impala_chick (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
impala_chick) wrote2020-01-03 09:37 pm
impala_chick) wrote2020-01-03 09:37 pm
Snowflake Challenge #2: Fannish History
Fandom started for me when I stumbled onto some reruns of Smallville Season Two (or three?) on ABC family. Clark Kent was exactly my type in High School - kinda nerdy, kinda shy, hick kid who worked on a ranch, totally heroic, longer brunette hair, blue eyes. SIGN ME UP. I also related a lot to Lana because of the nerdy country-girl-next-door with big dreams vibes. I immediately spent any extra money I had on VHS tapes and learned how to set our recorder so that I could record episodes of Smallville and rewatch them. I was very religious about setting the recorder once the new season came back on, especially in the event that I had an event or family dinner etc. I wrote labels on all my VHS tapes, and recorded over episodes I liked the least (and sometimes it was hard to choose which episodes to tape over).
My family definitely thought I was being too obsessive, but by that time we had a family computer. I found some Smallville forums and almost exclusively engaged in het 'ship talk (and was relieved to find other people who loved the show the way I did). Looking back, I realize that I was definitely one of those "bad" shippers, but over time I learned a lot about relationships, and how to be a good internet user and fandom participant (and I became much more tolerant of other people's ships). To jump to the end, I had a really rough break-up with Smallville when Lana and Lex left, but I am now a proud multi-shipper.
Supernatural premiered right after Smallville, so it was by happy accident that I taped it and then watched it. I was immediately taken with Dean Winchester and his tangled relationship with Sam, and I started to read fanfiction to try and sort out all my crazy-bad-wrong hormones. I found livejournal because of Supernatural (hence my username), and then I was immediately sucked into reading and eventually writing fanfiction.
Around this time, I also went to my first Jonas Brothers concert (for free!!) and was smitten. I found a huge Jonas Brothers community online. I joined my first fic exchange and eventually modded my first community because of the Jonas Brothers.
I was already writing fiction at the time during breaks at school or in English class, so it wasn't that big of a leap for me to write about my favorite characters instead. I can't find my first fic, but my second ever fic was posted on 31 July 2007. It was about Sam and Dean fanboying over Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. CRINGE!!! But also, I'm pretty proud of where I'm at now, considering where I started.
Livejournal and reading/writing taught me about sex and kinks and how all kinds of people can feel attracted to all kinds of things (and also, fantasy life can be completely different from real life). I learned about varying sexualities and gender expressions, and I got to explore different things through writing. So thank you fandom for allowing me to make mistakes, and for giving me the space to continue my journey.
P.S. Isn't it funny that we don't use the words "squee" or "schmoop" nearly as much as we used to?
My family definitely thought I was being too obsessive, but by that time we had a family computer. I found some Smallville forums and almost exclusively engaged in het 'ship talk (and was relieved to find other people who loved the show the way I did). Looking back, I realize that I was definitely one of those "bad" shippers, but over time I learned a lot about relationships, and how to be a good internet user and fandom participant (and I became much more tolerant of other people's ships). To jump to the end, I had a really rough break-up with Smallville when Lana and Lex left, but I am now a proud multi-shipper.
Supernatural premiered right after Smallville, so it was by happy accident that I taped it and then watched it. I was immediately taken with Dean Winchester and his tangled relationship with Sam, and I started to read fanfiction to try and sort out all my crazy-bad-wrong hormones. I found livejournal because of Supernatural (hence my username), and then I was immediately sucked into reading and eventually writing fanfiction.
Around this time, I also went to my first Jonas Brothers concert (for free!!) and was smitten. I found a huge Jonas Brothers community online. I joined my first fic exchange and eventually modded my first community because of the Jonas Brothers.
I was already writing fiction at the time during breaks at school or in English class, so it wasn't that big of a leap for me to write about my favorite characters instead. I can't find my first fic, but my second ever fic was posted on 31 July 2007. It was about Sam and Dean fanboying over Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. CRINGE!!! But also, I'm pretty proud of where I'm at now, considering where I started.
Livejournal and reading/writing taught me about sex and kinks and how all kinds of people can feel attracted to all kinds of things (and also, fantasy life can be completely different from real life). I learned about varying sexualities and gender expressions, and I got to explore different things through writing. So thank you fandom for allowing me to make mistakes, and for giving me the space to continue my journey.
P.S. Isn't it funny that we don't use the words "squee" or "schmoop" nearly as much as we used to?