Does it really matter how or when someone has gotten into a fandom? Just because I wasn’t there at the beginnings of Dragon Ball Z or watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer as it aired shouldn’t make me any less of a fan. Just because I haven’t read every Daredevil comic ever written doesn’t make me any less of a fan either. People should be able to enter a fandom when it suits them, without the daunting feeling of exclusion. That could be when a film or TV adaptation comes out and there is a wave of new interest (and sweet merchandise), or it could be years later when more mainstream coverage has died down, but fans still debate their love for a series online. We should be accepting of people becoming part of our community, uniting over a shared love for something awesome, rather than exclusionary.
Cherokee Seebalack, Tumblr Fandom Doesn’t Owe You Sales: The Fans Who Are Ruining Everything