Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in a toxic relationship with your favorite singer? Or day-dreamed about how your favorite show would play out if your favorite characters finally started dating? Welcome to fanfiction, my friend.

Fanfiction is a genre of writing that uses other sourced characters or realities. The authors of these works engage with the community of fans to expand the “narrative universe.”

When I was 13, I fell hard for Harry from One Direction. After watching every 1D music video on the internet, a picture came across my Tumblr timeline.

Tumblr introduced me to imagines and other short fanfiction writings like one-shots and flashfics. Eventually, I came across a post linked to wattpad.com and thus, my addiction to fanfiction (sorry, I had to). I devoured thousands of words about the relationships and manipulated worlds of my favorite celebrities and fictional characters. The best part was it was written by other teenage girls that knew exactly what I wanted to read. 

In my opinion, fanfiction birthed a new generation of writers. For some reason though, fanfiction is usually dismissed as amateur or obsessive because it is popular with teenage girls. Even if it’s not good writing, it’s still a worthy expression of creativity. Also, how do you manage to make sexist comments about simply liking things?

Many fic authors also write professionally. (P.S. Fifty Shades of Grey is a Twilight Fanfic.) Fanfics fill the void between new content, and sometimes even the backstories of the content they source from. The summer I spent devouring After — by the pool, or under my desk, or literally, anywhere I could use my phone — changed me as a reader, and a human being. 8 years later, there’s a book series and film-adaptation of the toxic Harry Styles fanfic.

Although a generation of young teens should not have had unrestricted internet access, a rich and diverse writing culture was born. Since the pandemic has started, fanfiction has seen a spike in popularity again. After all, fanfiction is there for you when no one else is.