Fandoms have been in the pop culture realm for longer than most people can remember. At their core, they’re about amplifying the hype around a personality or project and bringing communities of like-minded obsessives together. Recently, though, they’ve been launching viral work of their own: Via a diverse range of media from photos to videos to collages, fan art has truly taken over the internet, transcending the way people support and engage with their favorites.
One thing that tends to get overlooked when it comes to this work, though, is the legitimate creatives behind it. So we gathered eight talented fan artists to chat about their process and to debut original art inspired by the new issue of Cosmopolitan and our exclusive JENNIE covers.
HUMBERTO CRUZ
San Diego, California
@iscreamcolour | humbertocruz.com
What inspires your art?
Emotion, contradiction, music, people, and the things we struggle to put into words. I like turning heavy feelings into something bright and unexpected.
Tell us a bit more about yourself.
I’m a Mexican American artist who creates work that sits somewhere between fine art and illustration. My practice is driven by instinct—I make what feels honest and then let people find their own meaning in it.
Can you describe your style of art?
Bold, playful, emotional, and a little surreal. It features bright colors, expressive characters, and layered details that reveal something new every time you look.
What would your dream project be?
Creating a permanent public installation that becomes part of a city’s identity, or collaborating with a brand willing to let me build an entire world instead of just a campaign.
LAUREN EUSEBIO
New York, New York
@lolabugxd | @candacevfx | @emowhofromwhoville | @lolabugxd
What inspires your art?
My love for fandom and pop culture made me start making edits in the first place. In terms of actually making them, simple things in everyday life contribute to the ideas. Sometimes I hear a song and can already envision the edit in my mind. While making this edit for Jennie and Cosmo, I looked out my apartment window and contemplated until I saw a specific building and thought, I could make that exact structure out of 2D solid layers. So that’s what I did!
Tell us a bit more about yourself.
I’m 23 years old and graduated from Brown University with a degree in behavioral decision sciences in 2025. Now, I’m a full-time editor and content creator based in NYC! I initially went to school for cognitive neuroscience but switched majors in sophomore year once I realized that I wanted to go further with editing and content creation. Right now, my main focus is pushing fan editors into the mainstream. In the digital age, fan edits have become such a valuable and free marketing tactic, but the actual editors are undervalued. I’d like the influence of fan editors to be more widely acknowledged in hopes that we can be considered more seriously for professional collaborations like this one. And with this, I hope more people can make this their full-time career! I’m so grateful to be doing what I love every day, and I hope other fan editors out there know it’s completely possible—we’re just ahead of the curve of the next era of digital marketing.
Can you describe your style of art?
My specific style of fan editing has super-quick cuts and contains masked images, bright colors, 3D objects, and a flowy, seamless nature in which the animations match the pacing of the song. Each transition follows a string of lyrics or a series of beats in a way that just makes sense, and the hyper-specific way that I blend my scenes together is mainly what distinguishes my editing style. I’m also a huge stickler on the details—I’ll go the extra mile to create something that only appears in the background for 0.5 milliseconds. I like my art to have good replay value, especially because the edits are usually only 15–30 seconds.
What would your dream project be?
Working on edits for my favorite K-pop artists’ album rollouts. More specifically, I would love to create something for TXT, ENHYPEN, EVAN, ILLIT, AESPA, and LE SSERAFIM.
EMMA LEAVEY
New York, New York
@daydreammmers | emmaleavey.com
What inspires your art?
My work is inspired by my childhood, growing up in the early 2000s, and the distant memories of my mom digging through her purse for lipstick and applying it haphazardly in her compact mirror. I was extremely observant, obsessed with all the things I watched the older women in my life do, from the sounds of high heels hitting the mall floors to twirling their hair while driving with long French tips to the distant sounds of the girls singing along to Britney [Spears] as I sat in the backseat. My art encapsulates every woman I’ve known, been inspired by, or crossed paths with.
Tell us a bit more about yourself.
I am a 23-year-old illustrator who lives in Gowanus, Brooklyn, with my two best friends and my cat, Juniper. I love music, playing dress-up, and spending evenings with friends in Prospect Park.
Can you describe your style of art?
I would describe my art style as fun, flirty, and feminine. One of my biggest inspirations is Jeffrey Fulvimari, who illustrated my favorite childhood book series The English Roses by Madonna. I use a lot of different patterns and colors, and my hand is always visible in my work. I draw instinctively as I go, giving my work a more personal feel. It’s quick but intentional. I want the people who see my work to feel like they’re a part of it, having a collective understanding of shared experiences.
What would your dream project be?
Working for some of the main pop girls right now, like Addison, Pinkpantheress, Zara Larsson, or Eli. I’d love to make visuals for them and animate them in my style.
VEE (YUSIF RZAYEV)
Baku, Azerbaijan
What inspires your art?
I’m inspired by nostalgic, era-specific essences, especially the 2000s, as well as the UI and visual design found in video games.
Tell us a bit more about yourself.
I’m a video editor who creates visuals inspired by music, pop culture, fashion, and 2000s aesthetics on Adobe After Effects. I started my editing journey with a KATSEYE fan page, and I love reimagining artists and ideas through editing, motion graphics, and graphic design to create concepts that feel nostalgic but still fresh. I like to engage in a variety of different editing styles, but right now, these conceptual edits are primarily what I make the most.
Can you describe your style of art?
My art style is mostly inspired by 2000s pop culture, fashion, and graphic design. I love colorful and playful visuals, and I’m really into mixing different editing and design techniques to create concepts that feel nostalgic and fun, and I’d say Lauren [Eusebio] and I were able to do that well with this video that we made for Jennie.
What would your dream project be?
My dream project would be to create a full visual campaign for a major music artist, from music videos and promotional graphics to social media visuals. I’d especially love to create a 2000s-inspired album video as part of an artist’s promotional rollout.
LABYRINTH OF COLLAGES
Melbourne, Australia
@labyrinthofcollages | labyrinthofcollages.com
What inspires your art?
The connection between what I’m feeling, the films I’ve watched, editorials I see in magazines, something I’ve just read or listened to, even the textures and colors I see in my day-to-day life. Inspiration is everywhere when I feel present and curious enough.
Tell us a bit more about yourself.
Before I was sharing my collages online, I would make moodboards from my favorite magazines growing up. I found a creative outlet where I could be as loud and as imperfect as I wanted to be through a medium like collage. By the time I graduated university, I was determined to pursue creating collages full time. Because of that decision, I got to collaborate with Netflix and MTV, and I even got to see my art in an issue of Vogue Australia and designed the cover of Cosmopolitan Italia. I’m 29 now. I create collages full time, which is a dream come true. I’m still a little sleep-deprived, and my favorite place on earth is the cinema.
Can you describe your style of art?
I’d like to think it’s dreamy, a little playful, and surreal. Whether it’s digital or analog, I love layering and using different textures and materials in my collages. It adds a little chaos and busyness into the mix.
What would your dream project be?
Anything to do with film and television. I got a taste of what it was like to create mixed-media collages to promote movies, and I hope I get to do more of that. Another dream project of mine would be designing a coffee table book filled with collages I’ve created. Something like Sofia Coppola’s Archive book or Barbie: The World Tour, which documents Margot Robbie’s press tour, comes to mind.
HEATHER MCDERMENT
Glasgow, Scotland
What inspires your art?
My art is inspired by the music and films that I love and making work that has a sort of childlike playfulness and nostalgic feeling.
Tell us a bit more about yourself.
I’m 19 years old, and I’ve been editing and posting my work online for two years now. I started creating mixed-media edits as a way to incorporate my love for art with my love of music and K-pop and began posting them online to connect with other artists.
Can you describe your style of art?
Mixing digital and analog editing to make mixed-media videos and photos using a lot of bright colors, stickers, and gems.
What would your dream project be?
Creating mixed-media music videos for artists I love, like Olivia Rodrigo and Hayley Williams. And also just getting the chance to create more work!
MARÍA DOMÍNGUEZ MORENO
A Coruña, Galicia, Spain
What inspires your art?
My inspiration derives from a personal intent to honor my inner child. Making art is how I pay homage to my childhood, a way to preserve the fondness I feel for the hours and hours on end that we spent playing with stickers, painting, crafting, and generally experimenting artistically. Using stickers, rhinestones, and having fun above all else are the fundamental elements that my skill is built on. Also, I cannot overlook the influence of music in my work. In that regard, I rely heavily on song lyrics to express feelings and evoke memories that are otherwise difficult to convey, helping people reconnect with versions of themselves long forgotten.
Tell us a bit more about yourself.
Alongside my work as an artist, I’m also a speech therapist, which has deepened my fascination with communication and the many ways we express what words alone sometimes cannot. Working daily with people who communicate differently has taught me that connection doesn’t always happen through language.
I chose to build my own language out of materials that are constantly dismissed as “not serious,” things we’re taught to grow out of, things coded as childish or too feminine to be taken seriously. I think there’s real power in using something so unapologetically soft and playful to carry words that matter deeply.
I’m constantly in search of the perfect words to describe things, so naturally, my work explores the desire to be truly seen and understood. Through color, texture, and music, I try to create pieces that make people feel a little less alone in those emotions and highlight the real power of words through nostalgia.
Can you describe your style of art?
My work blends ’90s to 2000s nostalgia, pop culture references, and digital and handcrafted glimmering pieces to create a one-of-a-kind universe that feels both playful and quietly emotional underneath. Stickers, rhinestones, glitter, and typography come together in my compositions to form my singular visual language.
What would your dream project be?
What inspires me most is the idea of building entire creative universes around a musical project, the way an artist connects with their audience not just through songs but through different eras, outfits, and moods that evolve over time. Zara Larsson is a great example of an artist whose aesthetic feels very aligned with mine, and she’s the one who comes to mind when I imagine what a dream collaboration could look like: creating artwork, lyric visuals, stage installations, and overall immersive experiences where music and art collide to tell personal stories. I would love to translate an artist’s lyrics into a visual world that their fans could actually step into, wear, or hold onto as merchandise, album art, or an installation that feels like walking inside a song.
I’m also very open to exploring all kinds of projects outside of my comfort zone, which is exactly what an opportunity like this pushes me to do. I’m especially drawn to the idea of building something collectively, maybe through workshops or spaces where people can connect, have fun, and create together.
SUSAN (SUZIE) BOYKIN
Miami, Florida
What inspires your art?
I’ve always loved music and being a fan, so designing merch became the perfect way to combine both. A lot of my inspiration comes from the old concert tees my older sister had growing up as well as the ones I started collecting myself. I love that you can look at an old concert tour shirt and instantly remember where you were, who you went with, or how that time in your life felt.
Tell us a bit more about yourself.
I’m 24, but my design journey started when I was 17 with a Miley Cyrus fan page. I’d make edits of her on my phone, and somehow that ended up leading to the opportunity to work with her for a bit, which still feels a little unreal. That experience inspired me to buy my first computer and teach myself Photoshop, and that’s when I really fell in love with design. And, of course, all of this happened while I was attending a Christian private high school, where I’d spend Bible class editing Miley’s tongue onto a poster.
Can you describe your style of art?
Nostalgic, bold, and inspired by pop culture. I pull inspiration from old magazines, ’90s advertisements, even the design on an old motel napkin, all while mixing that with references that fans will recognize. I always want my designs to feel like they could’ve existed years ago while still feeling fresh and true to the artist and their fan base.
What would your dream project be?
My dream project would be helping shape an artist’s entire visual era through design. I love the idea of creating everything from merch and posters to campaigns and collectibles, building a world that fans can fully step into, connect with, and get excited about.
