Wars, hunger, elections, movements, etc. With so many things going on in the world today revolving around each other's real world issues, some people may be stumped when thinking of people fawning over their laptops voting for their favorite "ship" to win an award or watching scenes of their favorite movie or show on a loop on YouTube or live blogging a new book release. Or maybe they are wondering why people argue about what character or ship is better when people on the news are arguing about "important issues." I personally do feel that these are valid questions as some people honestly do not get the fandom lifestyle and why people act the way they do about fictional characters, stories, and/or relationships when they could be focusing on real world topics. However, I feel I do have an answer that can help shed light on the why to all the "fangirling" and "fanboying" in the universe.

I am a fangirl, and a proud one at that. I watch scenes of my favorite couple on YouTube. I like to vote in polls that have to do with the forms of media I love whether it be books, movies or TV. I love reading a book and telling people I know to read it too, and explaining how it will emotionally tear them apart or make them fall in love with something or someone. I enjoy getting into heated discussions with others over ships, shows, what character will live or die next episode, whether a movie sequel will tank or be better than original, etc. I love finding others online or in real life who feel just as passionate about what I like. I love going to conventions and being surrounded by people who share my same love for certain things. I am a fangirl. That is who I am.

Being a "fangirl" or "fanboy" means you are passionate about something usually fictional. This means you love to immerse yourself in a certain fandom and what comes with that. It is not wrong or bad to love something so much even though it may not be real. What would be wrong is not feeling that passion for anything. When you feel a love as strong as a "fangirl" or "fanboy" may have for a ship or TV series, it feels great. It makes you feel like there is a world of possibilities out there for you to discover. There are new people to meet, cons to attend, episodes or movies to watch, scenes to fawn over, scenarios to speculate, discussions to get into, etc. Being in a fandom and having that ability to create things surrounding what you love (whether it be fan art, an article, or just a simple status) and/or interact and freak out over occurrences in the fandom, can cause some of the best feelings in the world for some people. Fandom life is like an escape and a comfort zone. It is not only where people can share their love and pride over a certain thing, but also encouraged to do so and allowed to feel safe and happy while doing so. Sometimes we need that place in which we can feel that we can love something without being judged or freak out over a simple scene and over-analyze a line of dialogue over and over again, especially with others.

Something that people seem to think about people who spend so much time and money at conventions or merchandise or "fandom life" is that we only care about that and nothing else. This is 100% false. Many accounts I know whom are mostly fan accounts will occasionally talk about their personal lives, express their beliefs on political and social issues, and more using their accounts. They have jobs, families, friends, etc. While being a "fangirl" or "fanboy" is a part of our lives, it is not our only life. Just like a high school athlete's life is not all sports and a music lovers life is not all listening to their iPod or going to concerts. It is a fun and enjoyable part in our life in which we love to immerse ourselves whenever we can, but it is not 100 percent of our life.

Being in a fandom is a means of escapism. We know and acknowledge that there are "bigger issues" in the world, but we also want to spend our time voting for our ships in polls or watching fan videos created by others. The reason is that by immersing ourselves into these fictional worlds, we find other things to worry, love, hate, etc. These things may or may not be real (like band or actor/actress fandoms), but we know that. We realize that deaths happening around the world or potential wars or elections, etc. are important and most likely more important than fandom news. That does not mean however we want to stop and only focus on those aspects of life. There are so many horrible and awful things that are occurring in the world. Being in a fandom means we can take a break from worrying about politics or social issues or deaths and disease, etc. and worry about if our favorite characters are going to die in the next episode or if our favorite ship will kiss in the season finale or finally get together.

Do these things trump real world issues? Most likely not. However, being able to to enjoy characters, a show, book series, etc. and even use these things to help with our personal lives is a way for us to have something fun, extra, and positive to focus on instead of all the negatives. We do acknowledge the bad in the world, but that does not mean we want to focus on it 24/7. Many people, even who are not in a fandom, like to take time to focus on things that make them happy, and while we may focus on them to more of an extreme sometimes, it is all in the name of good fun. We feel happy and passionate about these movies or books or shows or couples or people or whatever, and we will not apologize for it.

Being a "fangirl" or "fanboy" means unapologetically loving things, which means we won't apologize for our tears when our fan favorite dies in the mid-season finale, our cheers when a character we hate gets killed off or a couple we love gets back together (or together, finally), our cosplay for convention, hours spent debating with others on what will happen next season on our favorite show, or if the book-to-movie adaptation will be just as good as the book, because that is who I am. I am a fangirl and that is something I will not feel sorry about.