her ''Pop Candy'' blog dated April 13, 2012, Matheson announced she and her husband Rhyne Piggott were expecting their first child. Their daughter was born later that year.

References

External links

*
''Pop Candy''

Matheson's Patreon pageOne in a Million Girl
Multimedia profile on Whitney Matheson, complete with video interview. {{DEFAULTSORT:Matheson, Whitney 1977 births American bloggers Living people Journalists from Washington, D.C. USA Today people 21st-century American women writers American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American women bloggers