When I was younger I wrote fanfics, drew/edited fanart, and made fanvids of shows I loved. I, uh, torrented Photoshop and video editing programs & taught myself how to use them out of FANDOM NECESSITY. I was always made to feel these activities were dorky & useless back then...

...BUT LET ME TELL YOU, your girl just made a FUCKING BADASS VISUAL PRESENTATION for a pitch next week, using all those skills. I feel fanfics, fanart etc. are a traditionally female-majority space, and a lot of times these artists and skills are seen as less-than.

Everything I do professionally now, I can trace a firm line back to those "useless" extracurriculars I did as a kid. Whether or not you do fandom in prep for a career, or if it is a personal non-career passion, these are REAL creative skills, and you are an artist.

Anyhoo, I'm going to go back to banging my head against the wall for this pitch now, bye!