Stephanie studies teen Latinx girlhoods in media in the Institute of Communications Research. Her research broadly encompasses quinceañeras, racialization, friendship, chosen family, and tropes of Latinx girls and young women. She is interested in how the stratification of race, class, gender normativity, and citizenship status within Latinidad overdetermines U.S. Latinx sociopolitical and ethnic unity and makes Latinx teen girls vulnerable to bodily violence, disappearance, and death.

Previously she studied gender, sexuality, and identity in Latinx-led television series. She holds an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Cal State LA and a B.A. in Latin American Studies and English Literature from NYU.