Sea I know people have asked you why and when you stopped being a fan of Harry or stopped being a larrie. I want to know when, why and how did you become a louie. Anything particular about Louis that struck? Was it a specific moment when you realised? I really love knowing the different ways people become a Louis fan. Makes me very happy.
I always thought Louis was a clever prankster and was really good at creating moments of levity and joy for the band. And I always felt that he had an awareness of the fandom (he’s a lurker!) that translated to an appreciation of fandom— with all our highs and lows, the memes, the violent outbursts of temper or enthusiasm. Louis gets it. He understands. In a way, he’s the teacher that he always wanted to be.
I loved the way that Louis taught fandom as organizer of the rainbow bears. He made it fun and exhilarating, actually, to solve those little puzzles. It was a peak of fandom experience!
I was awestruck when Louis performed Just Hold On on The X Factor. Totally blown away by his courage and his heart. Fandom was reeling from the news of Jay’s death, but of course Louis and his family had known about her illness for a long time. In retrospect, we now know about his doubts about a solo career, doubts sown by years of psychological conditioning that he wasn’t the one, that he was decorative and peripheral to One Direction. We are aware of merely a fraction of the cognitive environment they experienced. Like a fucking idiot, I believed those biases about Louis.
An aside: there was a Wikileaks hack into Sony’s emails, released April 2015. These detailed the boys’ profiles.
There were also indications that One Direction’s social media power would be leveraged to promote other Sony products.
In February 2017, we heard an incredible— an unbelievable— interview with Ross Golan and Savan Kotecha. I wrote about it here and here (and caveat emptor, I was firmly a Larrie then, I loved and believed in Harry). It was eye-opening for me— and showed me that Louis had the pivotal role in the band’s cohesiveness, its evolution to writing good, credible rock-infused pop, and to the boys’ waking up to the realities of industry.
And then, I learned more about Louis’ charity works, his generosity and real kindness. On the day Jay died, Louis made a video to wish someone happy birthday. He gave Harrysson, the little boy who is a fan, glow-in-the-dark pajamas because he’s afraid of the dark. At Christmas, Louis remembered that Harrysson likes Spider-Man (same as Louis) and gave him Spider-Man Legos. He was kind to Summer, the profoundly deaf little girl who accompanied Louis onto the field for SoccerAid 2016. During TXF 2018, Louis-the-Judge was consistently kind and instructive to the contestants. Louis shows kindness to people who do not have power or fame, who will not help his career in any way— because he is kind at heart.
After I heard his set at CCME Madrid, I was again astounded by Louis’ courage. It was clear that life had knocked him a few times— from lost love to his career’s stops and starts to family tragedy. We wouldn’t blame him for feeling a little bitter. The tone of his songs, however, was one of optimism and hope. And gratefulness— for having experienced it all. His attitude was very moving for me.
Of course, the more I learned about Louis, the more I love him.
All the ways he shows his LGBT pride.
Other people love him too. In so many ways.
