Die-hard fans know that multiple things can be true at once. You can be a Harry Styles fan and care about the ongoing protests in Iran. You can love Beyoncê and the environment. You can care deeply about a celebrity or movie or band and still be a functional and productive member of society. (Yes, that last one should be obvious to everyone, but you’d be surprised by how much vitriol us fans can stir up!)
For me, being a fangirl taught me so much that I should put it on my resume. I learned how to edit (thanks to reading typo-riddled fanfiction), photoshop (if I’m not going to meet Harry Styles I should at least be able to crop myself into one of his photos), build community online, make memes, and most importantly, feel part of something.
In fact, I co-founded and built a media company, Shit You Should Care About on the foundation of those skills. And I’m not alone: All over the world, people are taking the strengths they developed from a lifetime of fandom and applying that passion to their work, families, communities—you name it. Because sure, it’s easy to poke fun at fangirls, but we’re not bothered by the hate. We already know our energy is better spent elsewhere.
That’s why I’ve gathered some of my favorite pieces about fan culture, to cheer on my fellow fans (whether they stan rock stars or Wordle) and celebrate the ways the internet has helped drive that enthusiasm forward.
It's Time To Stop Shitting On Stans [LISTEN]
LB: “This is one of our very own episodes of Culture Vulture (our pop culture podcast) based on a piece of writing that I did, basically laying out everything that fandom has taught me, all the skills I was too scared to put on my resumé, the difference between how I was treated compared to my brothers (who liked sports) and how, until we started Sh*t You Should Care About I didn’t feel like I could make a career out of being a fan of things. Oh, how wrong I was!”
Lucy Blakiston
Lucy runs Sh*t You Should Care About—an online media company—with her two best mates Rubes and Liv. Her goal is to help people make sense of the world around them by explaining the world in words we all use (and understand) and in a way that won’t leave you feeling down in the dumps!
How does she do this? She gets up each day at 5am to send out a daily newsletter, wrapping up the news of the day, she chats on their news podcast The Sh*t Show and pop culture podcast Culture Vulture, and of course, she posts on Instagram. She also has an extremely healthy obsession with Harry Styles.