Fandoms have had a tumultuous history. For decades, the fangirlies were derided by the media and public as being crazy/silly/hysterical et. al, while no one gave a two hoots about men weeping over people chasing a spherical, sometimes oval, inflatable around a patch of grass.
Then a lot of young women with newfound internet access realised they didn’t have to buy into this narrative, and there was a groundswell of support for the sheer joy and community (and occasional heartbreak) that comes with being a fan – Tavi Gevinson’s been a proud fangirl since Rookie swept through the internet; books like Fangirls by Hannah Ewens were released (a very good deep dive into the power of fangirls and the way they’ve been portrayed by the media); and platforms like Shit You Should Care About are unashamed in broadcasting their longstanding love for a one Mr. Styles to their 3.4 million followers.
More recently, however, artists like Chappell Roan have also called out their fandoms for dodgy behaviour, with Chappell saying on TikTok, “It’s weird how people think that you know a person just because you see them online and you listen to the art they make. That’s fucking weird! I’m allowed to say no to creepy behaviour, OK?”
Meanwhile, Ariana Grande told Vanity Fair, “I love them always, but I think sometimes they can hurt my feelings,” adding, “It’s a hard relationship I think, that’s sort of weirdly parasocial but it feels very real to me.”
Extremely valid points from two people who are extremely aware of the peaks and pits that come with fandom. And while we can probably all agree that people should not be absolute weirdos when it comes to celebrities, we can also probably all agree that we can’t tarnish everyone in a group of millions of people with the same brush. And for every fan whose behaviour borders on toxic, there’s another diligently weeping over lyrics and sifting through every detail to hunt out the most subtle of easter eggs.
All that to say: obviously we’re not condoning creepy behaviour! But as former (and current) fangirls ourselves, we do appreciate – and understand the power of – a good old-fashioned fangirl/boy/they moment. So we put a callout to our Ensemble readers for their top fan stories - here are some of the best.
• “Only the Twitter girlies know this, but when I was 15ish I lied to my parents that I was going on a school trip and flew to Auckland, Perth and Melbourne for [One Direction’s] Take Me Home tour.” Do your parents know now? “They definitely do NOT know; the only person in my family that knows is my brother.”
• “I used to sleep on the street for multiple nights for tickets to Saturday Night Live. It was the standby line! So you weren’t even guaranteed a seat in the show. One time I camped out for two nights and didn’t get in, and I cried so much they gave me tickets to the next week's show lol.”
• “On the day Steve Jobs died I went to the Apple store to pay my respects. It was also my 14th birthday.”
• “I saw KJ Apa and Cole Sprouse in Tekapo in 2019. They were in the car ahead of us so I opened my car door and tried to jump out. I had to be restrained when I was halfway out of the moving vehicle… they waved their hands out the window though.”
• “I was – and am still – obsessed with The Vampire Diaries. I changed my name to Angelina Salvatore on Facebook and email during high school, then when I was moving schools, I emailed my new school to check if I was registered… They got back to me saying there’s no Angelina Salvatore listed. I had to tell them that’s not my real surname, that’s just a name I’m using as my email – when really I was actually going by Angelina Salvatore everywhere else! I've rewatched the series so many times, some episodes and scenes more so than others, and I’m still obsessed. My passwords to this day all relate to TVD because I’ve never gotten around to changing them since school… and some of my Facebook profile pictures used to be my face edited on Elena’s face between the Salvatore brothers… oh gosh!!!!”
• “I just spent $9k on a trip to Vancouver to see Taylor’s last show of the Eras tour… Anon please, I’m over 40 but Dad would still kill me if he knew I was blowing cash like that.”
• “I used to regularly send memes to Britney Spears in the hopes that she may see them and we would eventually become besties. Also, blocked from sending any more.”
• “When I was younger One Direction came to the town I lived in. There was a picture of Harry walking on this one random bit of footpath that a fan took, so I made my dad drive me back to the exact tile of the footpath and took a picture there.”
• “I was a huge Spice Girls fan, collecting memorabilia and buying every single piece of media about them (including buying The Truth newspaper whenever they were on the cover, lol). My friend group and I were so obsessive that we tried to make our teachers call us by ‘our Spice Girl’ names – we eventually ended up being sent to the deputy principal who told us off for being intense and unhinged.”
• “I waited in line for The 1975 concert for over 30 hours and slept on the street. I ended up meeting them so a win is a win.”
• “My friend and I were at a small Harry Styles gig in London, and snuck upstairs afterwards to the VIP section where there was an open bar. Low and behold, Harry himself came out eventually to chat to everyone. When he came near us I was too drunk to form a legible sentence, but I offered to take a picture of him and my friend together. Naturally, I didn’t want one – because I thought that would ruin my chances of him asking me out on a date one day.”
• “Waited hours at the barricade through many, many, many other bands to wait for Iggy Pop, then got on stage with him. I don't know if it's wild/silly or funny but it was my proudest fan moment.”
• “My friend and I caught the bus into the city to hang out in the basement of radio station ZM, because somehow we knew that boyband Blue were inside doing an interview (this was pre social media; I have no idea how we found out that information). We were the only fans there, and each got a photo with them when they came down to leave. I was wearing a denim skirt, grey polar fleece zip up from Glassons and a pink watermelon print singlet that had been on the cover of Dolly magazine. Peak 2001!”
• “Probably that I spent two work days live blogging so I could have a chance to get a ticket to the Eras Tour.”
• “The first year [One Direction] came to Auckland, we literally slept outside the Langham hotel on the street all night. The second time, we tracked their private jet from Japan, drove to the airport, parked in the BP car park and waited for their cars to come out, joined their convoy to find out what hotel they were staying in and worked out it was the Langham again. So we called and booked a room (specifically on the floor with the gym/pool access) before they arrived – and managed to meet Liam and Harry.”
• “Two of my friends and I got front row tickets to Westlife. One of us caught a sweaty towel they threw, but in the interest of fairness my friend’s grandma divided it into three pieces – overlocked edges and all – so we could each get a piece of it.”
