You have discovered that you love something (a movie, a show, a team or a book) and you absolutely want to share your passion with others. Being a fangirl means having fun and letting yourself be involved with body and soul from the source of your enthusiasm.
Steps
Part 1 of 2: Getting Involved in Fandom
Step 1. Choose a fandom
This part is simple. A fandom is nothing more than a community of people who share a passion for a specific thing, in short, it is literally a group of fans. While a fandom can be devoted to just about anything, it tends to focus on TV shows, movies, books, actors, teams, and musicians. So, locate the source of your passion and start the hunt to find people like you.
- Some popular fandoms are the Whovians (fans of the Doctor Who TV series), the Sherlockians (fans of Sherlock, of the BBC; Holmesian, on the other hand, is a moniker that seems to fit more fans of the original Arthur Conan Doyle stories), the Potterheads (Harry Potter fans), the Directioners (fans of the One Direction band) and the Trekkies (Star Trek fans). Some fandoms have no nicknames, while others may have a variety of nicknames.
- Don't be afraid to join a fandom when you're just starting out. You may feel like you are way behind everyone else at first, but don't worry, you will soon know as much as they do if you are sufficiently involved.
- You should choose something that you are truly passionate about, which will spontaneously motivate you to want to share that enthusiasm with others!
Step 2. Get to know other people with the same interest as you
You will surely want to find people to share your enthusiasm with. The internet makes this particularly easy, but it can also be overwhelming. Either way, there are several places to start.
- Many fandoms are supported by the web. They can be found on sites like Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Archive of Our Own (AO3), or even Livejournal (that old dinosaur).
- Look for the so-called “fandom leaders”, those people who publish the most popular posts, artwork and fan fiction. Paying attention to them can be a good way to understand how things work in your fandom. It is also useful for finding other fans among people connected to leaders or who follow the most famous attendees.
- Fandoms predate the internet of course, just think of the Star Trek fanzines, the people writing letters to the original Watson, as if he were a real person, and the enduring cultural phenomenon that is Star Wars.
Step 3. Learn the terminology of fandoms
If you assimilate the language before intervening too deeply yourself, it will help you as you begin to get involved more and more. Fandom, like any other environment, is characterized by the evolution of a language of its own, which will seem incomprehensible to those who are strangers to the phenomenon.
- Canon is one of the most important words to learn. It's the term fan fiction writers use to describe something that respects the original plot. For example, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are canons.
- Fan fiction are stories written by fans to tell about an aspect they are passionate about. There are celebrity fan fiction (called RPF, or Real Person Fic) and alternate versions of a movie or book. Many fans contribute to fandom by writing fan fiction and posting it on the Archive of Our Own or on their own personal blogs.
- Feels are the feelings that move fans a lot. These extreme feelings (usually sadness, pain, or overwhelming joy) tend to emerge during a particularly intense / shocking / wonderful scene or performance from a book, film or show. At this point, many fans are carried away by the sensations of the moment.
- In fandom, the word "meta" (perhaps an abbreviation of the word "meta analysis") means to analyze the source of inspiration in terms of character psychology, motivation and authorial attempt. The meta can also be used to examine the fandom itself in these terms.
Step 4. Find out what shipping is
In many fandoms, you will notice that everyone talks about ships. No, they are unlikely to be enthusiastic about ships. Ships (also called shipping) represent pairing of real-life characters or people imagined by fans, who would love to see two people together, romantically or platonically involved in a relationship, which can be of any kind. There are a variety of terms associated with shipping.
- Slash shipping may be one of the most popular and explicit genres of certain fandoms. Indicates the romantic mating of two characters of the same sex, usually male (femslash is the term used for relationships between women). The term slash seems to come from the Star Trek: Original Series fandom; in fact, the names of Spock and Kirk were combined to create "Spock / Kirk". One theory that explains the popularity of slash fiction stems from the absence of gay fiction in popular culture.
- The term OTP means One True Pairing, “the one true couple”, and indicates a relationship that certain fan fiction writers or ordinary fans wish or think could become canon; usually this is governed by a single fandom. Fans from different communities can hope for numerous OTPs, and these couples aren't always canon.
Step 5. Research your specific fandom
Most of them feature loads of resources, containing information about what you are passionate about, and older members may not feel like explaining the same things over and over.
- There are many fansites to use: Tumblr, the wiki pages dedicated to characters and plots, Livejournal. AO3 has a wide variety of fan fiction and fandom forums.
- For example, if you are a LOST enthusiast, you can find an entire database online, which includes everything remotely related to the show. Celebrity blogs and fan-created websites are hot spots to see the latest photos and read up-to-date information.
- For some time, you may want to stay behind the scenes of the fandom of your choice, to learn the most common expressions and know how to speak before intervening. So, stay silent while you learn.
Part 2 of 2: Becoming a Fandom Member
Step 1. Contribute to the fandom
Once you have learned how things work in the community you have selected, try to take action. It's a great way to get involved and get to know other people.
- Join the discussions about your fandom, which circulate on the internet. On a wide variety of social networks you can talk to like-minded fans and discuss and chat about your community. You don't have to be famous on Tumblr to talk to people or get them to listen to you.
- Write fan fiction or meta stories and post them on AO3 (there is a specific process to go through to post on this website that you should know before trying to open an account). In fan fiction, there is no shortage of specific terms, such as spoiler tags, trigger warnings and age ratings. Pay attention to all of this and make sure you tag what you post so readers know what to expect.
- Join an RPG forum regarding your favorite fandom. Roleplaying requires you to play a role drawn from the source of your passion. If you can't find one in your fandom, why don't you create one yourself?
- Create.gifs (Graphics Interchange Format), a format for compressing images and capturing scenes from your favorite movie or show.
- Shoot YouTube videos about your ships, your favorite sports team, your favorite moments in character development, or parts of an interview with your favorite celebrity.
Step 2. Be critical of your fandom and its source of inspiration
Just because you love something, that doesn't mean you will have to ignore its flaws or take offense when someone points them out. Being a fan means understanding what's good about what you're passionate about and what needs tweaking.
- Report problematic behaviors. A fandom is not without those problems that plague society, therefore, when you notice a questionable point of view (which may have arisen from sexism, racism, homophobia or transphobia), explain to the manager why his attitude is problematic. But be careful, because they won't always listen, and they may react negatively. An example: the creators of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast explicitly stated that the scientist's character, Carlos, is black; however, a subset of the fandom insists on portraying him as a white person or as a mix of races, with the predominance of white, in his visual depictions.
- If the canon itself is problematic, writing a meta about it or fixing it through fan fiction is a great way to address the problems it presents. Again, remember that not everyone will agree with you regarding the severity of the problems (those that are serious for you, for others may be trifles) and will point it out to you.
- Try to have civil discussions about problems with fandom and its sources of inspiration. The Shipping Wars represent the worst fights in this area. Due South's small and typically polite fandom was nearly destroyed by Ray Wars (the discussion was about who was the best Ray, Ray Kowalski or Ray Vecchio, and which of the two should be paired with the main character, Benton Fraser).
Step 3. Be respectful
To be sure, this is a rule to always keep in mind in every aspect of life, but it also serves in a fandom. This means respecting the opinions you don't share with other fans within the fandom and respecting the privacy of the people who inspire your passion.
- Respect the people who participate in the fandom with you, even if they disagree with your opinions, your ships or your ideas about the canon. Everyone can have different points of view than yours. Just remember that no one has the right to be rude to you (insulting you, spreading gossip about you, making comments about your appearance / life).
- Being respectful of the person or people who inspired your passion is equally crucial. Many fandoms are characterized by that classic fan who took his passion to the extreme and caused the rest of the group to be considered negatively. This means allowing celebrities to have their own privacy, not asking intrusive questions and asking to take a photo with the famous person, instead of just taking one. Criticism is acceptable, rudeness is not. Constructive criticism can allow someone to improve, impropriety means pointing out to someone all their flaws for the sheer sake of it. As you can see, there is a big difference.
Advice
- Find out what other interests are of the people you share the fandom with. You could find your next community thanks to them!
- Experimenting with other fandoms is always welcome, so find more than one to participate in.
- Remember that no one can give an absolute definition of the word "fan". If you decide to be a fan of something, that is enough to define yourself as such. In case someone asks you to prove that you are, remember that people of this type are not worth wasting time on.
