Being a fangirl is something that so many teenage girls across the world can relate to. Whether it’s going to your favorite singers' tour or watching them on a livestream from your room, sharing the same type of admiration for your favorite celebrities has been a way to connect with others for decades. Saying you’re a fan of someone, like Taylor Swift or Gracie Abrams, is a means of cultivating genuine friendships with people that can relate to being a fan as well.
A massive factor of fangirl culture is attending concerts. Going to see your favorite artist live, especially with your friends who also love them, is easily the best part about being a fangirl. My favorite part of concerts I’ve previously attended has been meeting people that I instantly know I’ll be friends with for a long time. Whether it's becoming close friends with the girl who stood right by me at a Gracie Abrams acoustic show after we unknowingly had already talked in
a TikTok comment section days before, or becoming friends with another girl who stood behind me at the same concert and seeing Gracie with her again five months later, I always look forward to going to these shows because I know I’ll meet so many amazing people. My favorite part of the concert experience is meeting people in line. Lining up for a concert back in September at 8 in the morning, I was admittedly nervous. I
was by myself, I didn’t know anybody, and I was in an unfamiliar area. Despite that, I found connection and a fun way to pass the time with the girl I was sitting next to. We may not have known each other prior, but we bonded over our love for the same artist, and even found out that we had been to the Eras Tour on the same day.
The immensely popular social media app, TikTok, has been used by fangirls as a way to connect with each other. Posting their concert clips, merch hauls, album theories, or even just lip syncing to one of your favorite songs, shows fans that there are other people on the Internet that like what they like. 9 times out of 10, people become "mutuals" by following each other, or, even better yet, become friends.
Although many adults say that you shouldn’t talk to strangers on the internet, it's been the main contributing factor to the building of friendships that, although they may seem hard to understand for parents, end up being such a positive influence on someone’s life. The friends you meet through fandoms can almost always be people you can rely on, even if they live on the other side of the world.
The friends I’ve made through being a fangirl have easily been the most genuine friends and people I have had the privilege of knowing. From the girl I met in an Instagram editing group chat four years ago and who lives in a whole different continent, to the girl I became friends with two weeks ago who lives across the country, I know that I will always be able to connect with and count on my amazing and beautiful friends, who I’ve been so lucky to meet. I love my friends, and I love being able to connect with them over the people we both love.
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