a ramble about fandoms

The lovely Daniel J Layton did this video as part of VEDA and it got me thinking a little bit. Complete side-note if you watch YouTubers of any kind please subscribe to Dan as he is an absolute gem and he deserves all the love.

I am a person who has very much been a 'fangirl' especially between the ages of 14-16 ...in fairness I'm still a fangirl now really but I keep it mostly internal now rather than tweeting embarrassing things to said people I fangirl over. Yet I never felt a part of any fandom. My twitter account was never dedicated to specifically one thing nor was my tumblr.
I was known amongst my friends as a definite fangirl of many things - Glee, Harry Potter, Starkid, Youtubers, Doctor Who....the list is rather endless. I'm basically just very passionate about things I enjoy...in fact one of my friends recently told me that was one of her favourite things about me; that I do enjoy things so unashamedly.

Yet when I think about it, was I or have I ever really been part of a 'fandom'? I was definitely active within certain fandoms on tumblr/twitter and I made internet friends because of it, some of whom I've had the pleasure to meet which is just wonderful. I always felt like an outsider however because I never actively looked into fan theories, analysed every moment or even felt as a strongly towards it as others do. There is almost a high-schoolesque clique within fandoms which is ironic as you'd think this would be a place a nerd felt comfortable. (I use nerd as a term of endearment and I am basically referring to myself here). But because I didn't necessarily get totally and completely involved with something I'm passionate about does that make my feelings towards it any less redundant?

I would say no. Despite the fact I am definitely a fan of certain things, I never really got into the whole idea of online fandom as to be honest, it's a scary place to be sometimes (cough phandom cough). Yet I know what I enjoy and I will be vocal about it when I want to be. My friends know I'm one of the biggest Harry Potter nerds around....and all you need to do is look at my tumblr to know I adore certain shows, actors/actresses and youtubers. Just because the people in a fandom may not know me nor I them, what I do know is what makes me happy. So I guess what I'm trying to say is it doesn't matter...if you identify as a fan of something or someone, that's great and I'm glad you've found something that makes you happy. If you're actively involved and your twitter is entirely dedicated to a fandom that's also great. I know I will likely always have a place somewhere in a fandom as a passive role (mainly because I'm old now ...I don't need to fit in on the internet to feed validation....sorta....that's a whole other ball park lol) ...I'm in the clique just because I feel things towards that show or person.

Does this make any sense?

I said the word fandom too much here and for that I apologise. Anyway that was a ramble on being a fan of stuff ....I may write more about this because boy did I learn things about the internet from being a 14 year 'gleek' (even the word gives me horrible flashbacks now) (that show will always have a place in my heart I mean but wow we needed a better collective term).
thanks for reading! Laura x

Hello!

Now you've read the blog title, I'm hoping I've got the song "Hello!" from the Book of Mormon stuck in your head!

Anyway, this is my first post on this blog! To give you some infomation about myself, I am Laura Caley, a 16 year old girl from the North of England (namely Yorkshire). I decided I wanted to give this blogging thing a try as kind of creative outlet for me - because I can't draw, sew, watch myself back on camera or do anything else creative but what I can do is talk. (Often about nothing to be honest!)

I've had Tumblr for a long while which is, first and foremost, a blogging website but I generally use my Tumblr to fangirl over Darren Criss and random TV shows. I decided I wanted somewhere where I can write down my thoughts and feelings on anything and everything whether it be a book review, a film review, if there is a particularly good or bad episode of a TV show I'm watching or even just something that happened in my day and a proper blog would be much better for me to do this rather than just some thoughts on tumblr where it is so easy to be attacked for having a different opinion to someone else!

It doesn't matter to me whether or not people read this blog (although it would be nice!), it's just something for me to do in my spare time as a hobby. 

This post isn't going to be very long or particularly exciting but there will be more to come shortly! For example, my LeakyCon London post will be up shortly!

Thanks for reading :) 
Love Laura x