Dr. Rebecca Hains is a children’s media culture expert. She is a professor of media and communication at Salem State University in Salem, Mass., and a 2023-2024 Fulbright Scholar to the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Her research focuses on media, representation, and identity from an intersectional, critical/cultural studies perspective.

Rebecca is the author of The Princess Problem: Guiding Our Girls through the Princess-Obsessed Years (Sourcebooks, 2014) and Growing Up With Girl Power: Girlhood On Screen and in Everyday Life (Peter Lang Press, 2012). She also co-authored Communication in Our Lives (Cengage, 2024, 9th edition) and co-edited the anthologies Princess Cultures: Mediating Girls’ Imaginations and Identities  (Peter Lang, 2015); Cultural Studies of LEGO: More Than Just Bricks (Palgrave, 2019); and The Marketing of Children’s Toys: Critical Perspective on Children’s Consumer Culture  (Palgrave, 2021).

Rebecca has published essays in various scholarly anthologies and peer-reviewed journals, including Popular Communication, Popular Music and Society, and The International Journal of Girlhood Studies.

Rebecca has also frequently contributed to publications such as The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe Magazine and has been interviewed as an expert commentator in a range of media including NPR’s On Point, BBC News, The Meredith Vieira Show, and documentary films.

Rebecca is available to serve as a speaker, writer, and consultant on topics such as gender and race representation in children’s media, the relationship between the children’s media and toy industries, and raising media-literate children. She has spoken about her work at more than 30 national and international conferences and events, including the International Communication Association, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media in Los Angeles and the Prix Jeunesse International, a festival in Germany that promotes excellence in children’s television worldwide.

Rebecca serves on the advisory board of Media Literacy Now, an organization working to integrate media literacy into the K-12 curriculum. She has previously served as the assistant director of the Center for Childhood and Youth Studies. As a founding board member of the Brave Girls Alliance, she has advocated for girl empowerment and the improvement of girls’ media and popular culture.

Rebecca holds a Ph.D. in mass media and communication from Temple University in Philadelphia, as well as a B.A. from Emmanuel College and an M.S. from Boston University.