Writing primarily about popular culture, music, and society, she "helped to forge a new kind of feminism for her generation.

As a teenager, she listened to Iggy Pop and Patti Smith, and would drive to Chicago for shows by artists including New Order and the Dead Kennedys.

In 2010, she earned a master's degree in Specialized Journalism, the Arts, from the University of Southern California, Annenberg School.

In the early 90s McDonnell freelanced for publications including Rolling Stone, Spin, Ms., The New York Times, and Billboard.

[6] She wrote frequently about bands and musicians associated with the underground feminist punk movement, Riot Grrrl,[9] and was a founding member of Strong Women in Music (SWIM), an activist group supporting women on all music-industry levels.

[10] McDonnell wrote: "It was the early '90s, when direct activism, identity politics, hip-hop, and grunge were driving forces of the dawn of the Clinton era.

[13] In 2009 McDonnell's "account of a life lived on the cultural and maternal cutting edge," Mamarama: A Memoir of Sex, Kids, & Rock 'n' Roll was published.

"[15] In 2009 McDonnell was awarded an Annenberg Fellowship to study Specialized Journalism, the Arts, at the University of Southern California.