The Harry Potter Alliance

By Erin Millar

January 10, 2013

Head-First Into Fandom

Every so often, I find something else to be fiercely passionate about.  My family might say that this happens incredibly often, but it really doesn’t–not to the point where I find myself far into a fandom and unlikely to leave anytime soon.  I tend to have a lot of flings, but finding those few things to get completely obsessed with is a little bit further between.

But I recently fell into another fandom, and I love feeling this excitement once again.

Quite a few months ago, my boyfriend decided it was high time that I get introduced to Doctor Who.  Of course, the only way to get introduced, we decided, was to start with the first series of the reboot, with the Ninth Doctor, and go from there (which, in retrospect, I’m really glad we did).  It took a while, but I recently got caught up to the rest of the world and can now sit here and wait anxiously for the new episode to air this spring.

Promotional image from the Doctor Who Christmas Special 2012.

One of the best things about falling head-first into a fandom like the Whovians is how welcoming it usually is.  When I would post statuses on Facebook reacting to whichever episode I had just seen, many of my friends would comment right back, but would be careful not to spoil anything coming up.  I quickly found myself getting into detailed discussions with other Whovian friends about obscure details in the show, about interesting tidbits found throughout the series, and I just got more and more sucked in.

What was most interesting to me about joining this fandom was that this was the first time in a long time that I was joining an already established, already large fandom and trying to catch up.  Most of the fandoms I’ve joined in recent years, I’ve joined early enough that it was before any of the big excitement started.  And when I found myself joining the Harry Potter fandom years and years ago, it was before the internet became such a huge part of fandom interaction.

That’s what I love most about falling into a fandom today–the internet gives us such a great way to communicate, to interact and to form these communities, and so many of these fandoms (particularly ones the likes of which frequent Tumblr) are so welcoming that it’s easy to feel like you belong to these communities.  I love the Whovian community, and I love the Potter community, and I love the fact that these communities can come together in overarching ones like HPA and Nerdfighteria.  It’s a magical thing.

What fandoms have you found yourself falling into recently?

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