Fandom Snowflake Challenge Day 5

Day 5

In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story. How did you come to fandom, why did you choose your fannish name, do you have more than one secret identity? Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

My fannish origin story started when I was bitten by radioactive spiders and given super powers hanging out with my friend, Rachel, in 1997. She had just started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Season 2) and I started the show right when "What's My Line, Part 1" aired. Rachel was the one who led me to Slayer Fanfic.net and that's pretty much how I got hooked on fanfiction. The two of us would sit in study halls and write stories in our notebooks. She called me Willow and I called her Buffy.

I got into Yahoo groups around that time and was involved in a Buffy RPG community. I was known as Hel2525 then (chosen from Cleopatra252.) I was doing some writing for fanfiction.net, but heck if I know where any of those stories ended up. It might be better that way. I was rusty then. I had another "secret" identity (BloodRedGoddess.) I'm pretty sure I chosen that because I had recently watched Blade and had developed a crush on Deacon Frost.

I found my way onto Livejournal, also thanks to Rachel, in July 2003. I chose snogged as my handle because of a book I had read (also, no one had claimed it and the other names I had considered were already taken.) I had a few fandom friends, mostly from my role-playing days, but I was still an unknown in the LJ BtVS Fandom. My friendship with catvampcrazines got me into some fic writing communities and icon challenges. I had a great time participating in these communities because they really helped me connect to a lot of the amazing friends I have now.

Outside of the Buffy fandom, I participated in Harry Potter fandom. I was a member of Plano Hogwarts. My castlename was Penglii (named after a stuffed penguin that has an incredible back-story), but most folks there knew me as Ann (my birth name). It was a fun community and I loved being part of it. I was probably most active in the role-playing games, but I also was head girl for the Slytherin house and that had it's fair share of work to do.

I've also been active in the How I Met Your Mother fandom and again, did a lot of role-plays and fic writing.

What fandom has taught me over the years is that there's more to it than just writing or freaking out over the last book or last episode or whatever. I've learned that lasting friendships can be developed over the internet. It takes time, it takes trust, and it takes commitment, but I treasure the ones that I have been able to build and I grieve the ones that I have lost over the years.

I am grateful to have fandom in my life and I'm really glad that I didn't have to get bitten by radioactive spiders just so that I could have a cool origin story. *g*