Fangirl

I first read "Fangirl" (my very first Rainbow Rowell novel) about 3-4 years ago. And it changed my life. Literally

I didn't know you could write a novel about fangirls. I didn't know you could write a book about a fandom that mimics another real-life fandom. I didn't know that you could talk about fanfiction. (I had first discovered fanfiction about 9 months before I read "Fangirl"--and that also dramatically and literally changed my life).

I then went and read "Carry On." Because what else would be the logical next step? 

And that too changed my life. I didn't know you could write about LGBT/slash-ficiton/queer literature. I didn't know that was a thing (and now, that's my favorite thing to read). Yes, I read slash-fanfiction all the time (went to bed every night--still do--by reading a few pieces on AO3), but I didn't know that real, published, getting-paid-to-write-this-stuff books could be like this. 

It changed the way I read. It changed the way I write. It shifted my entire grad thesis. It shifted my entire To Be Written (wish)list.

All because of "Fangirl."

["Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan..

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?"]

And I'll fight anyone who says that fanfiction isn't real fiction (sorry Professor Piper). J.M. Barrie (author/creator of Peter Pan) was one of the very first documented fanfiction writers (wrote about Sherlock Holmes--his bff was Sir Doyle himself). Without fanfic, we wouldn't have "Paradise Lost" or "West Side Story" or "Carry On" or "Fifty Shades". Fanfic is real. That is all. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

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