Sophie's Monologue

Part of a Fandom

A fandom... A community... A family... 

However you want to call it, it's an amazing place to meet people who have the same passion as you. People who share the same interests as you and that you have something in common with. It's a special experience that will stay with you for ever and ever. If you have a fan account, like me, then you will know what it's like to make friends online. They are people who you have a connection with and you share similar interests with. However, when you meet that person and not knowing that one day, you two will become the best of friends is special. Really special. It's a surprise. Something you won't know about until the future.

I joined my first fandom back in 2017. Back then, I had only just got my first phone which was a Nokia 630 (what a brick!) which also had internet disabled because my parents are strict. I didn't mind it though because it was still my first phone and I was really happy to finally get one after so many years of not having one. 2017 was also the year where I did end up watching a lot of TV, mainly CBBC because there was nothing else on any other channel that I liked. It was the morning of Thursday 26th October 2017 and it was currently the half term holidays from school when a My Life documentary was being broadcasted. It was for a duo called Max and Harvey who were Musical.ly users at the time (but after Musical.ly merged with Tik Tok - they joined Tik Tok). They were showing this documentary in two parts, one on Thursday and one on Friday. 

It was one week after that documentary was broadcasted when out of curiosity I decided to look them up. They had a few songs out and their YouTube channel so I decided to give them a listen and I realised that I really enjoyed listening to their music and I loved watching some of their videos. I created my first fan account on a friends' phone which was called 'majestic_mills' and that's when I began starting to make edits. In December, on the last session of Tae Kwon-Do for the year, I also discovered that one of my friends was also a fan of Max and Harvey as well. We decided to start a joint account together called 'thegalaxymills' which was fun. We managed to get tickets to go and see them in concert and we ended up getting a meet and greet upgrade which was really cool. When we arrived at the venue, the line for the meet and greet was huge and it was a long wait in the queue to meet them but when we finally did, they were really sweet and even hugged us. We got our photos taken with them as well (please note that the photos and videos that day were taken on my old phone and I wasn't able to back them up without the internet so in the end they just got deleted). We watched the soundcheck and then it was the concert and we managed to get loads of videos of the support act and then the main performance. It was really loud but I still had a great night.

In May, I decided to quit the fandom for a while. Why? Because I started to realise that it was getting really boring for me. So I ended up deleting my fan account and the joint account because also my friend didn't want to use it anymore either and there wasn't a point in me keeping it if I was going on a break anyway. I created like a "time capsule" kind of thing to put all of my merch in whilst I was on my break. I didn't return to the fandom until August and I came back with a new look (profile picture, bio and edits) and a new account under the new username of military.mills and I posted fan fiction stories, edits and pictures of Max and Harvey. I also met so many people and I made so many lovely friends (I don't speak to any of them anymore). 

I used to watch F1 a lot when I was little. We would watch the qualifying live at my grandparent's house and then the race the next day at home but as a kid, I easily got bored so I stopped watching it. In 2018, as I was still in the Max and Harvey fandom, there was nothing else on TV to watch so I decided to watch a F1 race and every time it was on, I would try to watch it if I had nothing to do and I fell back in love with Motorsport. In early 2019 (about January or February time), I decided to officially quit the Max and Harvey fandom and switch to the Motorsport fandom after I saw Billy Monger's documentary. It was really moving and it made me cry so much. I realised how quickly I was becoming a fan of him and my first fan account was created for him. It was called itsbillywhizz. As well as that account, I also had two other fan accounts as well. One for Lando Norris called landos_nandos and one for George Russell called georgerussellracing (both of which got deleted).

Not only did I watch F1, I also watched other Motorsport series' as well which is how I got my other fan account. He wasn't well known in the international scene because he just races in the UK but I became a fan anyway. I made edits for him and supported him a lot more which lead to me deleting itsbillywhizz in the middle of June 2019. I focused on my new fan account for a bit but it got to the point where I didn't post for an entire month. It was also when he stopped racing in the series he was currently racing because he was testing for another series and I got bored of it. As that was going on, I slightly noticed that I was starting to become a fan of another driver (not in the series that my current one was racing in but another one). I was already following one of the drivers in that series so I watched him race many of times before that. But this one felt different. It felt special. I created a fan account and I have been active on there for 7 months now and it's been an amazing experience. Now he's my new idol and I support him with all my heart. He's so funny and so sweet and I'm proud to be his fan. I met him in September and that was the best day of my life (as well as my birthday and Christmas).

I know I had loads of fan accounts but my actual fan account I have now is my official one but it was so hard to find a driver who I support like I do to my current one. If you reached the end of my fandom story, I thank you for getting this far. It's been a phenomenal experience and there will definitely be many more years in the Motorsport fandom for sure. I have met so many people over the past year and I would like to thank each and everyone of you for your support. Thank you!