Snowflake Challenge 2025 - Day 2

Challenge #2
In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story.

I think I've already written about this, but it's always nice to take a stroll down memory lane.

I stumbled upon fandom (more specifically fanfiction) in my first year of university. I was browsing through random fansites about The Cure, when I found a site that hosted "slash". I had never heard about it before and wanted to know more, so I clicked on the link... And my life has never been the same. I'm not even exaggerating: I found dozens of websites about fanfiction, joined mailing lists, met people from all over the world who shared the same passion for writing. After a while, I started writing too. Of course my first fics were awful (and not just because English isn't my native language), but I improved over time. I also started drawing again and realised I still loved it, even if I wasn't as talented as I would've liked.

I've been in many fandoms since then, and there were years when I wasn't active at all, I was merely reading fics or looking at fanart, but I really couldn't imagine how my life would have been had I decided not to click on that fateful link.