So, I know I’ve started a good habit of doing some sort of fashion post on Fridays — either Casual Cosplay or Fangirl Fashion. However, Megan from The Nerdy Girlie and Kristin from SuperSpaceChick have announce a new community-building blog topic meme… and, well, it sounded really fun so I wanted to join in… Introducing Five Fandom Friday.
The basic idea is to post a list that corresponds to a given topic for that date. And as the name states, these will shared on Fridays. However… well, I’m not sure how much I want to change my blogging schedule around completely, so I might actually post some of mine on Saturdays. And because of that, while it’s still a part of Five Fandom Friday, I’ll be using the title Fandom Five.
The topic for today:
Gateway Fandoms That Made Me Who I Am Today
1. The Beatles » I’ve really got my mom to thank for this one. I know, as kids, it’s not always cool to love the same thing your parents do, but I mean, it the Beatles. For the longest time, Rubber Soul was probably my favorite album. Ask me now, and I’m not sure I could pick. However, it’s still sort of uncommon for a Christmas to go by and mom to not give me some sort of Beatles related item. The Beatles not only gave me a good appreciation of music, they strengthened the relationship I had with my mom.
2. Classic Nickelodeon » I’m talking Salute Your Shorts, Hey Dude, The Secret World of Alex Mack, Adventures of Pete & Pete, All That, and Clarissa Explains It All. These shows sort of celebrated weird, I felt like I could fit in there. Ok, so Hey Dude was the least weird of that bunch, but dude ranch. Of course I loved it. Oh, and of course you had the game shows like Double Dare, Wild & Crazy Kids, Guts, and Legends of the Hidden Temple. These were everyday kids out there being amazing — champions. And again, I felt like maybe I could be one of those kids too. I could spend hours each day imagining myself in one of these shows… These shows inspired my imagination and gave me the courage to be my weird self.
3. Harry Potter » Like many others in my generation, total Harry Potter fan. Actually, well, I might have been slightly less obsessed with it that others. But still. I have Harry Potter to thank for giving me a whole new world to lose myself in. Also for showing me that 900+ page books are not scary. I enjoyed reading growing up, but there’s just something about this series that I owe some debt to.
4. SeaQuest DSV » Oh SeaQuest… I think I owe this show my interest in science fiction television… Especially sometimes terrible science fiction television. Like Primevil or Terra Nova. But I don’t know many people who watched this show as a kid and didn’t want to hang out with Lucas and Darwin.
5. Barbara Gordon » Ok, ok, ok. So this is technically still a new fandom for me… But, if it hadn’t been for Gail Simone’s Babs… well, I might not have really given comics much of a chance. I mean, I’d always been interested in them, but felt I couldn’t get into that world. Simone’s run on Birds of Prey changed my opinion on that. Then we had her with New 52 Batgirl… And well, from Babs I’ve now got a whole array of comics I’m into. Superhero and non. Frankly, without this fandom, I probably wouldn’t have sought out other geek bloggers… wouldn’t have known about the Female Geek Bloggers community. And I’d be lacking some amazing women in my online life.
EDIT: OMG. I have no idea how I neglected to include this on here… NINTENDO » Nintendo was the first gaming system that I had. My brother and I would spend hours on our NES and SNES. And it was a sad day in our household when my brother jumped over to Playstation and I missed out on the N64 and Gamecube. So basically I went from the SNES to the Wii. And now, the Wii U is a part of my daily life. My loyalties run strong and I have been so blessed to be a part of the official Nintendo Ambassadors. (Although, that seems to be fading since they’re primarily only working with YouTubers now.) I have so many fond memories between playing games, going to events, going to Nintendo’s North American headquarters… And most of all I have made so many amazing friends through my Nintendo community. They are a great group of people and I cannot wait until we can have a gathering, hug it out… then pummel each other with shells in Mario Kart.
So what about you? Any Fandom in particular that helped make you who you are today?