What the She-Ra fandom gave me
If She-Ra saved my life, its fandom helped me revitalize it. And I wanted to write a little bit about it for the appreciation week <3
I had always wanted to be a part of fandom. I've had intense feelings about the narratives that I love since I could remember, and being an only child with somewhat of an absent mom, I grew up on the internet. I had a deviantart with my OCs for this dog anime I was obsessed with, I would shove my favorite animes in the face of all my IRL friends and I regularly doodled Link in class. I religiously read "The Fangirl's guide to the galaxy" by Sam Maggs when I was younger and just wanted so badly to become a part of that community, of being around a group of people who loved what I loved as proudly and intensely as I did.
As I grew up, I started to shove that intensity down when it was clear it was not acceptable. My insecurity regarding my art, and my passions made me feel like I was constantly on the outside looking in, in online spaces. I saw everybody having so much fun, having mutuals and reblogging each other, and I felt such an intense pang of longing everytime I did. I felt like if I tried to come out of my shell, I would get ignored and nobody would care, so I just lurked in silence and that was that.
But then last year my life did a 180 and I was in a place where I could rest and think about what I really wanted for the first time in six years. I rewatched the show with one of my friends and we started collabing on a fic, and I realized I no longer wanted to stay silent. For the first time since I was a kid, the excitement outweighed the fear of not being accepted.
So when I came across a post by the Spop Creative Flex, I was finally ready to take the plunge.
And it was one of the best decisions of my life.
It was everything I had ever wanted. I didn't need to hold back, cuz here were 200 people as unhinged about this show as I was. When I was like "here's a four page analysis on a 30 second scene" they didn't look at me weird, they ADDED TO IT! I became part of this beautiful creative, self-sustaining ecosystem in which writers would inspire artists to create art, which in turn would inspire more creations.
@diaspro-back-here and I started the Etherian Encyclopedia for the server, a collection of essays, lore and analyses. @thornsamigurumi, @solarisquid and I took over the server with the pookalution, a period of time where we became unhealthily obsessed with pookas and we all changed our usernames and it was just a crazy fun time. I've stayed up long after a healthy bedtime screaming with @aprillikesthings over minute details in the show, and I even accidentally started a mini MascCatrathon and it was great.
The point is that this community quickly became a pillar for me. Not only emotionally, but creatively. I was just moving states when I joined, and it helped so much through the initial isolation. I've made so many amazing friends due to it, and even met my sweet partner @catras-breakup-song there, falling in love through hot Catra edits and analyses.
I'm finally engaging with my passions consistently again. I'm writing, and editing, and analyzing and drawing. Things I never thought I would do consistently ever.
Like I just don't even have words anymore to express just how many things this show and its community has given me, it's honestly insane <3
