In this episode of Femsplaining, Rae and Jenna sit down with Alessandra Ferreri, the Head of Content at Wattpad, to deconstruct the massive cultural footprint of fan fiction.
Once relegated to the niche corners of the internet, fan-driven pieces of work have transformed into a billion-dollar industry and a primary engine for modern entertainment.
We dive deep into the mechanics of digital storytelling and the socioeconomic shifts that allowed fanfic to move from underground zines to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list.
As the Head of Content at Wattpad, Alessandra oversees the strategy for the platform’s massive library of stories. She sits at the intersection of technology and creativity, identifying the fics that hit hardest with millions of readers across the globe and helping bridge the gap between amateur creators and professional entertainment powerhouses.
Featured Guest: Alessandra Ferreri.
This is the conversation you've been waiting for. Subscribe now and join the Femsplaining community!
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It went, we got it. We're recording.
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Yeah, I think that was the first time that Ray and I have not
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been mid conversation when we started the podcast.
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It's it's always something, it's either a mid conversation or
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we're complaining about errors on either end.
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So it's still on brand, right? It's like.
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Ray says it often that we like it here at Feminist Planning to
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feel like you are eavesdropping on us or sat down at the table
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in the middle of our conversation.
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That's great. That's the best type of
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listening. Well, we are here with us, a
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very special guest today. Alessandra, do you want to
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introduce yourself? Tell us a little bit about what
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you do. Sure.
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Hi, I'm Alessandra. I am the head of content at
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Wattpad. For those of you that aren't
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familiar with Wattpad, it is a global digital storytelling app.
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We are the home of ton of stories, fan fiction, original
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fiction, basically everything under the sun.
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And I have the enormous privilege of getting to run our
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content team there, which means I basically get to look at, you
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know, what's moving and shaking on the platform.
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What are our users interested in?
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Yeah. What are they excited about?
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So that's me. That's.
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So that's so fun to just follow the trends, especially like in
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the media landscape where, you know, Netflix and Prime and all
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these these streaming services are adapting from Wattpad or
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Webtoon or whatever. You know, it's interesting to
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see how how those are chosen. Like is there ever, is there
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like an algorithm to it or do you just kind of keep your
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finger on the pulse of what has a lot of views or?
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Yeah, I mean, it's a it's a mix of both.
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So we kind of look at basically a mix of art and science.
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So obviously I have a an incredible team of and experts
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that have, you know, their finger on the pulse of pop
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culture and things that are happening on the platform.
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We read a ton. We're really engaged on what's
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going on on in pop culture, but also on the platform and how
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that's relating to each other. So it's kind of our job also to
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figure out, you know, what is trending on Netflix and Prime
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and then how do we see those responses percolate on the
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platform as well. So it's it's definitely a mix,
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but obviously we have access to a ton of data as well.
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So we try to keep our eyes on both.
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There are millions of stories on Wattpad, So not like we can't do
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it all alone. So we obviously like lean into
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the science of it all as well. But yeah, it's a nice mix and
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it's there's something new every single day, I would say.
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And Speaking of pop culture, we have a very specific topic
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today, right, Ray? Yeah.
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Steve the hair, Harrington, That's that's what, that's all
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that that's going to be, right? Yeah, that's it.
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If you guys tuned in to hear about Stranger Things, we're
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sorry. This is a Steve only podcast now
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Alessandra, please, please tell me you were among the Steve
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Can't Die camp this camp. Absolutely.
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Like do not touch a hair on that head.
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He's like, so from a writing perspective, I like to sometimes
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look at things like as a writer and he has had one of the best
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arcs. I don't even want to say
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redemption because he was never like evil or bad.
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He was just a douche kind of. But like I just love him so
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much. Sweet boy.
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Any intention that the showrunners had for that
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character I think was like wholly transformed by Joe Cary
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the second he stepped into those shoes.
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So whatever they had intended, whatever was in that pitch deck,
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he transformed it in a way that I think is pretty magical and
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will be something to keep out like Lookout for from an
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archetype perspective for a long time.
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Yeah, I remember I was, I was caught up.
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I've been watching the show since it came out 10 years ago.
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And it's funny because I then I got my sister to watch it and
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she was caught up by the time the new the last season came
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out. And then my mother is, is
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watching it too. So my sister and I would go
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upstairs and watch like the new episodes from season 5.
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And we'd come down and mom would go, is Steve OK?
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Is is he OK? Like, OK, he's OK.
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I won't tell you anything else, but he's OK.
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He's definitely one of the top, like when we look at how Watt
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powder's are looking at Stranger Things and Steve Arrington is
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definitely the top of the list. Like he's he's definitely an
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inspiration for many. Writers a lot of ynx Steve
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fanfic because that that's the fanfic that I'm.
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I'm not. Again, it actually is 100%
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correct. I think there's like there's two
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sides of it too. I think there's like, put me in
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Hawkins, put me in that world and I want to explore what what
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I would be like in that scenario.
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But then I also really want to meet Steve Harrington in that,
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in that timeline. So absolutely, I think original
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character X reader Steve Harrington, those are those are
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the things that people want. It's actually Rey riding them
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all. So if you're if you're going to
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like. That if you see any that also
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have Pedro Pascal and Oscar Isaac kissing, mind your
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business. Damn, you did it in 5 minutes
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this time it's a it's a running a running trend here where every
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episode since the premiere we've somehow mentioned Oscar Isaac
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and Pedro Pascal kissing. Amazing.
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That's the hey, if it doesn't exist, you can write it right?
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There's a platform for that. There is a platform for it and I
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appreciate that. I think that that's kind of what
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I love about Webpad is that it's such like a user friendly and
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like first writer friendly space.
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And it like, really encourages that creative aspect for a lot
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of writers within fandom, without that judgment or
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pressure of things to be perfect, but still allowing for
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engagement. Yeah, it's definitely, it's part
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creative platform, part social platform.
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And if you want to engage in fandom at to any degree, really
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like those are the two things that you want.
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You want to feel like you're open creatively, creatively, but
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then you also want to feel like you're able to connect with
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people at the same time because like, what is fandom if not
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participatory? So yeah, Wattpad kind of hits
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both bases really, really well. And it's obviously people love
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it for that reason. Right.
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And and tagging back on to the topic of Stranger Things, like a
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very big criticism that came from the final season was that
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people seem to want it, wanted it, wanted it to end like a
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fanfic instead of looking at it like the completion of a whole.
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So as someone who is like, you know, you're reading these
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fanfics, you're watching them. Did you see that coming, that
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that trend of the whole, you know, filer coming before it
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even aired? We did track, I mean, we
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obviously like to track these like big kind of cultural
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moments that are happening, especially with a franchise like
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Stranger Things just in general. But I found that we always see
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like a nice uptick of fan activity, regardless of like
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whether it's the last season or like any kind of season, we tend
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to see those spikes because people get inspired, right?
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Like I think even if you're unhappy necessary with like how
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things played out, I think if showrunners are doing a good
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job, it's inspiring in some way. Like you are either rage
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inspired or happy inspired, whatever it is, it's still like
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emotional in some capacity. And so then Wattpad becomes that
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container for that emotion. You can like, OK, I have post
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serious depression. Like I don't know what to do.
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I'm not in Hawkins anymore. Like it's done or I'm like
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devastated about what happened near the end of it.
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I think it gives you, you're allowed to like fill those gaps
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and in that space that feels, it's almost like aftercare, like
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you're kind of like, OK, now I can go and like, you know, feel
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better. Either find a fig, write a fig,
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any of that stuff. And I think it also kind of
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avoids leaning into a level where it can get a bit toxic
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from a fandom, like whether it's parasocial or whatever that is
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because fan fiction in particular is like where you
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can, when those emotions are extremely high, you can just
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like put it in a fig and you're not, you know, rage commenting
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on someone's Instagram or something.
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You're actually like exploring it through a really healthy kind
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of creative lens instead. So we definitely see that.
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I think we've been watching, we've seen people that written
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fix in the past come back to them because they're like, oh,
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I'm like newly inspired. I have new canonical information
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that I can put into my story. Or people starting, like, net
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new and getting excited because they want to, you know, again,
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put themselves into Hawkins or, you know, meet Steve Harrington
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in some way. I would never want to go to
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Hawkins. I always would.
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I'd watch the show. And I'm like, why does anyone
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live there? Like get out, what are you
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doing? But like a fictional version of
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you, wouldn't you be like, could I like, isn't that a kind of a
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cool? What is to be like?
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I would. Die.
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I would die. I know my limits, Ray.
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Ray would probably. I think Ray could.
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Survive Hashtag final girl, Yeah.
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No, Ray would be like like Nancy, like Rambo style.
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Like that's one of my favorite things about it was about the
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show too, was her progression and how it really depicted a
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girl who went from a stereotypical meek any girl,
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college high school girl to this.
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She was a leader like at the end, this absolute badass
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leader. And I mean, have you has there
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been a big response to that? Like, or is it mostly like ship
00:09:09
content you're seeing? Like what sort of things are
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coming out of this? Good question.
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I haven't pulled like any of the detailed data on that side.
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I know that like from the from the very like top, it's very
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much that OC, you know, X reader kind of exploring in Hawkins.
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I will say also there is a real there's always an interesting
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thing. This is maybe just the way
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fandom is moving in general, but I find that especially the
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breakout stars that are in these big franchises, they tend to
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also blend with their characters a little bit.
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So for instance, you have the Steve Harrington, Joe Kiri
00:09:46
version, you have the Finn Wolfhard, Mike Wheeler.
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But that's not just specific to Stranger Things that I find is
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that blend. You're kind of getting that it's
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not just the character, fictional characters, but you
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also have the real person in there.
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So I see that trending pretty often.
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It was similar to the Percy Jackson fandom as well, where
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Logan Lerman like years ago, like had a hot minute on Wattpad
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and it's because, you know, he stepped into this iconic
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character role and people just loved him.
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And so I think that there that's a really interesting thing that
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we noticed when it comes to how our users are exploring fandom.
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It's like not always just within the franchise.
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They really do spread out and they really do get creative with
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it. You will have to pry Logan
00:10:31
Lerman's Percy Jackson out of my cold, dead hands because listen,
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I love the new one. I really, really love Walker.
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Walker Schoble. I never know how to say his last
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name. He's fantastic.
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But Logan. Logan Lerman.
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It was just so iconic and it was like so of that time period.
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It just, it breathes nostalgia in a certain kind of way.
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He's just, he's so talented, like he to me was Percy, but so
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is Walker. And I think that that's really
00:11:01
hard to do when you reboot a franchise because people are
00:11:04
always going to say this is my Spider man.
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No, this one's my Spider man. Like it's always, a lot of times
00:11:08
they can't exist side by side, you know, except.
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When they can, which is in however you want to creatively
00:11:13
put it into some sort of fandom, whether it's fan art or fan
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fiction. I think that's why what's so
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exciting about watching how fans take ownership and become like
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co-authors of these legacies. Like it's you can even think
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about it like I can think of Game of Thrones or Stranger
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Things. Like any big franchise, you are
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the fans now, because fandom is pop culture.
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It means that the fans are, it's not passive.
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Like we're not just watching media, we're being inspired by
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media and then we're kind of creating it in our own.
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And that could be a TikTok video and it can also be a fan
00:11:44
fiction. There's so many versions of
00:11:46
responding to that, but even that is leading to its own
00:11:49
fandom, which then inspires its own response to it again.
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So you're kind of, it's a weird little like inception of fan
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creations, which I think is pretty exciting to watch it
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happen. Right.
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Well, isn't, I mean, isn't fan fiction how I always think of
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the first thing, the first work to really jump from fanfic to a
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massive phenomenon? I think of 50 Shades like those
00:12:11
all those years ago as I date myself, but that was, at least
00:12:16
from what I can think of, one of the first examples of fanfic
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becoming its own. Franchise, yeah, yeah.
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And now look at how many you can hear.
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There's so many examples of that type of thing.
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Now, I think that when I look at specifically Wattpads kind of
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legacy in these spaces, it's like if we don't have these
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alternative spaces, if we don't have digital communities to pour
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out this energy and this like emotional reaction to things,
00:12:44
and we would never have these types of franchises.
00:12:47
And like these are where they they're getting the new
00:12:49
generation of really big fandoms are becoming are like being born
00:12:55
in a really wonderful way. So I think yeah, it's really
00:12:57
important to have these alternative spaces like Wattpad
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AO3, like wherever they are online Tumblr, so that those
00:13:03
voices can kind of have a chance to flex and pergolate a little
00:13:07
bit more and then become whatever they're going to
00:13:09
they're meant to become. So it's it's exciting to watch
00:13:11
and I think fan reaction is pretty integral to how
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franchises and fandoms have lasting power.
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And if you think about it like, so coming back to stranger
00:13:21
things, you know, you might have a visceral reaction to the
00:13:24
finale or have your feelings about it one way or another, but
00:13:27
it's that reaction that you really want at the end of the
00:13:29
day. Like I was honestly, I have my
00:13:31
own opinions about the finale, of course, but at the same time,
00:13:34
I'm also delighted that people have reactions to it because it
00:13:37
means that I get to go on Wattpad and see what what they
00:13:40
turn into. Like, I know like conformity
00:13:42
Gate, for instance, is like the coolest little that I heard of,
00:13:46
which is such a great, it's such a great example of how fans feel
00:13:50
the sense of ownership, how they get deeply creative about how
00:13:54
their response to that ownership.
00:13:55
And like in this case, taking a page from like the Taylor Swift
00:13:59
book of sleuthing to be like, you know what, we're gonna
00:14:02
actually create our own vision for what this could be and what
00:14:05
could happen. That's kind of a really good
00:14:08
example of if you put that into a story, like imagine someone
00:14:12
wrote that, I would read it in an instant, you know?
00:14:14
Yeah. That would be a great spin off,
00:14:16
right? Totally.
00:14:17
I know Rey reads reads a lot more than I do, so I'm sure you
00:14:23
could speak more to like the fanfics and like the novels that
00:14:26
have been adapted. I know there's that big Kylo Ren
00:14:30
Rey one, right? That Daisy Ridley's husband.
00:14:33
Yeah. Yeah, that's.
00:14:35
There it is, there it. Is did you read it?
00:14:37
I have not because I'm not a Reylo person, but I do know that
00:14:40
it's like basically like a cultural phenomenon that like
00:14:43
people really have latched onto, especially like since that like
00:14:47
really propelled that author into like what she is now.
00:14:53
But I think like that's like my favorite part about fandom is
00:14:55
again that fan ownership and how much they like get attached to
00:14:59
characters and story where they feel like this deep
00:15:02
responsibility to honor those characters when in their opinion
00:15:05
writers don't. I also have a lot of opinions
00:15:08
about The Stranger Thanks finale, if you can't tell the
00:15:11
nuance of what I'm saying. But yeah, I think that's kind of
00:15:14
what I love about fandom, is that you can attach yourself to
00:15:18
a world that someone has built and create off of that and make
00:15:23
something so wonderful that people really resonate with.
00:15:26
Yeah, let the IPAI think become the scaffolding for your own
00:15:30
inspiration. Right.
00:15:31
Exactly, let them let it be like the bolt, the nuts and bolts,
00:15:34
but you can fill it with whatever you want to fill it
00:15:36
with. And that's such an honor too.
00:15:38
It's such a like wonderful thing to I mean, everything is based
00:15:41
on something else in some capacity.
00:15:42
Like you can look at it across, you know, the across time.
00:15:48
But now it's getting like really acute where you really do see
00:15:50
those inspirations, especially when you drill it down to like
00:15:53
trope or archetype. Like there's so many ways to
00:15:56
cherry pick what kind of flavor you're interested in and then
00:15:59
apply it to your own your own ideas.
00:16:02
I really enjoy how people are really accepting and leaning
00:16:06
into loving tropes, whereas it used to kind of be almost like
00:16:10
like it was a dirty little secret if you liked a certain
00:16:12
trope, right? And now people are openly either
00:16:15
saying I'm writing this or I can imagine on your end, you're
00:16:17
seeing upticks in certain enemies to lovers, right?
00:16:21
You do you see that sort of trend?
00:16:24
Yeah, well, it gives us a universal language to describe
00:16:27
like what we want to see. Like we're basically choosing
00:16:29
off of a menu now instead of having to interpret like, I
00:16:33
really want this vibe and we're trying to explain what it is.
00:16:36
It's like, no, I want a enemies to lovers set in space, like
00:16:40
whatever it is. Like there's you're able to kind
00:16:43
of mix and match that. And I also think it, it blurs
00:16:46
those lines between what traditional media or traditional
00:16:50
storytelling, whatever has to be and with what we just want it to
00:16:54
be. And that's becoming so much more
00:16:55
accepted. Before I, I've said this before
00:17:00
where I remember when new adult was in a thing, like it wasn't
00:17:05
something that a bookstore would have a shelf for.
00:17:07
It wasn't something that authors knew where to put, but they were
00:17:10
like, what do we do with this? These types of stories that are
00:17:13
between between the young adult, but also not quite adult.
00:17:16
They're kind of that weird, confusing, maybe sometimes spicy
00:17:20
time in between. And now new adult is everywhere
00:17:23
and it's like a very common thing, but I don't think it
00:17:26
would. It takes having that demand,
00:17:29
whether it's like online or in fandom or in fan fiction,
00:17:32
whatever, to start pushing those expectations a little bit
00:17:36
further and saying like, hey, bookstores, like can you just
00:17:38
put a space for this? Romantic is like another one,
00:17:40
right? Where, I don't know, like that's
00:17:41
a nice term that's been adopted forming.
00:17:45
Like I just want fantasy that's spicy.
00:17:47
Like that's what I want. And this is like the term that
00:17:49
we're using. So yeah, I think tropes allow us
00:17:52
to be really prescriptive of what we're looking for and then
00:17:55
allows creators to write in those spaces to be like, I'm
00:17:58
going to give you exactly what you want.
00:18:00
It's not just about happily ever after.
00:18:01
It's like, how do we get there? I want those milestones too.
00:18:04
So I think that can be that can be helpful.
00:18:06
But it also gives us spaces to then explore from there, right?
00:18:09
Like we're now very prescriptive about tropes.
00:18:12
We know exactly all the all the tropes are great.
00:18:14
So how are those tropes going to evolve Is also something that we
00:18:16
look at on the iPad side. It's like it's not going to stay
00:18:19
stagnant forever. It's not going to say one thing,
00:18:21
it never does. Part of my job is also looking
00:18:25
at how it's slowly starting to evolve in some way.
00:18:27
And I don't know the answer now because we're still fresh into
00:18:30
it. But in the next two, three, 5-10
00:18:33
years, how we define what we want to look for in our media
00:18:37
will be different too, which is very fun.
00:18:40
Oh man, you ruined my next question.
00:18:42
I was going to say what did? What is the evolution that
00:18:44
you're seeing? I don't know.
00:18:46
Yeah. But I think like new adults,
00:18:47
such a great example of one that I remember looking at like 5-10
00:18:51
years ago. Romanticism is a pretty newer
00:18:53
one as well that is like, oh, this one's like totally ready to
00:18:57
go and like has has been adopted.
00:18:59
So we'll see. Like that's kind of the main one
00:19:01
now. I'll keep you posted on what I
00:19:03
find. What's your favorite trope?
00:19:08
Mine. Oh my gosh, I really like the
00:19:13
only one bed trope, mostly because I really love how
00:19:17
writers get you there because it's such a specific 1 and in
00:19:21
most some cases it doesn't work. You're like, that's just
00:19:23
contrived. But in some cases it's so good
00:19:25
and you're like, yes, this is very it can be a very satisfying
00:19:28
1. So that one is one of my
00:19:30
favorites. That's a good one.
00:19:31
I think I always, I'm always kind of a sucker for a hurt
00:19:33
comfort. Of course you are.
00:19:37
Of course, I I'm very soft and I just.
00:19:41
Require so much comfort I. Require.
00:19:44
What about you? Right, so deep I'm.
00:19:48
You're everywhere. Soul mates person.
00:19:52
I'm one of those people. My hopeful romantic really pops
00:19:56
off with my soul mates unfortunately.
00:19:59
But now I'll. Have to be confused with Bates.
00:20:02
Yeah, wait, wait, let's get right distinguish it.
00:20:09
But now I was gonna say Alessandra with soulmates, as
00:20:14
Ray is talking about. That itself has become a pretty
00:20:17
broad topic. No, because then there's
00:20:20
different ways the authors interpret what constitutes a
00:20:25
soul mate, if it's like right Destiny or something along those
00:20:29
lines. Yeah, the way we kind of look at
00:20:31
it on platform is faded mates. I think that we just use that
00:20:36
that terminology because, well, one Wapat has a huge werewolf
00:20:40
community, like werewolf in general is just very big on the
00:20:43
platform. And so the faded mates, it
00:20:45
really does feed into that, but it's not specific to werewolf.
00:20:48
So yeah, I think soul mates, well, that's I think in general
00:20:51
with a trope, it's like what, like I said before, how do you
00:20:54
get us there? Like, how do you, how do you
00:20:57
create the world and the plot and the story around it so that
00:20:59
we're bought into that thing and it doesn't have to be
00:21:02
complicated. It can be pretty simple.
00:21:04
But if you're like promising we're going to get to that point
00:21:07
as soon as you start reading and you're you're getting set up,
00:21:09
you're like, OK, this is what I'm, oh, I'm, I'm in a soulmate
00:21:11
story. Like I'm ready to go.
00:21:12
And that's what I expect to happen at the end of it.
00:21:15
And writers are always very good at giving you exactly what you
00:21:17
want. If they're going to say it's a
00:21:19
soulmate story, faded mate story, like, of course.
00:21:22
So yeah. But we do, we see that quite
00:21:24
often. And I mean, that's maybe even a
00:21:26
bit of a Easter egg for kind of the larger.
00:21:31
Like, are we just kind of lonely right now?
00:21:33
Like, are we too disconnected that we're just like really
00:21:35
looking for soul mates? Sorry, Ray.
00:21:39
Like, like, I think that it is like a strong commentary on like
00:21:43
the desire for intimacy and connection that we have that
00:21:47
really manifests within the kind of parasoles of nature that
00:21:52
comes with fandom and the escapism that comes with fandom.
00:21:57
Absolutely. Yeah, I agree.
00:21:58
Yeah, I, I, I have to Fact Check myself on this because I've said
00:22:02
this a few times in a few different interviews, but I once
00:22:06
read that werewolf vampire, like those monster fix Frankenstein
00:22:11
of all those things of the sorts skyrocket in popularity when the
00:22:15
economy is poor. And I don't know exactly what
00:22:19
the relationship of that is. It is it if it's a reflection of
00:22:22
our own fears. But looking at fandom like that
00:22:26
to me is so interesting, like the trends of what becomes
00:22:29
popular due to external circumstances.
00:22:33
Mm, hmm. I agree.
00:22:35
I think it's the way that we kind of do it on Wattpad and the
00:22:38
way I like to describe it is we know that Wattpad is gonna be
00:22:41
that mirror to pop culture. So we know that either our users
00:22:45
are going to respond to something that they're seeing
00:22:48
externally or they're going to see a gap externally and then
00:22:52
they're going to try to respond to it by creating something.
00:22:54
So it kind of is like a nice cycle that goes round and round.
00:22:58
And so it could be the, it could be either, right?
00:23:01
It could be like, oh, I saw Frankenstein in theaters and I
00:23:04
was inspired to write my own version, for instance, or it
00:23:07
could be I am not seeing any Frankenstein's that are
00:23:10
reflective of the way I want to see Frankenstein.
00:23:12
And so I'm going to write my own.
00:23:13
And so I find that it can be, it can be one of the other and on
00:23:16
Wattpad, but it means that we get this continuous loop of
00:23:19
inspiration because it's either a response to or a response to
00:23:22
the lack of whatever is externally like in pop culture
00:23:26
or in media at the time. Right.
00:23:29
I mean, I know Race Frankenstein, Victoria is Oscar
00:23:32
Isaac and Pedro Pascal. Yeah.
00:23:35
Yeah, Like, what do you mean? I sent you the draft and you
00:23:38
said it was amazing. It's going up next month.
00:23:41
What do you mean? It's going to be Valentine's
00:23:42
Day? It's going to be great.
00:23:44
You know, now, now I kind of want you to write that.
00:23:47
Like, you can't even tease me like that.
00:23:49
That sounds really good. Oh gosh, one day, one day he
00:23:55
will get it. One day, one day.
00:23:58
Oh, but it it's it's. Very interesting, but on bot pad
00:24:02
right now, what would you say are the biggest fandoms that are
00:24:07
seeing the most output, seeing the most love?
00:24:10
Well, I mean, immediately Stranger Things really did have
00:24:13
a huge effect on the platform. Like if there we saw a huge
00:24:16
response in that in the demand for that fiction or the response
00:24:22
to like reading and writing it both on both sides as soon as
00:24:25
the finale in the last season came out.
00:24:27
So I think that is it shows you that, you know, we're not, it's
00:24:32
very difficult to get into these spaces where we feel like
00:24:34
there's monoculture, there's really isn't any monocultural
00:24:36
culture. But there is a little bit
00:24:38
sometimes in these like big events, especially for something
00:24:41
that has been going on for 10 years.
00:24:44
Like if you think about the culmination of the season that
00:24:47
we've essentially grew up watching, of course you're going
00:24:51
to have a response. So we definitely saw a lot of
00:24:54
energy around it, definitely shot up the charts during that
00:24:58
final season, especially during the finale.
00:25:00
I saw a post that made me laugh about it and it was like the
00:25:04
final chapter of my childhood just closed with Stranger
00:25:06
Things. I say as I'm 35 years old, I'm
00:25:09
like that's me, that's me. That's so real.
00:25:11
That does like kind of lean into like kind of a question and
00:25:15
curiosity that I've like kind of had in recent years.
00:25:18
With the culture of rapid consumption of media and art and
00:25:23
everything right now, are you noticing a trend of fandoms not
00:25:28
really having the staying power that they used to have?
00:25:32
That's a really good question. I want to say yes, because a lot
00:25:37
of the fandoms that we see that have the staying power are
00:25:42
older, like they are ones that have been around for a really
00:25:44
long time. So but not always.
00:25:48
I mean, we do see kind of blips come in and out again, it's like
00:25:51
constantly moving and shifting. So it just kind of depends.
00:25:55
But I think there are kind of the the big big ones continue to
00:26:00
remain like very, very big. You know, like we still have, I
00:26:03
mean, this is interesting to say now, but we still have a lot of
00:26:05
like Harry Styles stands on the platform.
00:26:07
I mean, now he's coming out with new, new stuff.
00:26:10
So it's going to only reinvigorate that.
00:26:12
But still, he hasn't really been as active in the last few years.
00:26:16
So but yeah, I think the ones that have that staying power,
00:26:20
you see the same thing off like in pop culture as well.
00:26:23
Like they're they're big and they remain big.
00:26:25
You know, like every year people rewatch Twilight, for instance,
00:26:28
or like, you know, there's, there's those kinds of things.
00:26:30
So we do see some of that reflected on the platform.
00:26:33
But again, it's so big, there's so many stories that there's
00:26:37
room for everything I would say. So I wouldn't have to worry
00:26:40
about like, oh, I have to write in this fandom because it's the
00:26:42
biggest one. It's actually the most exciting
00:26:43
when we see newer ones kind of pop up and yeah, and get a
00:26:48
little bit of attention. What's really funny to me is
00:26:53
that I mean, you and I met at near Comic Con this past year on
00:26:57
a panel, but I had done a panel right before for Web Tune with a
00:27:01
few Web Tune artists and our creators.
00:27:04
And every single one of them said, Oh, I started writing this
00:27:07
because it was Naruto fan fiction.
00:27:09
It was Naruto, all four of them. It was Naruto fanfic.
00:27:13
And and I'm like, that was like the first fanfic I wrote into
00:27:16
like there must be something about like that specific.
00:27:19
I mean, it's been around forever, but I mean, it's been
00:27:22
around for forever, for so long that I, you know, kind of like
00:27:27
you said, like Twilight, like it's been around for such a long
00:27:29
time, but I just found it interesting that all of the
00:27:34
creators all mentioned that. I know I love those kind of
00:27:38
gateway, gateway franchises that feel big enough that you feel
00:27:43
like you have a role in it, like you can exploit.
00:27:46
There's so many unanswered, unanswered questions or like
00:27:49
areas of interest that you can kind of play around with.
00:27:51
I do think Stranger Things is one of those.
00:27:53
Like I think it's a big enough world that obviously you can put
00:27:56
yourself in it in some capacity. And there are so many unanswered
00:27:59
questions that of course there's some a lot of room for
00:28:02
interpretation there. So those are so exciting to see
00:28:07
because imagine who the next iconic writer is going to who
00:28:12
like is writing fanfic right now, probably somewhere on
00:28:14
Wattpad is going to be in five years or in 10 years when they,
00:28:18
you know, who is the next alley Hazelwood or who's the next, you
00:28:20
know, there's so many of those. And I think the more that we
00:28:23
stay open to the idea of kind of exploring our own versions of
00:28:27
something, I think we can. I think there's a lot of really
00:28:30
promising talent out there. And these are these gateways
00:28:33
that we can all access. Right.
00:28:34
And like, regardless of your opinion on the Stranger Things
00:28:38
finale, I think all three of us probably have three different
00:28:40
three very different opinions. I think we could probably all
00:28:44
agree that it was very clever to end it open-ended because it
00:28:48
leaves it fully, the path fully open for fanfic writers, like an
00:28:53
Inception sort of ending. Where is it real?
00:28:55
Is it not real? It paves the way.
00:28:58
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It is.
00:29:00
It makes it when it's not satisfying.
00:29:02
It makes it satisfying in some way.
00:29:04
Like it's kind of both sides of the same coin.
00:29:07
Right, it's not. You don't have your concrete
00:29:09
answers, so you can make it yourself.
00:29:12
Right. Anything else that we wanna
00:29:15
touch on? Like I've kind of like talked
00:29:18
about like what I like really, really appreciate about Wattpad
00:29:21
as like a platform. And as you said, there's like so
00:29:23
many new talent out there and the engagement of fandom.
00:29:27
And I think that's such a beautiful and great thing about
00:29:30
the platform is that it's encouraging people to be
00:29:33
creative. It's encouraging people to find
00:29:35
those people that are going to resonate with the stories that
00:29:37
people want to tell and like kind of prove to young writers
00:29:40
like, hey, people want to read your ideas and they're worth
00:29:45
telling. And that's something that's so
00:29:47
amazing and really what we need in the current like, state of
00:29:51
entertainment and art. I just really, I really love
00:29:54
that your platform is doing that guys.
00:29:56
Like that's amazing. Yeah, I feel so lucky to get to
00:30:00
advocate for it too, because I totally agree with you.
00:30:03
I think in this day and age, we have access to so much media we
00:30:08
have access to. We have so many choices for what
00:30:10
we want to entertain ourselves with.
00:30:13
And it can be emotional and overwhelming and exciting.
00:30:17
And you can, you know, there's so many versions of like, how do
00:30:20
we consume our media and like, what do we do with all that
00:30:22
information? But then Wattpad provides these
00:30:24
spaces to make it just inherently creative and
00:30:27
inherently communal at the same time.
00:30:29
And so I think that's a really healthy outlet and more people
00:30:34
should use it as kind of this space where especially from a
00:30:36
creating lens and a creative lens.
00:30:38
Like I talk a lot about our writers and I feel so lucky that
00:30:42
we have so many brilliant writers on our platform who are
00:30:44
just pouring their hearts out and being so passionate about
00:30:47
the things that they love. And I think that that's just
00:30:49
like such a great thing to have in your pocket.
00:30:53
And it takes it. Yeah.
00:30:54
It provides that healthy, healthy outlet for what do we do
00:30:58
with all the all of our big feelings about a show or about a
00:31:01
character or whatever that may be.
00:31:04
And there's I've seen so many amazing use cases of, you know,
00:31:07
what could happen if you just Share your story, go out there
00:31:10
and put it somewhere. I totally, I wrote, I even wrote
00:31:13
a fanfic about Stranger Things. I'm not going to lie, I had this
00:31:16
feeling. I started it when the first
00:31:18
season happened. It's only it's a one shot.
00:31:20
It's just fine. But I like remember writing this
00:31:23
thing where when Barb, you know, Barb's ending felt, you know,
00:31:30
too loose ended to me. So I was like, what would that
00:31:32
scene look like from her perspective?
00:31:34
And then it was just like a quick little thing.
00:31:36
And then I ended up finding it a couple weeks ago before this
00:31:40
this the final season came out and just finished it up and
00:31:43
posted it on my on my little Wattpad thing.
00:31:46
And I was like, you know what? This is just a nice way for me
00:31:48
to bookend my experience watching the show is just like,
00:31:51
I started something in 2016, never posted, never even thought
00:31:55
about it again. And then me 10 years later, it's
00:31:58
like, let me just do it. A quick edit.
00:31:59
Let me just do a quick little Polish there and then why not?
00:32:02
Let's just like share it. It's kind of fun.
00:32:03
It means nothing, but it was like such a fun little exercise
00:32:06
for me to kind of celebrate the last season.
00:32:11
So that was my my personal contribution to the fandom of
00:32:15
Stranger Things. I love that.
00:32:17
Too, I think, I think it's very meaningful.
00:32:20
It's, you know, and I like when you go back and you read
00:32:23
something that you wrote a long time ago and you're like, damn,
00:32:26
this was actually really good. Earl, you're on to something.
00:32:30
You had a good idea. You really cooked with this one.
00:32:36
Yeah. So I think, yeah.
00:32:38
I, I think, I think like that's like what I love about phantom
00:32:41
space is that we're all just kind of using it as a way to
00:32:44
connect with other people. So like when you actually are
00:32:47
able to do that and find those people that you need to in
00:32:51
spaces like Instagram, TikTok, Wattpad, AO3, all of those
00:32:56
spaces is just so important to the human experience.
00:32:59
And being able to have those spaces.
00:33:02
I know, like when we were younger, like it was so hard to
00:33:06
find people that liked your stuff and we're able to talk
00:33:10
about it. So being able to have that like
00:33:13
as like a young person in fandom, like, I can't imagine
00:33:15
like how validating that must like feel.
00:33:18
And I think like that's, that's just so great.
00:33:21
It's such a positive aspect of fandom, which I think can get a
00:33:25
lot of, can get sometimes a little bit of a bad reputation
00:33:30
in terms of being a big, big emotional space.
00:33:34
But this is such a positive side of it is that it is a place for
00:33:36
connection and it is a place for creativity.
00:33:39
And there are these wonderful outlets that you can access that
00:33:41
can get you closer to finding more friends and more people
00:33:45
that share those interests. So yeah, it's, it's a really
00:33:48
positive and and inspiring place to be.
00:33:51
Yeah, I mean, I, I love, I love exploring how fandom connects
00:33:55
people because I'm just thinking about you too, both of you.
00:33:58
And I know you both because of fandom.
00:34:00
Like if it wasn't for fandom, you know, we wouldn't be here
00:34:04
right now. And I think it's like a social
00:34:07
media slash creative platform like Wattpad is creating the
00:34:12
next generation of, you know, podcasters, writers, bloggers,
00:34:16
everything. For sure.
00:34:19
So all to say, come find me on Wapad and we can chat there.
00:34:22
I'll leave some comments on your stories.
00:34:25
On Andre's Frankenstein fix that's coming out next month.
00:34:28
You guys will never know. I will look out for it.
00:34:32
Just gonna publish it in secret, then you're gonna be like that.
00:34:35
That's right, you weren't. You weren't secretive at all.
00:34:38
The hashtag says Pedro Pascal X Oscar Isaac.
00:34:43
Yes. Yeah, so definitely, you know,
00:34:48
check out Wattpad. The app is like, I love the app.
00:34:51
It's so it's so easy to navigate.
00:34:54
It's so fun to find what you want to find and so easy all at
00:34:57
your fingertips. And you know, books, you guys
00:35:02
have books published now, right? We do.
00:35:05
We got books, We got movies. I think one of the things that
00:35:08
I'm actually really excited about that I will totally plug
00:35:11
here is we have a really amazing community like that.
00:35:16
I'm not even talking about like the staff.
00:35:17
The staff is also amazing, obviously, but we have just a
00:35:19
wonderful community on the platform of writers who are
00:35:23
always cheerleading you in a some way.
00:35:25
Like they're they're cheering you on.
00:35:27
And every single month they basically do a mini Nanowrimo, a
00:35:31
30 day challenge to just like get you to start writing.
00:35:34
And I even participate in them sometimes.
00:35:36
Like I just think they're so wonderful and a great way to
00:35:38
just start an idea, get get it out there.
00:35:41
You don't have to finish it. You don't.
00:35:43
You can take it down. You can do whatever you want
00:35:44
with it. But knowing that you are in
00:35:47
doing a little writing Sprint with a whole bunch of people
00:35:49
that are also in these spaces. Doesn't matter what genre you
00:35:52
write in, what fandom you write in.
00:35:54
They're just there. So I, I tend to check in on, on
00:35:58
those communities quite often because they're creating such
00:36:01
neat things and it's always nice to be in on it.
00:36:04
So that was the one thing also that I think there's like the
00:36:06
big wonderful stuff like our published books and our
00:36:10
franchises that are coming out and that you can like watch on
00:36:13
Netflix and TV and everything like that.
00:36:15
But there's also these kind of grassroots new writing
00:36:19
communities that are popping up there that I also think are
00:36:21
really meaningful. So if you do have an idea, you
00:36:24
can just pop on there, start a little 30 day challenge, get
00:36:27
your first couple chapters up, see what happens.
00:36:29
I'll be there with you. I think that's a great way to
00:36:34
end this here. So, Alessandra, thank you so
00:36:37
much for talking to us today. Thanks for having me.
00:36:40
Yeah, we loved it. I speak for Ray.
00:36:45
It was fantastic to meet you. Thank you so much for spending
00:36:47
some time with us today. It's great to meet you and I
00:36:50
love that you chat about this stuff.
00:36:52
It's so it's great. It's like really refreshing.