I wake up with my messy bun and oversized t-shirt. I walk downstairs and see my mom standing there with a bottle of Dr. Pepper in hand.
"I had to sell our house for my soda. I'm sorry." I run upstairs and open my laptop. There I see a website.. "The Embarrassing Truth Of Being a Part of a Fandom". I begin to read through tears. Web page written and designed by Rachel Everett and Tara Alexander.
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btw i do wear my mask above my nose. I just take it down for pictures,
please believe me- tara vouch - rachel |
Some may wonder how one would start a website piece like this. Maybe with some kind of statistic, stating some random fact about how fandoms work, or the main demographic of certain fandoms. Or maybe, a quote stating something heartfelt about how becoming apart of a fandom is beneficial to the human body, mind, and soul. But that's not who Rachel and I are. We are complete and total idiots. So instead, we decided to start our web piece with a momentous tale: The tale of how Rachel Everett and Tara Alexander became the weirdest of friends. How I (Tara) met Rachel: From what I can remember, it was about 4 weeks into the 2021-2022 school year and we had just recently introduced InDesign and photoshop to the new students. What were we doing you may ask? I have no idea. I just remember being in front of a computer screen, messing around with an art piece, falling into a daze, and then falling out of a daze to see a designed page in my line of sight. At the beginning of the school year, I sat in solitude in the back of our design lab. Not that I had a problem with sitting alone, it's just that when I saw Rachel walking over to me, with the sound of small giggles escaping from under her mask, I was extremely and utterly confused to say the least. I didn't know what to expect, or what was even happening until she was right in front of me. How I (Rachel) met Tara: Tara was the really chilled laid back person in Lit Mag. I remembered seeing her in the back of the lab working on whatever she was working on. I honestly don't remember how I even began sitting with her as we worked on our layouts. I think I just popped up one day asking about fan fiction and whether or not we could write it for lit mag (spoiler alert: we couldn't). I think from then on we continued to sit together, live laugh love together and annoy everyone else with how giggly we are. |
For as long as I can remember, I always found Marvel super cool. I much preferred the newer ones, so some of phase 2 and most of phase 3. They were a more realistic version of the fantasy stories I loved so much. Of course they were still fantastical in quite a few ways. But they just seemed more possible. Some genius, playboy, billionaire, philanthropist, flying around in a suit or a really buff guy throwing a metal disk. It all just seemed so possible. Younger Rachel certainly wished it was, and of course she wished she could be apart of it. Creating fake scenarios in her head before she went to bed (a.k.a. the best way to fall asleep) or thinking about what her powers would be if she were to be in that universe. So what would any creative writing person do, write a fan fiction. Or at least plan one out. Sadly never got to execute it. I think it was about 2016 when I begin my journey with fan fictions. A few of my online friends were writing stories on Wattpad so I was interested in joining in. I didn’t start off with fan fiction, I instead tried creating an original work. That didn’t kick off, which i wasn’t upset about, so i turned my attention to another genre. That genre being, fanfiction. Most fan fictions are romance fan fictions, between either two characters or between a character and the reader. I was a bit of a hopeless romantic so I chose to do an “ __ x reader.“ I had it all planned out, nearly every twist and turn to side plots and more. I just never ended up writing it. I honestly don’t know why but it just ended up not working out. Not long after my Wattpad escapades I created a tumblr. Wattpad just wasn't doing it for me, I didn't find any excitement writing such long chapters anymore. So I moved to writing small things for tumblr like headcanons and one shots. If you look to the right, I've provided an example of one of my headcanons I wrote. Mind you, I removed my tumblr @ because no way am I letting y'all find me on the internet <3. Writing headcanons was a nice reprieve from cranking out chapters of my book. It felt like less pressure since all I had to do was write a few paragraphs and daydream about my favorite characters. Feel free to read the headcanons to the right but no guarantee they're good!! |
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF FAN WORKS
- ONESHOTS: A fanfiction genre that is only one chapter long.
- Y/N STORIES: A fanfiction genre where the reader is allowed to insert themselves into the story. By using Y/N (your name), the reader has the opportunity to use their own name.
- AU STORIES: A fanfiction genre where the story is set in a different universe, different from the canon storyline.
- CROSS OVER: A fanfiction genre where two or more fandoms are combined to make a story.
Edit made by Tara Alexander
Fandom: The Office Edit made by Tara Alexander
Fandom: special occasion because this edit was made for a friend of mine. But its my favorite :) Edit made by Tara Alexander
Fandom: Voltron |
Oh, if only my sophomore year self could see me now. She'd probably say, "Oh. My. God. We're still doing this, Tara?!" Well the answer is yes, I am. I remember when I made my second web piece on video editing. And to tell you the truth, if I had been honest when I made "The Process Behind Video Editing" I would've brought up why and when I started making video edits. But I was embarrassed because what I edited wasn't something I felt like I could bring up in a normal conversation. It felt weird. Fun fact: I have been making video edits since I was 11. That's insane. I had learned about edits when I was 11, back when the social media app Vine existed and I was immediately hooked when I saw the short, six-second videos of popular shows and movies on my explore page. I wanted to try for myself. So, I downloaded iMovie, and just went away with my imagination. At first, of course, I sucked majorly. My edits were stagnant, unoriginal, and just plain ugly-- but, I grew. And now I can say: I suck just a little bit less. Recently, there's been rise in popularity of video edits that can be credited to the oh-so-famous app TikTok. And seeing this new surge of editors has honestly made me so, so feel comfortable. TikTok is the perfect app to embrace any activities that one could be interested in, and it's so easy to find people who share the same interests as you. It's great. |
Some of my favorite TikTok editors:
My editing accounts
RACHEL
This wouldn’t be called “The Embarrassing Truth..” without talking about the embarrassing part. Being a fan of something isn’t inherently bad or embarrassing, it’s typically how you express your love for that thing that causes issues. The topic of fan fiction is very delicate depending on your audience. Some people think it’s the strangest thing imaginable while others think its really cool and impressive. I never volunteer the fact that I like to write fan fiction or that I simp over Marvel characters & actors. For me, it’s a really raw genuine part of me that I’m scared to show people and reveal that I’m a “fan girl”. I guess that’s gone out the window now that you’re reading this. That’s okay though. I think people should be allowed to enjoy things however they want. From just casually watching or reading base material to reading everything related to it and writing about it. People should be able to not fear judgement when they share that they are apart of a fandom. |
TARA
I'm not one to really be embarrassed. I find it humorous to make fun of the weird things I do, and my personality. But there was just something that always got to me about my video edits and my fandom accounts. It's hard enough to find people who are as passionate about the same show. So imagine trying to find someone who is so in love with the show or, what ever kind of media, enough to go out of their way to create a whole account specifically for video edits. It's very hard. I still find myself hiding my edits. I get scared whenever my friends or family members go through my camera roll because there's a stupid thought in my head that tells me: they're gonna judge you. But with the 6 years I've been on this weird journey, I've realized that being apart of a fandom, and creating things that make you happy-- whether it be video edits, fanfiction, fanart, or anything else-- it's a way to achieve and practice self love. |