There is no feeling in the world that compares to devoting every fibre of your existence to wholeheartedly adoring an artist – it’s something so all-encompassing and indescribable.
It’s the heart palpitations when you feel like you’ve heard their name in public. The instant feeling of connection you get when you meet another fan. The late nights spent waiting for an announcement to drop. And most of all, the raging feeling that you’d defend them at all costs.
To the unanointed, I probably sound supremely unhinged. However, if you’ve ever loved, lost and stanned as I have, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Every hallmark and milestone of my life has been marked or can be pinpointed by some sort of memory surrounding deep and intense stanning. I grew up in the era of peak-Tumblr, Wattpad, the Instagram toaster-filter, and fandoms ruled the internet.
The ability to just love without the fear of being judged and completely express your passions was so important as a teen – which is exactly what the musical FANGIRLS (playing at the Seymour Centre this Summer) is all about.
It’s returning for a second season after it’s sell-out debut run last year and revolves around the shenanigans that the fourteen-year-old Edna (who is head-over-heels in love with ‘Harry’, the lead singer of ‘True Connection’) encounters – sounds pretty darn relatable if you ask me.
It celebrates universal fandom experiences that bind us together, that you tend to forget how impactful they are as you get older. Witnessing it come to life on stage is powerful in that it kind of validates everything you’ve ever felt in the most hilarious and heart-warming way.
The portrayals of singing through your tears, and screaming bloody murder throughout the musical personally resonated with me on a spiritual level – here are a few of my crowning stan moments that mirror this:
- Spending an ~entire year~ making signs, an outfit and devising a plan for the Taylor Swift ‘Red’ Tour. Her mum noticed my group running around the Sydney Football Stadium and invited us to sit in the VIP front row section for the show.
- Meeting Tonight Alive at Soundwave and fainting in the middle of Olympic Park after because I was so overwhelmed.
- Seeing Peirce The Veil and All Time Low for the first time with my group of high school friends who were absolutely ballistic for both bands.
- Meeting and interviewing Fall Out Boy as part of my job a few years ago after being the biggest stan for years and being too nervous to have a conversation with them.
^^Me on the far left v clearly on the brink of spontaneously combusting.
All of those moments and more are just fuelled by pure, unbridled joy. I know that being taken to the medical tent at a festival because you met your favourite band is the furthest thing from cool, but I’m so glad I have memories like that.
To solidify the point that having a stan phase is the most important developmental period one could possibly encounter, here are a few other key observations I have made during my time:
Fangirls are the backbone of the music industry
There is no spender more powerful. Every inch of paraphernalia is donned, tickets purchased, and music is streamed out the wazoo.
The connections you make are undeniable
The friend group I have from high school and so many people I’ve encountered IRL or on the internet since have instantly connected over a mutual past of stanning.
You also learn to navigate social media to track down managers, publicists and artists’ team members in an extremely swift manner, which is a nifty networking tool for the future.
Me and my high school BFF’s first-ever festival vs. our most recent one. The glow up is clearly real.
You will learn fundamental life skills at a young age
Navigate every major public transport line in the city, booking hotel rooms, coding Tumblr pages, making friends with complete strangers in lines outside of venues – all-important life skills stans learn before they’ve even finished year 10.
Fangirls have a higher-order understanding of marketing and social media than most industry professionals
Fangirls are the earliest adopters of any new platform and singlehandedly market artists with swifter marketing schemes than any major label.
Despite all of this from the dawning of time, fangirls have copped an unfair amount of abuse from cool tastemakers and gatekeepers in music. It’s rooted in the ugliest kind of sexism and pretentiousness that’s used to make teenage girls feel terrible about themselves.
The irony of it all is that these so-called tastemakers end up adopting the artists as their own years after the fangirls amplified them to the heights of success (*cough, cough to anyone who discovered The 1975 after 2014, I’m side-eyeing you*). But anyway, that’s a discussion for another day.
Whether you’re reminiscing on your days spent as a carefree young’n blissfully loving your favourite band or still have extreme stan qualities (me with Charli XCX, Phoebe Bridgers, the list goes on), I think we can all agree there is nothing more wholesome on this planet than a fangirl.
You can catch the Belvoir St Theatre production of FANGIRLS at the Seymour Centre from January 30th to February 20th 2021.
