Yknow, when you keep insisting that adults can’t enjoy fandom or play video games or what cartoons or whatever, it’s other young people that you’re hurting the most. Because the most you’ll do to adults is offend or annoy them with that nonsense, but when you plant that idea in a kid’s head, they grow older with the horrible dread looming over them that the things that bring them happiness and comfort have an expiration date. When I was a young adult, I was genuinely depressed about the thought of getting older because I thought I couldn’t keep enjoying all my hobbies, like I had to give up everything I enjoy once I reach [x] age.
And that is simply not true. It’s bullshit. But the harm is does to people is very real. Kids are so afraid of getting older, and one of the big fears is that their life will become painfully bland and boring once they hit adulthood, as if all adults do is work and pay taxes, possibly raise kids. No more fun, no whimsy, no playfulness, no joy.
Anyway, I’m 33 and I love video games and fanfiction and cartoons. If you tell me I’m too old for that stuff, I’ll roll my eyes and block you and go on with my day. But I will worry about the 17 year old who saw your post too and feels a sinking in their chest at the thought that they have to give up the stuff that makes them happy. THAT’S what bothers me.
Getting older in fandom mostly just means:
You’re better at recognizing fandom patterns and can avoid the toxic ones, leading to increased fandom enjoyment.
Now you have to zoom the text on AO3.
FYI, if you’re a person who wants larger text on AO3, you can zoom in or you can use a site skin (skins only work if you’re logged in though).
The easiest way is to scroll to the bottom of any page on AO3 and look at the left-hand side of the footer. Find Low Vision Default and tap on that, and you’re set.
If you don’t like the looks of Low Vision Default (or if you just want the text inside the fics to be larger but not the rest of the site), you can create your own very simple site skin:
Tap on your name at the top of the AO3 page
Select My Dashboard from the dropdown menu
Select Skins
Tap on Create Site Skin
Give your skin a unique name so that you can save it
Paste the CSS below into the big empty box
Tap the Submit button
On the next page, tap Use
CSS is as follows:
#workskin p { font-size: 24pt; }
Set whatever pt font you prefer to read with and enjoy.
(this CSS code can also be added into any other skin you might be using. Just copy/paste it in there)






















