wyntir_knight | Snowflake Challenge

Day 2

In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I've been in the Transformers fandom for a little over eleven years now but I watched the original cartoon and almost every series thereafter. I played with my brother's toys (as a girl I got My Little Ponies), and I managed to get my hands on a few of the comic books when I was little. The first issue I had was "The Transformers Comics Magazine Issue 4" (containing US Marvel Issue 7 ["Warrior School"] and US Marvel Issue 8 ["Repeat Performance"]). I think I fell in love with Ratchet then. It also contained the bio for Smokescreen, my other favourite character. I read that comic over and over again until it practically fell apart. I was thirteen, Season 3 was airing in all it's awful glory, and I was convinced that I was the only girl to like Transformers. After all, all the girls I went to school with only liked "girl things" like MLP and Jem while I was watching Transformers, MASK, and Bionic 6.

Anyway, fast forward to 2006 and I got my first private internet connection and I was able to start searching the WWW for things that interested me. I don't remember how it happened exactly, but I discovered a site called "The Padded Cell", a board that advertised itself as the only female dominated fan site. And in that moment I realized that I wasn't alone. I met other female fans, I was introduced to fanfic (before that I didn't realize that my stupid little writings weren't stupid little writings). Everything changed for me. I went to my first Botcon in 2008, I met other fans who were just like me, and a whole new world opened up for me.

So, yeah, long and rambling is long and rambling, but it all comes down to this: My favourite memory of fandom is that moment when I realized that I wasn't alone and that there really was a group of fans out there just like me.