What are the perks to being a fangirl? The fangirl community is by far one of the kindest, creative communities you’ll ever take part in as a fan of a series. You’ll meet a ton of people who respect your favorite characters, love sharing jokes about the fandom you’re in, and create all kinds of fan art and fanfiction together.
Many people can argue and say the fangirl community is toxic for starting ship wars and are “poison” to a series for shipping two characters who are not even close to being canon. With every community you will find great friendships that will last a life time, and worst enemies who want to drag your success down with you.
The central theme to my YouTube channel KidLitKat is to “Embrace Your Inner Fangirl & Fanboy” every, single day. It shows teens that they can ship any characters they want to, without getting bullied, while celebrating their passions as aspiring writers, illustrators, animators, video editors and of course—fans.
The new show on KidLitKat, "Fangirl Freak Out," is dedicated to those fans and their work. It shines a light on diversity such as the LGBT+ community, different forms of literature like manga and comics, and allows anyone from anywhere to express their inner fan no matter where they are from.
With every new episode of "Fangirl Freak Out" the intro will state:
“Bullying, harassment, there is a lot of hate going around for fans of certain ships and it is NOT okay. People "assume" that fangirls are stupid and "poison" a series just by supporting a ship. Fangirls and shippers alike have respect for the creators of the series and the content they watch/read. Fangirl Freak Out was created to mention ships that do exist and celebrates the work of fan artists, video editors, fan fic writers and the series itself. Thank you for understanding.”
My goal as a fangirl is to let teens and young adults know that it's okay to express yourself and show the world how much you love your fandom or ship. According to an article on The Establishment fanfiction has helped the LGBT+ teen community and has made them happier about accepting themselves.
“[Young writers] often write stories about bullying or not being popular, and about dealing with things like sexuality..." - Rebecca Black (associate professor at University of California at Irvine)
Read the article HERE.
The world is finally accepting fangirls and boys, but there is still a ton of work to do with people who spread hate against them based on illogical assumptions. That's why "Fangirl Freak Out" was created, to spread the joy of being a fan. What are you a fan of? Be sure to let me know and I'll even feature your ship in an episode!
