What if Harry Potter died as a baby when Voldemort tried to kill him? What if Tony Stark never became Iron Man? Fanfiction gives these ideas a chance to become reality.

Fanfiction, also referred to as “fanfics,” are stories about real people — generally celebrities — or preexisting characters from a book series, TV show or movie, written by fans.

People typically write fanfiction on platforms like Wattpad, Archive Of Our Own, Fanfiction.net and Tumblr. AO3 and Fanfiction.net are platforms specifically for fanfiction, making them some of the more popular websites for readers.

In the unsupervised wilderness of the internet, sexual content is an omnipresent feature of fanfiction.

“It’s very easy to come across [explicit content on fanfiction platforms even] if you’re not actively searching for it,” said junior Anna Sofia Abelgas. “For every three pieces that are not explicit, you’ll find maybe three more that are. You can’t really restrict anything … because it is a public platform. It’s so easy to just lie about your age, so there is that big problem if you’re a minor and you’re reading explicit content.”

Sophomore Urjaswee Debnath was first exposed to mature fanfiction in second grade.

“I think popular fanfiction websites need to take accountability and make it harder for explicit content to be … available to minors,” Debnath said. “When I was a second grader and I read … [fanfiction], I was a little bit traumatized. It really impacted my development.”

Sometimes, reading fanfiction comes with embarrassment since it isn’t given the same prestige as traditional books.
“I think [reading about celebrities is] embarrassing because we stigmatize it,” Abelgas said. “Mainly because there is the problem of ethics when it comes to reading about real people. But when it comes to comic book characters and TV characters, there’s less of an ethical problem since they’re not real. There’s also the idea that you’re reducing [the person] down to just a face, so that’s why it can be kind of embarrassing for me. Even if I try to reason with it, I’m still objectifying someone. I have that moral dilemma.”

Fanfictions are known for their exaggerated portrayal of romance and relationships.

“I think … fanfics … [have] a reputation for being explicit,” said junior Zoe Neil. “I don’t know if it’s entirely undeserving of that assumption. You can definitely find stuff that you’re not really ‘supposed to’ online, but I feel like you could do that for any other kind of literature besides fanfic.”

While fanfiction doesn’t always include explicit content, it isn’t uncommon, and it’s very easy to come across with the growing access of social media among younger age groups.

I think it’s less about an appropriate age and more of [a question of is] the kid mature enough to deal with [explicit content] and is a parent or older sibling willing to have conversations about those topics that come up,” Neil said. “I think placing it on age gives us a tendency to say, ‘Oh, once you’re 13 you can deal with this’ without knowing if kids have the support structure necessary to deal with these topics.”

Readers argue that it is vital for young readers to know their own limits and keep their feelings in check as they interact with fanfiction.

“If you’re reading a fanfiction that makes you uncomfortable in any way, shape or form, you should … [exit] out of [the tab],” Debnath said. “You shouldn’t be messing up your mental health or stability just for a piece of writing.”

Despite fanfiction’s negative impacts and portrayals, readers may find a silver lining in the community surrounding it.

“[The fanfiction community is a] really tight community,” said sophomore Rosalind Lumos. “I feel like it’s pretty easy to get along with the people in a community when it comes to fanfiction. It’s really easy to get in touch with them. One of the interesting things about Wattpad is [that] a lot of the time the comments are really funny … and then everybody else starts replying to those comments and making more funny [comments]. You can really start to meet new people from that.”

Fanfiction has gained immense popularity over the last decade, with more young consumers and both positive and negative impacts. Younger people are writing and reading more, and fanfictions are creating stronger communities and bonds between readers and writers. This, however, occurs at the potential expense of children who may prematurely access explicit content.