Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl

The early aughts ushered in a golden era for the New York social set – a generation of rich young women desperate to recreate the success of Paris Hilton and Tinsley Mortimer, keener than ever to show off their fortunes and one-up each other on nightly red carpets. New York City in 2007 was a world of excess never before seen in the public sphere and, suddenly, socialites were celebrities.

Gossip blogs like Gawker and Socialite Rank went viral and began sowing chaos and paranoia among the mega-wealthy. In the midst of these drama-filled, and often cruel, publications, a mysterious website called Park Avenue Peerage debuted with nuanced insight and praise for these women that were being torn down on a daily basis by the tabloid media. The anonymous blogger? Definitely not who you’d expect.

On the surface, Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl is a fun, nostalgic romp through the mid-2000s pop culture that dominated mainstream media and laid the foundation for current reality tv and the influencers of the social media generation. Interviews with the publicists, journalists, and, of course, socialites, that ruled the city in the early aughts, immerse us in the gilded world of heiress-era New York City. Through our investigation into this world, we finally learn the truth behind Park Avenue Peerage. Beyond all of the glitz and glamor, Queenmaker is, at its heart, a story about a young outsider who grappled with an identity shaped largely by the powerful forces of mainstream white American culture that have shaped young women for generations.