Fangirling is “temporary” for almost everything. For many of my favorite authors, my enthusiasm definitely *doesn’t* diminish between releases – but the *fangirling* does wax and wane depending on whether the author has a book coming out soon, or has just announced news, or things like that. But enthusiasm can wane too — I fangirled over Lord of the Rings books/movies when the movies were being released, but since then my *enthusiasm* for that franchise is definitely not as sharp as it once was, so my fangirling diminished because of that.

For me, actual *decreases in enthusiasm* for a fandom usually happen after enough time has passed that my tastes have changed, or maybe shortcomings I ignored before are harder to gloss over, or maybe I’m just burnt out from TOO MUCH of the thing (it happens!), or……. there could be any number of reasons. But there are definitely different things that cause decreases in fangirling vs. decreases in enthusiasm. Sometimes they’re related, when decrease in enthusiasm creates a decrease in fangirling, but sometimes they’re not, and fangirling just decreases because of current events in that fandom.

THAT BEING SAID, isn’t it wonderful that, even as tastes change, we still find things that can get us just as excited as that-other-thing used to?? I will never NOT be a fangirl. I need these wonderful things in my life that get me excited — because they’re also things that get me to reach out and connect with people so that I can get them excited too, or so we can share in our excitement together. It’s truly unfortunate that many people have a negative association with the term “fangirl”, when really, we’re all “fangirls” for something — or “nerds”, “geeks”, “superfans”, call us what you will.

There’s a great quote by John Green — who, incidentally, I *used* to fangirl over, but since then my enthusiasm has waned. But I have never stopped loving this quote:

“Nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff. Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-your-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it. When people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is, ‘You like stuff.’ Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, ‘You are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness.'”

Just because nerds often enthusiastically love what isn’t pop-culture/mainstream (books, “nerdy” movies, comics, etc) doesn’t mean that their/our love is less valuable. Heck, I don’t understand people’s obsession over sports (football, soccer, what-have-you), but I’m not gonna disparage them for it. They love what they love. I love what I love. LET’S JUST ALL LET EACH OTHER LOVE THINGS OKAY!?!?!?!!! ;D