There are many fandoms out there. Here are a few ways to tell if you are part of this fandom:
1. You enjoy the show surrounding the fandom.
2. You tend to go crazy if you see related merchandise (plushies, cookie jars, clothes, etc.)
3. You find random references to the show in everyday conversation.
4. You fangirl/fanboy if you see an actor/actress from your favorite show.
However, there are ways to be a part of a fandom without being crazy. Normal fans tend to do things like buy clothes related to their favorite shows and watch multiple seasons of the show in one sitting on Netflix. There are few things that make you an over-the-top crazy fan. These things include:
1. Creating sexy pictures of characters out of your favorite shows (seriously? No..just..no).
2. You spend all of your time writing fan fiction, or creating fan-made music. Fan fics and fan music sporadically is normal, and if you are sporadically making music or fiction, this implies that you have a normal life.
3. You want to cosplay when you look nothing like the characte. Really? Cosplaying can be cool (if you look like the character), but if you have to dye your hair, then you have no business trying to cosplay. Seriously. Don’t. You’ll only embarrass yourself. If you want to dress up as the character, go right ahead, that’s not embarrassing. But if you want to do serious cosplaying, at least try and make sure you LOOK like the character you want to cosplay as.
4. If you want to do original animation, at least make sure your animation skills are up to par. If you suck at drawing or animating, don’t do original animation. It looks bad.
5. Wearing only clothes that relate to one show as your entire outfit (or wearing different clothes from different shows altogether) looks REALLY weird. Trust me.
6. Going to a convention once a month. This only works if you’re part of several fandoms. If conventions for one fandom happen once a month, go to a few of them, not all of them. Going to all of them will make you seem like a crazy person.
Being in a fandom is great. It helps us shy folks make friends, and it helps you bond with people you meet at conventions. I’m not saying that all people in all fandoms do crazy things (though there are some seriously crazy people in all fandoms). Being a fan is super fun. If you want to be crazy, go crazy at conventions. If you want people to know who you are, introduce them to your fandom. Wear a fandom shirt when you walk out on the street, and proudly show that you love something and don’t care what other people think. Just try to avoid going over the top. As a famous person once said: “I didn’t choose the fandom life, the fandom life chose me. The fandom life grabbed my hand and whispered ‘run.’ The fandom life sent me a text saying, ‘If convenient, come to 221B Baker Street. If inconvenient, come anyway.’” Oh wait…Yeah…I did choose the fandom life.