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The Creativity and Community Behind Fanfiction | Cecilia Aragon | TED

Author, professor and fanfiction writer Cecilia Aragon has observed how this incredible outlet for creativity encourages and empowers young people to embrace their imagination. Detailing her research into the vast online fanfiction community, Aragon shares its potential to foster a sense of belonging, strengthen writing skills and shape the future of literature. If you love…

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Author, professor and fanfiction writer Cecilia Aragon has observed how this incredible outlet for creativity encourages and empowers young people to embrace their imagination. Detailing her research into the vast online fanfiction community, Aragon shares its potential to foster a sense of belonging, strengthen writing skills and shape the future of literature.

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32 Comments

32 Comments

  1. Ashmi Roy

    March 29, 2022 at 3:02 pm

    Wow🎉

  2. Aisadal

    March 29, 2022 at 3:07 pm

    Omg, finally, a TedTalk just for people like me! Real talk tho, never thought I’d see fanfiction pop up in TedTalks, so I’m really ecstatic 🥰

  3. C Buckley

    March 29, 2022 at 3:19 pm

    My oldest is into several fan fiction authors

  4. Joey Beato Batil

    March 29, 2022 at 3:21 pm

    Finally a TedTalk with relativity UwU

  5. Starr C

    March 29, 2022 at 3:22 pm

    I clicked so fast

  6. MAX

    March 29, 2022 at 3:31 pm

    wow… as a person who had written fanfic before, I didn’t expect to see something like this on TED of all places…

  7. Zero Mind

    March 29, 2022 at 4:04 pm

    Hey all, my dad passed away couple months ago from covid he also was fighting colon cancer. Im trying save his beautiful car from greedy bank. If any of has ability or interest in helping i set up GoFundMe save my dads car. Its cool if u can’t help, i had to try. YouTube wouldn’t let me link it. 🕊️

  8. The Warrior

    March 29, 2022 at 4:06 pm

    This is my favorite Ted Talk ever

  9. NovaGirl

    March 29, 2022 at 4:07 pm

    i never wrote down my fanfiction but I have my own fanfic world that has evolved with my tastes. been reading fanfics for over 20 years and found some favorite authors and stories. sadly some of these authors have stopped writing for one reason or another.

    I still find joy in finding new fandoms and new characters.

  10. GzeroAnimations

    March 29, 2022 at 4:23 pm

    when will ted himself show up to talk

  11. Leandro Fernández

    March 29, 2022 at 4:56 pm

    Well, two of my favorites hobbies have come together: Fanfiction and Ted Talks. I concur 100% with the talk as I have see the evolution of many authors in the site and the diversity of topics.
    It never ceases to amaze me the opportunities that we have to better ourselves (some times unintentionally).
    I was awaiting for her to mention an autor to see if I recognize them.
    Kudos!!

  12. Amargo Patrias

    March 29, 2022 at 4:58 pm

    Being Geek in a school filled with students, sometimes you just want to be invisible in a way that many people may understand your personality on how it is fiction to prove that geeks have emotions and are not cold-hearted humans. Well, being exposed to books most specifically to the importance of it in our lives, many people may cancel you.

  13. Amargo Patrias

    March 29, 2022 at 4:58 pm

    Being Geek in a school filled with students, sometimes you just want to be invisible in a way that many people may understand your personality on how it function to prove that geeks have emotions and are not cold-hearted humans. Well, being exposed to books most specifically to the importance of it in our lives, many people may cancel you.

  14. Faris Hanafiah

    March 29, 2022 at 5:12 pm

    Fanfiction does sound great for boosting creativity and imagination, but always never forget the toxic fandom who don’t want to see anything that they don’t agree upon.

  15. English IELTS

    March 29, 2022 at 5:37 pm

    Hello everyone ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

  16. rachel b

    March 29, 2022 at 5:51 pm

    conclusion: lisez des fanfictions!!

  17. bloodyredfox

    March 29, 2022 at 6:08 pm

    never thought i would find fanfiction on a ted talk lol

  18. Jeon Haru

    March 29, 2022 at 6:44 pm

    *Where are those K-Pop FF writers & Readers*

    • not in my vocabulary

      March 29, 2022 at 8:06 pm

      literally 99% of all viewers 😆😆 anyways heya armyy 💜💜💜💜

  19. not in my vocabulary

    March 29, 2022 at 8:07 pm

    ARMYs: *nervous laughter*

  20. gem

    March 29, 2022 at 10:37 pm

    Fanfiction communities can represent a creative & supportive outlet for alot of kids, but also can be an unsupervised environment where some very damaging & harmful ideas festers among those impressionable young individuals, especially the romanticism of themes like violence, abuse, r@pe, even p.€.d.0.philia!
    Alot of those writers and their fans like to claim that “fiction” has no influence on reality, which not true.

  21. Mr. C

    March 29, 2022 at 10:41 pm

    This is how religions get started..

  22. Mr. C

    March 29, 2022 at 10:45 pm

    Can’t believe she didn’t mention the Narnia trilogy.

  23. Sam R

    March 29, 2022 at 10:46 pm

    I love this so much, I am glad Ted talks finally got to the point where they are relatable

  24. This isn't allowed

    March 29, 2022 at 11:27 pm

    What I like also is that each fandom has it’s style because people who tend to like a certain thing tend to have similar age or tastes. When I go from one fandom to another the type of works I find is different and it’s just so cool. Certain fandoms also prefer certain websites.

  25. Caroline Whiteside

    March 30, 2022 at 1:35 am

    It wasn’t really a thing when I was a kid but I started my own fan fiction journey five years ago aged 50 and I concur, it definitely taught me how to write. I hadn’t written a word of fiction since I left school and this new hobby is so freeing and fun. I’ve gathered a lovely community of support around my writing too. They may be around the world, but the friendships are real and I’ve even met a few of them. For those who say fan fiction isn’t good writing, I say phooey. Some of my favourite writers write fan fiction and on the whole it’s as good, if not better than ‘traditional’ published writing.

  26. karalyn irving

    March 30, 2022 at 2:49 am

    Everything this woman said is true. I got my start on wattpad. 13 years old, I wrote a 73 chapter book based on a marvel movie. It ended up getting thousands of comments, and HUNDREDS of thousands of views. I’m currently working on writing and publishing my first fiction novel.

  27. A. Demaske

    March 30, 2022 at 3:31 am

    Don’t forget older writers!! The distributed networks include MFAs, published authors, professionals of all fields. Every age group benefits from the community, and today’s teenage fanfic authors become the old guard.

  28. Nathi kevin

    March 30, 2022 at 8:23 am

    This brought tears to my eyes 😭

  29. ViperZang

    March 30, 2022 at 12:59 pm

    Imagine talking about FanFiction, and not mentioning “The Subspace Emissary’s Worlds Conquest” It’s still the longest work of fiction in history, right?

  30. Michele Mccoy

    March 31, 2022 at 1:55 pm

    It’s not just teenagers who read and write fanfic. I have several friends who are adults who have gone on to publish their original works. And there’s more on archive of our own…

  31. Malcolm Pagett

    April 1, 2022 at 9:06 pm

    I think the My little pony fanfiction is something people may want to give a miss.

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