Gaëlle Vanhoffelen

Gaëlle Vanhoffelen is a Ph.D. candidate at the Media Psychology Lab (KU Leuven, Belgium). In her Ph.D. project, she studies the various dimensions of online self-presentations and their different effects on adolescents’ well-being and identity development.

Gaëlle Vanhoffelen (MSc) is a Ph.D. candidate at the Media Psychology Lab at KU Leuven, under the supervision of Prof. dr. Laura Vandenbosch and Prof. dr. Lara Schreurs. She obtained her Master’s degree in Communication Sciences from KU Leuven in 2021 and subsequently joined the ERC-funded MIMIc project, led by Prof. Vandenbosch, titled “Malleability in Mediated Ideals: A Paradigm to Understand Effects of Contemporary Media on Adolescents' Well-Being.”

Within this project, Gaëlle was responsible for the Belgian data collection of a three-wave intercultural panel study, a daily diary study, and a social media content analysis. In 2022, she was awarded a Ph.D. fellowship from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO). Her doctoral research examines various facets of adolescents’ self-presentation on social media (e.g., authenticity) and their implications for well-being and identity development (e.g., perfectionism, narcissism). Her work has been published in several high-impact peer-reviewed journals and presented at leading international conferences, including the International Communication Association (ICA).

Gaëlle received an FWO scholarship to visit the Annenberg School for Communication, where she will join the AHA! Lab led by Prof. dr. David Lydon-Staley to study daily associations between adolescents’ goal-oriented self-presentations on social media and fluctuations in self-esteem.