Day 2 | In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story.

I'm in my 30s, so of course my fannish origin story starts with Sailor Moon and Pokemon ;D I somehow ended up watching a bunch of Sailor Moon when I was a little kid (like, 4 or 5 years old little), I guess because my mom found it while channel-surfing and figured her small child would like it?

By the time I was given free reign to explore the internet, fandom was already established online and starting to move out of user-groups. I spent hours on Anime Web Turnpike, absolutely enthralled by all the fansites and forums and what have you. I was very lucky to have high speed internet at home starting in the late 90s, and I took full advantage of it XD

I loved everyone's little corners of the internet, seeing what people did differently with their spaces, and I knew that someday, I wanted to be part of it.

Lucky for me, my dad is a computer programmer and engineer, and I grew up surrounded by tech. He was very insistent that I learn how to make websites, because he could tell that the internet was the future...and what better way to practice HTML than with a Sailor Moon fansite? My first websites are long gone, both online and any offline versions, because 10 year olds aren't necessarily known for their dedications to backing up their files.

But I can't talk about my fannish history without bringing up probably my biggest support as a tiny weeb. My cousin, shaenongarrity, was absolutely formative to my love of anime. During her college breaks, she took me to see Miyazaki films in theaters, something practically unheard of in 90s, and it opened my eyes to anime as something beyond the after-school block of programming on Kids' WB. So what if I couldn't really grasp what was going on in Princess Mononoke? It was still the coolest thing I'd ever seen on the big screen.

She also worked for VIZ in the 00s and would send me whole boxes of manga, making me the coolest kid in town~ I had a subscription to Smile magazine thanks to her, which introduced me to Peach Girl, which I absolutely latched onto. I was so inspired; my diary was basically nothing but Peach Girl fanfiction for a couple years there XD I still wasn't publishing any of it, but it's still so important to me, if nothing else.

And sooooooo, all of these various pieces - as well as some others that I'm sure I'm forgetting - led to me finally publishing my first fanfic. I'd lurked for years, but wanting to post my own fic got me out of my shell, so to speak, and I've been a part of fandom spaces ever since :D