Inclusivity, Representation, and the Authentic Self in Content Creating

[00:00:00] Portrait of a Fangirl is a web series and podcast created by Temple of Geek. At the

[00:00:10] core of the project is the importance of telling the stories of women who have found inspiration,

[00:00:15] growth, and power through fandom. My name is Jen Aran and I'm the host of the Portrait

[00:00:19] of a Fangirl podcast. Today I have the pleasure of talking with Alex Catherine. How are you

[00:00:23] today, Alex?

[00:00:24] I'm good. How are you? we were missing clues because we didn't watch something or read something and can we kind of bring people into that fandom with us? And then on top of that I also am a voice actor on Moon Harbor Heroes. It's an actual play podcast where I play Sheva based off of my own with it. It was so much fun to step in. We played a masks game which is it's not like Dungeons and Dragons. It's a little different because it's a little easier truthfully if you're trying to get into role-playing games there's less rules less restrictions and

[00:03:00] it's just a lot more relaxed. I liked it, and I've moved on. You became a fan. And it totally changed that negative outlook I had on the term. And to me, that's what being a fangirl is now today. It's being a fan of something and being a girl and, you know, that's okay.

[00:04:21] I've noticed really a trend among a lot of the women

[00:04:23] I've spoken to where there's this sense of fangirling

[00:04:27] being about passion. was there in theaters for that. So was I. I was I remember each one coming out the prequels and it's funny to see now this hype of the same level again. Okay but I'll be honest I went kicking and screaming. I was like I don't want to go this is gonna be lame. I want no part in this. I've come

[00:05:40] a long way. Right and I think that that is something was the choreographer for Newsy's. Yes. Which is what got me into dance and theater and choreography. So my question was meant to be somewhere along the lines of do we ever think that we'll make Newsy's a Broadway show?

[00:07:02] Which they did.

[00:07:03] They didn't.

[00:07:04] And I'm gonna take full credit for that.

[00:07:06] But I stumbled through the entire sentence But you did give him the idea to make Newsies a Broadway play, so he should remember. I take full credit for that. Yeah, I doubt he ever, you know, never crosses my before 16 year old me came into his life. What are you currently fangirling over? I've gotten really big into anime. So Fruits Basket is one of my go to like replay shows.

[00:08:22] And then I've made a huge oh, I can't. I can't sit down and watch 800 episodes.

[00:09:43] Yeah. I mean, I was proud of myself for Inuyasha. I was like, oh, I knocked biggest conventions in pop culture. And this summer at San Diego Comic Con, you were on several panels. How did that come to be? And how did you become part of these panels? So this is kind of a fun one for me. Cause this is where I get to say that it's not the nepotism that people think it is.

[00:11:02] My partner runs his own company called Intermyth. was they wanted me as their moderator included in that package. But people see my husband's name and instantly go, oh, nepotism, oh, you're there because of him. Not, oh, you earned this, you've worked hard, you've been doing panels for years. I mean, Comic-Con, LA Comic-Con, Ontario, San Diego, WonderCon, I mean, you name it,

[00:12:22] anything kind of local, I've been a part of it.

[00:12:24] And again, Natural History Museum. 100% and you know he's very supportive of everything I do and everything I'm a part of but it is tough and frustrating when you're working in the same industry in the same world and his stuff always I mean he deserves a credit he does a heck of a lot of work and I'm never gonna discount the hard work he does just like he doesn't discount the hard work I do but a lot of people in the outside world

[00:13:43] do but yeah really it stems from just doing our own podcast doing mini panels We're on a panel that was content creation brand management for beginners. And after the convention, Monica talked a lot about how thoughtful you were in your approach to content creation and how you came to find your authentic self through that. Can you share with us a little bit about how that journey of being authentically yourself came to be? Yeah.

[00:15:00] Um, so I'll tell kind of a little bit more detailed or quicker version and we'll find

[00:15:04] out as a person. And as we was hitting roadblock after roadblock

[00:17:41] of just trying to step into these fandoms,

[00:17:44] I was like, well, why?

[00:17:45] Why am I hitting, is it because I'm a girl? the community, the more fun, the more we can learn. So it just, it totally changed my perspective about who I was and what I wanted to do in this space. Do you have a list of do's and don'ts for content creating? My do's is to be honest with your benefits. And I know how that sounds, but you know,

[00:19:02] I told you I worked at a Tween magazine. I want to get more people of color. I want to have people of the alphabet mafia like or LGBTQIA plus if you're not part of that side of TikTok but it's that honesty of like I'm bringing you on because this thing is important to me. I's a more authentic approach and you know conversely you see the same happen with people who don't necessarily have a large following. They might have something to offer the community or whatever niche they're involved in but

[00:21:40] social media has this created this world where it's a little scary. Representation I think is super important um just the other day I was speaking with a friend about

[00:23:02] body positive representation and you know when I was younger gosh, the relationship that I have with food now, if I could save people from that same feeling, there's not enough money in the world to say what that would mean to save women or even men from that feeling because you know, we all have it. There's those body images and

[00:24:21] those pressures and, and when you see that person on screen,

[00:24:24] then you kind of go to the you know, you shouldn't go to the

[00:24:26] comments, but you go to out there and create it and be that person that you want to see so the next person can see you. You have been involved in a lot of different aspects of content creation and fandom life. How do you come up with ideas for content and how do you figure out what projects you want to take on? I come up with a million ideas. Let me start there.

[00:25:40] My ADHD brain is just like, oh my gosh, I can do this.

[00:25:43] And I watched this thing and it inspired this thing.

[00:25:46] And now I want to do this and I need to kind of shelf it and put it away. And sometimes those questions are as simple as, well, what projects are you working on right now? And can you retain those projects and take this on? And that one question, that first question is always like, ah, okay, I need to go back to the drawing board. A lot of what I do is inspiration

[00:27:00] from the amazing people around me.

[00:27:04] A lot of it in the background. But because I went to these amazing, talented, smart people around me, and I knew that I was not the smartest person in the room, I was able to adapt and change and make these things come to life, or realize that

[00:28:22] they were way out of reach, and that I needed to me. My social media is out there. If I can help somebody launch something and get their face out there and create something, I'm gonna do it. There's discords for it, a million different social media platforms. Pick one, find somebody,

[00:29:40] don't reach for the people who have a million followers

[00:29:44] because they're not gonna answer you.

[00:29:45] Most of their DMs are blocked.

[00:29:47] Go on Twitch and go to somebody Welcome Party, which was one of our after party games. And it was literally just best Pixar character, the entire concept, the entire panel. And at first we were like, well, we'll be OK because, you know, it's past work. And then they came out and said, if anything were made today and it would be struck today, it's considered struck work.

[00:31:01] And we went, well, crap.

[00:31:03] So we had to do a hard adjust and we had

[00:32:06] and adjust as we go. I mean, it's tough. I try not to wear any of my wardrobe that struck work. I try not to post anything on social media. Even today, I think it's the most I've talked about

[00:32:10] anything that struck just in our conversation. But I've tried so hard to avoid and support. And

[00:32:18] anytime I sit there and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is so frustrating. I'm not even part of SAG.

[00:32:22] I'll probably never be big enough to be part about this. We we've read a comic book. It's been years since we've done a comic book, but it's safe. And that's still part of the community and a place for people to be. So we're just trying to keep our community intact together and support while we're supporting

[00:33:43] the people who are really putting their life livelihoods on they've ever had. And then, you know, we've done the rainbow railroad where we had somebody message us privately coming out of the closet because of what we did. I mean, just we're little, we're nobody big. We're not a big splash. We're a tiny little pebble in a tiny little pond, but I made a difference to somebody.

[00:35:00] And if I make a difference to somebody

[00:35:02] and then that person who's watching this or listening,

[00:35:04] who's always wanted to create, if you create something

[00:35:07] and then you make a difference to somebody

[00:35:08] and then they create something of passing on what you love, right? You're right. It's worth it because you grow. On the podcast, we often find ourselves talking about safe spaces in fandom and how sometimes there's a tendency to dismiss women in fandom spaces. Now you've kind of touched on this a bit. So have you encountered anything like that? And how did you get through it? When we first started, so I'm going to go all the way back

[00:36:22] to our Geek Say What Ready, Say Geek era,

[00:36:25] I would run up to We're self aware. Yeah, doesn't mean I can fix it. So, you know, it was never my intention to be like, oh, I'm trying to flare with you and I'm from my body, so you'll do this thing. I'm just a friendly person who lacks shame, but I did notice that the ring made the difference. Then we got married and I was like, you know what?

[00:37:40] I'm married and I'm happily married.

[00:37:43] And I want that to be part of who I am.

[00:37:45] I don't want to shy away from that.

[00:37:47] And we never mentioned it on the show before, but the moment I was attached to another person in a relationship, I was only on it because of who I was sleeping with. And that's where the persona of Alex Catherine came from. It's my middle name. And I realized that because my husband and I have the same last name, it's on our business

[00:39:00] cards when it's on my panel placard, all of you didn't. We all got here because of something we did or created, or maybe we were just in the right place at the right time. It doesn't mean we don't work hard where we are now, even if I got put on the show because we were dating. Let's just say that that's what would have happened. That didn't change the two years of work that I did. That didn't change

[00:40:21] the panels that we did and the conventions and at him and thought, oh, you're there because of your wife. So yeah, it's not an equal path, if you will. What do you look for in fandom communities? I look for people who are going to be welcoming. We kind of talked about it earlier. But if I ask you a question, I'm there to learn. If I ask a question, I want I genuinely want to know.

[00:41:44] Otherwise, I wouldn't bother asking. I don't have the enjoyment and the pleasure and the passion and it makes it a competition or a quiz or a test this is not anything anybody owns

[00:44:10] And now am I going to recommend it to the next person if I got scared out of it because I just wanted to watch it while I play video games at home? Or I wanted to watch it while I fold laundry and I can't read and fold laundry at the same time.

[00:44:15] You know, whatever it is and people have children because they're setting the tone. They're going to be your big red flags right there. If you see a mod acting up, being insulting, being rude, that's the tone for is just creating the space you want to see. I know I kind of turned that slightly but... No, that actually I think is a pretty great place for us to wrap it up today actually on that sentiment. Thank you so much Alex and you know you mentioned earlier that you are available on social media. Would you like to share your

[00:47:01] handles with us? Yeah, my handle is AlexiGalaxy. A-L-rait of a Fangirl. You can also find us across all social media and on YouTube as Temple of Geek. If you'd like to

[00:48:23] check out any of our other episodes or shows, please visit

[00:48:26] us at templeofgeek.com.