Fansplaining

Three panels from Mary Sue. On the left, Cassie sits on her bed in her fandomly decorated room, writing in a notebook. In the middle, a closeup of Sherlock with excerpts from Cassie’s fic: “Her words were fire in Sherlock’s soul, spurring him on. Sherlock didn’t come all this way for Markus to lose his soul. He didn’t travel through time and space to find the one man who had ever seen him for who he truly was.” On the end, Markus and Sherlock face to face. Caption says, “He stepped into Markus’s space. The anger burning.” Sherlock says to him, “if you don’t find your way back to the good in your soul…then I will return to the past….and forget all about you.”

“I found writing Mary Sues a way to give me the courage I needed to tell a story, to explore themes I was working through, in the safe space of a fictional world I loved.”

@megfitz89.bsky.social writes about her new comic, MARY SUE, “a love letter to fandom”: www.fansplaining.com/articles/rec...

When I initially talked to @megfitz89.bsky.social at SDCC about promoting Mary Sue when it came out, I thought, "You are going to write something for me." 😈 I'm so pleased to be able to run this essay & excerpts from the (fantastic!!) first issue. A work about fic fandom from a fic fandom person!!

Trigger warning -- I talk about some of the death threats I've gotten in the past, and how those death threats led to writing Mary Sue. (starting with the death threat I tell at parties bc it makes me laugh)

ALSO, if you haven't read it yet, the end of the piece links to an extended preview!

Reclaiming the Mary Sue — Fansplaining Mary Sues are literary tools like any other. My new comic, Mary Sue, interrogates the continued bias against these characters—and brings one life.

Our October piece is live! 💞 @megfitz89.bsky.social writes about MARY SUE, her indie comic about a fanfic writer for a CWesque vampire show whose Mary Sue character comes to life.

This piece is part essay about Mary Sues, part excerpt from the first issue. Read or listen to a full audio version:

when someone gives you the chance to actually make good on your IN THIS ESSAY I WILL threat, you take them up on it.

Two panels from the comic "Mary Sue." In one, Cassie (long brown hair, glasses, black "Riverview" t-shirt) sits on a couch, typing on a laptop, with two speech bubbles: "They not internet friends. They're more than that." and "They're my fandom friends." In the second panel, Cassie stands in white space with three attached speech bubbles: "My fandom friends listen to me." "They support me." and "They like me."

We're putting the finishing touches on our October piece, an essay from @megfitz89.bsky.social (who's written for DC Comics, Supernatural, and many other fan-favorite properties) about her new indie comic, Mary Sue, which is—you guessed it—about a fic writer! It'll be out on Wednesday! ✨

This is today! ✨

Congratulations!! 😍😍😍

(Meghan was a Fansplaining SDCC 2025 panelist—and she’s the author of our October piece! She’ll be diving into her experience writing Mary Sue in an essay with excerpted images, though don’t wait til that’s out to get yourself a copy!)

Yes! I recorded the article too which was a lot of fun (in between my cat trying to sabotage the project)

Image of the Huntr/x trio from Kpop Demon Hunters at a fan event holding up pens, a stack of books for signing in front of them.

Your weekend read! 💓 @bookshop.bsky.social digs into the complicated intersections between the skyrocketing Kpop Demon Hunters fandom vs the (real) K-pop industry & fans.

As always, if you prefer listening, we've got a full audio version along with the text! www.fansplaining.com/articles/kpo...

Black, green, and red graphic for a NYCC panel flier. Date in green: October 12, 2025. Time and room in white: 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM | Room 409. Title in big white letters: THE FANDOM EFFECT: How Fans Shape Pop Culture. Logos of NYCC, Wattpad, and Webtoon at the bottom.

It's been FOREVER since I've been to New York Comic-Con, so I was very pleased when I was asked to be on a panel this year! If you'll be there, please put this one on your calendar. 🥰

K-Pop’s Demons, Real and Fictional — Fansplaining Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters has seen massive mainstream success in the U.S. What does that mean for real K-pop artists and their fans?

"If no one expected KPDH to take over the latter half of 2025, does that mean it’s a game-changer for K-pop as a whole, or a fluke that has nothing to do with the broader K-pop fandom?"

In our latest, @bookshop.bsky.social explores the wild success of Kpop Demon Hunters—and what it means for K-pop:

Why yes, I did respond to @bookshop.bsky.social's news about no longer being at Vox with a) a great deal of sympathy and support b) a very loud WOULD YOU WRITE FOR ME. 😅 I'm thrilled to publish such sharp reporting on these complicated fandom intersections—all editors should do the same!

it was so nice to write about K-pop and about fandom again! 🩷

K-Pop’s Demons, Real and Fictional — Fansplaining Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters has seen massive mainstream success in the U.S. What does that mean for real K-pop artists and their fans?

Our September piece is live! 💞 @bookshop.bsky.social digs into the smash success of Kpop Demon Hunters, the complicated state of the K-pop industry, and why, despite media narratives, the fictional and real streams of K-pop might not actually be crossing.

Read or listen to a full audio version:

everyone should read Tessa's @fansplaining.bsky.social essay! It's so so so so good and gets deeply into the nitty-gritty of writing original fiction and IP fiction and fanfiction. You will love it.

Since quotes are going around from @readingtheend.bsky.social's excellent @reactorsff.bsky.social piece today, here's the full essay I wrote last month on fandom, trad publishing, IP, and navigating it all from a more personal perspective:

Yaaaay! (Free agent sounds so sexy lol) (hire me)

*All right, fine, there's no mention of these two in the piece, but FAN FAVORITES amirite??

Image of mythical creatures Derpy and Sussie (blue tiger and hat-wearing bird) from K-pop Demon Hunters.

We're putting the finishing touches on our September piece, which is out tomorrow from (now free agent!!! hire them!!!) @bookshop.bsky.social on....you guessed it: K-Pop Demon Hunters!* And its intersections (or lack thereof) with K-pop fandom itself.

"In the case of several recent and forthcoming trad published books openly connected to the Dramione fandom, it reasserts the value of canon created by a heinous TERF, directly funding an anti-trans agenda that gets real kids killed."

PREACH

The Fan, the Pro, and the Spaces In Between — Fansplaining Writing for Star Wars challenges me to interrogate fandom power dynamics—and figure out where I fall in a rapidly shifting landscape.

"Power doesn’t care about joy. Ultimately, it only cares about value, which means money. Trad publishing loves fanfic right now because it sees dollar signs instead of kudos."

In our new piece, @tessagratton.bsky.social tackles the messy intersections between pro entertainment and fans right now:

ICYMI here's my essay on navigating the queered spaces of fandom, pro writing, and complicity with power

This essay by Tessa Gratton is a journey! It's about being queer, being a fan, being a pro writer, being a fanfic writer, and the ways those things ping off each other, and more, and it is amazing and relatable in all the best ways. ❤️

This is such a beautiful, thoughtful essay, and I'm so pleased @tessagratton.bsky.social wrote it for me!! On the societal power structures (aka money) that bestow cultural capital, publishers' changing attitudes about both queer fiction and fanfiction, protecting fannish joy, and much, much more.

🫣

The Fan, the Pro, and the Spaces In Between — Fansplaining Writing for Star Wars challenges me to interrogate fandom power dynamics—and figure out where I fall in a rapidly shifting landscape.

Our August piece is live! 🚀 Novelist (and Fansplaining SDCC 2025 panelist!) @tessagratton.bsky.social on about the complicated intersections within their own fannish identity: writing for Star Wars, writing original queer fiction, and writing fic.

Read the piece or listen to a full audio version:

My Wicket era!

heh I feel like we'd suck the fun out of this question immediately—too many instances of seeing the "fandom elder" status weaponized/invoked as a resistance to critique. Some of the replies suggest this is someone who is too tired to discourse but.......that is clearly not all fandom elders lol.

Photograph of a young Tessa dressed as Wicket the Ewok

Just putting the finishing touches on our August piece, which will be out tomorrow: a beautiful essay from @tessagratton.bsky.social about the complicated ways they've navigated the fan-pro divide. Here's a sneak preview: