“Looking back, at least within my immediate family and direct circle, I don’t think anyone was intolerant as much as they didn’t quite understand what being gay meant because there weren’t a ton of people in Northeast Ohio in the late 90s/early 2000s who were out.” His first pop culture obsession? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Pellegrino didn’t find the overall cultural attitude towards effeminate young boys to be intolerant growing up in his hometown, but rather just unknowing. My mom loved all female singers, always listening to Mariah and Gloria Estefan and Toni Braxton, so I got my fix.” “I found myself taping over my brothers’ Terminator VHS with things like The First Wives Club.

“I gravitated towards a lot of the pop culture touchstones that young women my age were into,” he told me about his youth in the Midwestern United States in the ‘90s and ‘00s. His first essay collection How Do I Un-Remember This? appeared in 2022, and with the holiday season almost upon us, Pellegrino’s second literary effort has arrived just in time, The Jolliest Bunch: Unhinged Holiday Stories. But he also found the ability to turn inward and begin sharing stories from his own life, bookended by the pieces of pop culture that have defined him. Image courtesy of Brian Kaminski Telling stories about growing up might be a little embarrassing at times, but as long as it makes other people giggle, I’ll keep doing it.Įver since starting his podcast Everything Iconic, author Danny Pellegrino has found joy in sharing his passion for pop culture with the masses.

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