Do you ever envision yourself in a world you saw in a movie, book or show?
In our vibrant and accessible media landscape, it feels only natural to picture yourself in a “Star Wars” space battle or walking in the halls of Hogwarts. Imagination knows no limits when we have a wide range of media to choose from.
Whether it be through fan art on Pinterest or fanfiction on sites like FanFiction or Archive of Our Own, creating their own media inspired by existing stories allows fans to engage with media more deeply.
Although fan-created media sometimes faces unfair criticism, this artistry goes beyond idle creativity, allowing people to explore facets of themselves through existing media.
Nou-Chee Chang, a communications graduate student at the University of Minnesota who previously studied fandom media, said people tend to draw what they want from media.
“All media texts speak to various social, political and cultural aspects that people gravitate toward and find resonating,” Chang said. “Audiences then pull parts from these texts that they find align with them to create avenues in developing their own identities.”
Ruth DeFoster, an assistant professor in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said that while the concepts of fandoms and fan media date back centuries, the accessibility of online platforms and our increasingly consolidated media landscape encouraged members of Generation Z to grow fandoms and engage with fan-created content.
“There are two elements,” DeFoster said. “One, it’s accessibility, and we all have tiny computers in our hands, so we can access the internet whenever we want. Two, going back to my pop culture class, it’s political economy, the consolidation of media, and the fact that four or five companies own every single type of text that we consume.”
DeFoster said these societal factors also led to the increased popularity of fandom culture among young people. In turn, Gen Z moved away from older stereotypes like “jock” or “nerd,” instead using fandom labels as self-descriptors.
Alexa Mayerhofer, a communications graduate student who studies East Asian media and fandom culture at the University, said the dynamic and positive nature of fandom labels appeals to young people.
“The younger generation is tired of having an identity prescribed to them by society based on how they look, or their ethnicity or their gender,” Mayerhofer said. “Being part of a fandom, none of those typical labels apply, and anyone can take part and participate.”
This attraction to fandom labels and fan-created media is paralleled by the rise of fandom media sites like Archive of Our Own, which saw a record of over 40 million new comments in 2024. The site reached over 8 million registered users in January, with an estimated two accounts being added to the site every minute.
Despite this boom in fan-created media consumption and the crucial role it plays in identity exploration and creative expression, the stigma that it is a lesser form of art remains. Fanfiction, for example, is often derided for not being original or a legitimate form of expression.
Chang said part of this stigma comes from the idea that fans do not have the right to control characters or worlds in media, as many major franchises have strict protections for intellectual property.
“It’s a radical act of play, performance and imagination,” Chang said. “Creating these fan-texts pushes against copyright and ownership, which may deem these activities as illegitimate or illegal.”
DeFoster said another major component of the stigma around fan-created media is the dismissal of women’s interests. The criticism of female-dominated fandoms is similar to the negative perception of romance novels, another major media source read primarily by women.
“Especially if you think about musical fandoms like BTS or girl and boy bands, those are often trivialized as being the domain of especially young women,” DeFoster said. “But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t interrogate them.”If we want younger generations to be able to further explore their identities in a healthy way, we must address the stigma surrounding fan-created media.
If art and literature were strictly graded on originality, even non-fandom media would face scrutiny. Creative acts are inherently derived from the artist’s experiences, and it’s natural for these stories to overlap and contain similarities. Pure originality is an impossible standard.
Likewise, if we dismissed everything women like, we wouldn’t have classic pieces of media like the “Star Trek” series, which had a loyal female fanbase that helped convince NBC to keep the show on the air. Women play key roles in our cultural landscape, and they do not deserve to see their interests, fandoms or fan-created media looked down on because of their gender.
Media should be reviewed and graded on its own merits, not on its perceived originality or its fanbase.
Don’t be ashamed of reading or writing fanfiction, creating fanart, or otherwise engaging with fan-created content.
Our media helps us find ourselves, and if you find yourself through fandom media, then that media is no less important than any other creative work.