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briana and i were talking about all the mood rings fred definitely owned - did alice ever have a mood ring
she did! she got a cheap one when she was eight from one of those toy dispensers you stick a quarter in at the store. her father told her it was rubbish, but she loved it all the same. it looked cool on and it was kind of like magic.
Wanderers, if you’ve ever created something, be it art, cosplay, fiction, meta, music, video… whatever medium your expression of fandom takes, the chances are you’ve had a response like this: “That’s really good! I can’t wait for the next one!”
This, of course, is tremendously encouraging, and it’s very flattering to think that someone can’t contain their excitement at the prospect of another creation of yours. You might create more, and get similarly enthusiastic replies. Perhaps you branch out into another fandom, or another medium. Now you write fanfiction for both Supernatural and The Avengers, or draw and make videos about Young Dracula. Perhaps you made a one-off post about how Hermione Granger was a strong female character and were swamped with requests to write meta about every girl in the Harry Potter series – “…and then can you do The Hunger Games next please?”. It’s still good, and encouraging, and immensely flattering… but you’re beginning to wonder how on earth you’re going to find time to do all that. After all, you’ve also got three pages of quadratic equations and the answer to world hunger to sort out by next Thursday, and the cat needs a bath…
Life is full of change. I think we can all agree about that – cast your mind back even just a year and think how much is different. Perhaps you now have to tick a different box when a form you’re filling in asks what age group you belong to. Perhaps you’ve moved house, or school, or office. Maybe you have a new pet, or a different group of friends, or you’ve learnt a new skill. You have almost certainly changed your socks (if not, now is the time). As much as we sometimes resist change, it can be a really good thing. Imagine how boring things could get if nothing ever changed!
In a world that’s always changing, though, it’s sometimes nice to have something solid and unchanging to cling to. For me – and probably others – that’s fandom, at the moment. The thing about being a fan of something is that while it may evolve through various stages – see our Lifecycle of a Fandom series – your favourite series, film or book is likely to continue to exist, and even if you’re a fan of something that does disappear one day, your fandom is unlikely to do the same thing.
Sometimes, dear Wanderers, things just don’t go to plan. Sometimes, you fail your exams (here are our tips to avoid that, by the way) or your best friend moves away or you just feel a bit down for no apparent reason. Sometimes – horror of horrors – you get a really bad cold. What do you do when that happens?
Well, we’ve already looked at how we can use fandom as an escape, but sometimes we don’t want to get away from our feelings. Sometimes, we want to curl up under our duvets, cue up a soundtrack of rainfall and fireplace noises, and feel sorry for ourselves for a little while. I’m sure if you were planning a duvet day, you’d know exactly which film or book would be the one to make you feel better.
It doesn’t matter what fandom you consider yourself to be a part of, at some point or another I will bet good money that you have heard the phrase “oh my god, FEELS” or some variation. (Please note, I’m not actually betting anything here because I am skint.) This phrase – or variations thereof – generally means that due to the product of the media the fandom has arisen around, they have been overcome with a wave of emotion.
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Hello, fans. Not fans of me, of course – fans of things. It’s sometimes hard to believe that there are people out there who aren’t Fans of Things, isn’t it? Or at least, people who aren’t part of any fandom. I can’t imagine not being part of my fandoms now – but why is that? What does fandom actually do for us?
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