Snowflake Challenge 2025 #2

Challenge #2

In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story.

I think the funny thing about my fandom origin story is that it took me several years to begin engaging with "social" fandom, but basically my whole life, I was actively trying to get into it. It's just that my parents' "no unsupervised internet" rule thwarted me at every turn.

My first fannish interest came about when I was around 5. I made my first friend in Kindergarten, Sarah (not her real name, but similar vibes), and she was super obsessed with Pokemon, and urged me to watch the anime. As I ate breakfast the next morning, Pokemon 4Ever happened to be on TV, so I watched, and cried when Celebi nearly died. From there, I was hooked. I played some of Pokemon HeartGold at Sarah's house, on her DS, and I immediately asked mom if I could have a gaming system and Pokemon game when she came to pick me up. For Christmas, later on, I got my first DS, and Pokemon Mystery Dungeons: Explorers of Sky. I collected plushies and Pokemon cards, even though I didn't know how to play the card game – I was hooked. Pokemon definitely triggered my first instances of fannish behavior.

During this time, I would watch copious amounts of AMVs on my mom's iPad, whenever she would give me time. I would have to be somewhere she could watch me, in the same room. She would often bemoan that I would watch the same AMVs over and over – "obsessively", she once described it, very derogatorily. I wasn't deterred, though.

( Contains discussions of poor parenting, homophobia, and implications of grooming... Continue? )