Answer : Facing the public fear.
Explanation : As described in the above lines Heigl is trying to face her fears in public by speaking the feelings what she is experiencing within herself. She is building her confidence by openly expressing and facing the fears within her.
An expository article is usually about explaining something or talking about it. So if it's a true story and you write it like a life story then yes it can be. If it's just a fictional story you want to write then no.
The kind of conjunction that would complete both blanks in the sentence is a correlative conjunction, such as - both... and, neither... nor, etc.
