Fandom and YA Literature presentation from YALSA's 2012 YA Literature Symposium. Presented by Robin Brenner, Liz Burns, Leslee Friedman, and Aja Romano.

1. YA Literature
and Fandom
presented by Robin Brenner, Liz Burns, Leslee Friedman, and Aja Romano

2. “Fan fiction is what literature might look like if it
were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear
apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies
trapped in a sealed bunker. They don’t do it for
money. That’s not what it’s about. The writers write
it and put it up online just for the satisfaction.
They’re fans, but they’re not silent,
couchbound consumers of media. The
culture talks to them, and they talk
back to the culture in its own
language.”
The Boy Who Lived Forever -Lev Grossman, Time Magazine

3. What is fandom?
• The idea of fandom developed in the 19th century, originally in reference to
sports fans. In the ’20s, the sci-fi community adopted the term, and it’s been
around ever since.
• What can be a fandom? Anything! One might be a fan of cats, for example, and
make fanvids, stories, art, and cute gifs about them. Basically, the Internet is the
cat fandom.
• OK, seriously, what’s with all the interest in making straight men gay? Fandom is
subversive. If a canonical worldview is entirely straight-white-male, then fans
will actively resist it. Freeing homoerotic subtexts from restrictive source
canons is a rebellion against heteronormative constraints.

4. Speaking like a fan
• Canon
• Fanfiction • Pairing
• Fanon
• Cosplay • OTP (one true pairing)
• AU (alternate universe)
• Fanvids • Ship (short for relationship)
• PWP (plot what plot?)
• Filk (fan music) • Gen (no romance)
• Crossovers
• Crafts • Het/Slash/Femslash
(m/f, m/m, f/f romance)
• RPF (real people fiction)

5. The legal thing
• Fanfiction has been around since Virgil read The Iliad and said to himself, “But what about Aeneas? I want to
know more about him!” ...These are impulses that have existed for centuries and have nothing to do with the
creativity or morality of the writer—only the love they have for the source material.
• The debate over the legality of fanfiction centers around whether you believe fanfiction is derivative or
transformative. "Derivative work" implies that the secondary work adds nothing to the original source in value.
"Transformative work" implies that the fic is building on to what the canon started.
• Fanfiction’s free status generally keeps it safe from lawsuits, although not from cease-and-desist letters.
However, if a case can be made for the fanwork as transformative, the U.S. copyright “fair use” clause is fully
protective of the work, whether it is done for free or for profit.
• Legally, courts are undecided about whether fanwork is derivative or transformative. The Wind Done Gone
(published fanfiction of Gone With the Wind) was ruled transformative, but then a sequel to Catcher in the Rye
failed the transformative work test just three years ago.

6. Pride
The King Little
and
Odyssey Lear Women
Prejudice
The
Pride
The Mrs. Sherlock
Illiad Dalloway Holmes
Wizard and
of OZ
Prejudice
Robinson
Sherlock Jane
Crusoe Beowulf
Holmes Eyre

7. Pride
The King Little
and
Odyssey Lear Women
Prejudice
The
Pride
The Mrs. Sherlock
Illiad Dalloway Holmes
Wizard and
of OZ
Prejudice
Robinson
Sherlock Jane
Crusoe Beowulf
Holmes Eyre

8. Much
Ado Sherlock Charles Jane
Hamlet
About Holmes Dickens Eyre
Nothing
Persuasion The Strange
Case of
Pride Jane
Twelfth Dr. Jekyl
Macbeth and Eyre
Night and
Prejudice
Mr. Hyde
Edgar The Turn
Romeo Don Frankenstein Othello
Allen Poe Hamlet of the
and Juliet Quixote
Screw
Sherlock

9. Much
Ado Sherlock Charles Jane
Hamlet
About Holmes Dickens Eyre
Nothing
Persuasion The Strange
Case of
Pride Jane
Twelfth Dr. Jekyl
Macbeth and Eyre
Night and
Prejudice
Mr. Hyde
Edgar The Turn
Romeo Don Frankenstein Othello
Allen Poe Hamlet of the
and Juliet Quixote
Screw
Sherlock

12. Curseworkers fan art by D. Rodil

14. Fandom is...
• Fun! Escapism is a bit part of the appeal
• Creative. Remixing and reinvention is the norm.
• Quality. It may take some digging, but high quality
work is what makes fans stick around.
• Inclusive. Participants find representation in fan
works that they are missing in traditional works.

15. Fandom is...
• Speculative. Fans love filling in gaps, asking what if,
and expanding favorite universes.
• Focused on relationships. Shipping is key to many
fans, and they are finding their romance fix online
rather than in print.
• All about characters. More than worlds, fan works
allow fans to spend time with, critique and
reimagine their favorites.

19. 100
Number of Respondents
80
60
40
20
0
1 5 10 13 16 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Age of Respondents
50
Number of Respondents
40
30
20
10
0
1 5 10 12 14 16 18 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Age Discovered Fandom

20. How do your describe your gender?
MaleOther
5% 3%
Female
93%

21. Questioning
Asexual
Gay/Lesbian 2%
3%
4%
Mostly Gay/Lesbian
How do 5%
your
describe Straight
40%
Bisexual
24%
Mostly Straight
22%

22. Where do fans participate?
Teens Adults
• fanfiction.net
• Livejournal
• tumblr
• Archive of
• deviantArt
Our Own
• YouTube
• tumblr
• Livejournal
• Archive of Our • Fanfiction.net
Own
• Fandom archives • Dreamwidth

23. How do teens participate?
• 97% read fanfiction, looked at fanart,
or watched fanvids
• 85% written fanfiction
• 79% participated actively in fandom
communities
• 55% created fan art

24. Why fandom?
“I like the endless remixing. I like the incredible talent
and creativity people show. I like how the familiar (characters I
know, at least from other sources) remain familiar and yet
change. I like the interconnectedness of it, how
fanwork is in a conversation with other fanworks and with the
fannish community. I like that my standards and
interests are the norm in my part of fandom,
not the exception. I like that there are warnings, that I
can find what interests me by tag, and that I can read exactly
what I'm looking for. I like that it's free, created in a gift
culture, something that is made for love and shared out of
love. I like that I never run out of things to read.”

25. Fandom criticizes
“Fanworks are the branding that help me to
appreciate a franchise better. When someone tries
to sell me on a show/book/movie, they usually try a
certain premise or emotion that will appeal to me.
Fanworks are the other end - there's nothing
left to spoil, we know how everything
turns out, and now we can get down to
the analysis, commentary, remixing, and
laughs.”

26. Superheroines in sweaters by Hanie Mohd
haniemohd.tumblr.com

27. Fandom is community
“I've made several friends who are just as nerdy as I
am, even if they don't go to my school or live in the
same city. It's reassuring as a teenager,
when the social pressures of high school
are very real and very present, to know
that it's ok to love something enough to
interact with it the way you do with a
fandom.”

28. Fandom dislikes
“Bad spelling or grammar, weird narrative
conventions, kinks that squick me, animal harm and
death, child harm and death, torture porn, sloppy
storytelling, characters who cry constantly when in
reality you could destroy their world in front of
them and they would barely flinch, everything.
Every flaw that you can find in
published work is in fan fiction, too. But
in fan fiction, I can hit the back button
and easily find something better.”

29. Fandom teaches
“I'm writing more and better, and I have a
much clearer perception of how important it is to
have depth and subtext - reading the volume
of fic I have has made me a more
critical reader in a way that public-school
English classes couldn't (robotically finding and
interpreting literary elements is dull work that does
not necessarily encourage complex thought).”

30. Fandom fills gaps
“It's given me endless amounts of joy, introduced
me to the entire concept of gay...as a completely
non-controversial thing thus probably shaping
my entire life past 7th grade:
I have no idea how me figuring out I
liked girls would have happened
without fandom, but as was, it was
literally a completely nondramatic
affair.”

31. Authorship
“It's certainly made me appreciate more just how difficult
creative work can be. Mostly, though, it's made me feel that
once you have created an original work and
let it out into the world, those characters
you've created are no longer entirely yours.
Every person who reads about them or sees them will take
those characters into themselves and read something
different into them, and all of those readings are
equally valid and equally fascinating.”

32. When is it ok to make
money off of fan works?
• 87% writing about fan culture
• 81% creating and attending conferences
• 73% from crafts and costumes
• 52% selling fanwork once copyright has expired
• 46% rewriting an AU fic and publishing it
• 10% publishing fanfic without alteration

33. Fandom inspires
“When the spirit moves you, you create, even if
it's a 500 word drabble about werewolves in space.”
“I began writing fanfiction 3.5 yrs ago and after I
developed a substantial following, I eventually
started writing original fiction. I've now
been published, something I wouldn't
have imagined before I became heavily
involved in fandom.”

34. Fandom encourages
“Before fandoms, I thought you needed a
fancy degree or a medal from the queen
to write ACTUAL stories. But when I figured
out that there is more to life then internet explorer and
neopets, I realized that kids were writing.
Everyone was writing. And everyone could
do it. Then I started to do it. AND LIKE
WOAH. I honestly think I started writing stories
because I started out writing fanfiction. And now I
want to minor in creative writing. ”

35. The Malfoy family in the style of Earl Oliver Hurst by Makani (website | deviantArt | Art Challenge)

36. Calvin and Hobbes fanart by kizer180 | deviantArt
Calvin and Hobbes by ontheshoresofthebroken

38. The Hunger Games by Faith Erin Hicks | deviantArt

39. William Riker by John Allison
Creator of Scary Go Round

40. Kate Beaton Hark a Vagrant! #213
Science Bros parody of Kate Beaton by nikitomuchachos

41. The various Sherlocks by lowlighter, lowlighter.tumblr.com
Sherlock fanart by sdkay

42. Soldier by J.C. Leyendecker Captain America aka Steve Rogers, by 菊叔

43. Teen interviews

44. Avengers fanart by Noelle Stevenson | gingerhaze.tumblr.com