Misha Collins & The Fight or Flight Reaction of a 15 year Old Fangirl

Misha Collins and the Adrenaline Letdown of a 15 Year Old....

I took my daughter to the Supernatural Convention in Chicago this past weekend October 23-25. We had tickets for Saturday and Sunday. Ellie was very excited to see the actors that she really admired, in particular Misha Collins. She enjoys his quirky sense of humor and kind and funny approach to life.

We had seats so far back that the actors looked like faces on bodies but without a lot of distinguishing characteristics except their height and voices. I decided to get Ellie a photo op with Misha Collins dressed in his character Castiel's costume so she could see one of her heroes close-up, and because some of the money went to RandomActs, a charity Mr. Collins started.

Ellie was so excited that she made a clay keychain in Castiel's likeness. It was pretty cute but she was very bummed out because the wings broke off before she got a chance to give it to him. I got swept up in the fandom too and made him a goofy looking fleece hat since he works in Vancouver and it's effing cold up there. 

All day long Ellie was getting more and more anxious about this whole process and I looked at the number on our ticket and it was number 310. I knew we were going to get about 10 seconds for the photo and not be able to talk to him. As we were standing in line Ellie put herself in her Buddhist prayer pose trying to center herself and calm down because she was so excited. I kept reminding her he's just a guy who puts his pants on one leg at a time. She didn't want to hear that, and in fact was sort of mortified that I would say it anywhere within his hearing distance. I knew that the guy was exhausted and just trying to get through the next 15 minutes to the end of the line of photos. He wasn't listening to what people were saying around him.

Our turn came and Ellie told him that she had made him a keychain. He thanked her and I gave him the hat which he put on and we took the picture and it was over in like 10 seconds. They tried to give me back the hat but I told them it was for him. 

After we left the photo room Ellie completely melted down. The adrenaline rush was just too much for her 15-year-old soul. She started crying and sobbing with the overwhelming adrenaline rush and let down. She was happy and so excited that he accepted her gift and might even use it to put his keys on it. AND she couldn't believe he said, "Thank you." 

She asked me how I could be so calm. I told her it's because I'm a doctor and I deal with people all of the time and I get to see famous people naked. I made her laugh---It's not true, but it was funny. (I kind of felt sorry for Misha Collins because he looked completely done in.)

That experience made me think, what do celebrities do with all of the gifts that they receive from their fan base? Do they keep them? Do they throw them in the garbage? Do they donate them? Do they go through them and pick out the coolest stuff to keep? 

 I didn't want to burst Ellie's bubble because she was so very happy but I suspect that a lot of the things they get are put in boxes and donated to charity. I couldn't tell her that though because she put some work into this gift, she made it with her own hands, and then got to give it to her favorite celebrity. 

Some fantasies you have to believe in. If Misha Collins ever happens to read this, I hope you got some sleep that night and thanks for saying "thank you" to my daughter. It meant the world to her. Oh, and I hope you wear the hat in good health (You know, since I'm a doctor and all.) And enjoy the keychain Ellie made. 

My Daughter is "Fan-girling" Supernatural. I Feel Old

When I was a kid, being a fan meant watching David Cassidy or Bobby Sherman on TV. It also meant getting all of their albums and playing them on an endless loop until our parents took away our record players in self-defense. It meant having posters of our favorite heartthrobs on the wall and swooning over them. It meant joining a "fan-club" and getting 8x11" glossies signed by some poor intern. 

In college, being a fan meant listening with your friends to 8 track tapes in the dorm room while you pretended to be sophisticated drinking Rolling Rock beer(of course we were 21).

The entire landscape of fandom has shifted with the advent of the Internet. I had no idea how much, until my daughter, 14, informed me that she was a "fangirl". I learned that "fan -girling" is a verb describing what we used to call "swooning." Now, fans get to interact with their actor/actress/musician crushes in ways that we never even dreamed of. There's Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Whosay, Tumblr (I still can't figure out why it's spelled wrong) and a whole bunch of other social media sites where fans can view photos, gifs, and fan art, 24/7.

The only way I ever got to interact with my college musician crushes was to play their music or to watch their TV shows, go to concerts, or read fan magazines. Now, my kid can follow their favorite actor, actress or musician on Twitter and read all kinds of pithy comments by them or by their fans. The fans can interact with each other which brings an entirely new aspect of parenting a teenager. Who are these people that she interacts with in these fandoms?

I went on a search and destroy mission to make sure that things were safe in my daughters world. Turns out my daughter is a huge fan of Supernatural, a television show that has been on for 10 seasons and is renewed for an 11th. She was always talking about Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and Misha Collins. I became obsessed with figuring out what this "fan-girling" was all about and who these people with odd names were.

I started by watching the show. I "binge-watched" it on Netflix and soon found myself completely absorbed by the story. It doesn't hurt that I actually like paranormal stuff. 

My daughter mentioned that there were all kinds of YouTube videos of "cons" (conventions) where the actors were at meet and greet types of activities. I had no idea what a fan convention was until last year when I took my daughter and two of her friends to Con + Alt + Delete here in Chicago. It is an anime convention. I ended up sitting around in the lobby most of the time as I had absolutely no interest in Anime, but I saw that lots of other people did. They came dressed as their favorite Anime characters. This is known in the vernacular as "cosplay." Some of them performed very elaborate dance routines and sang and danced in the lobby. There were professional videographers there recording every second of the "con."

I started watching the Supernatural conventions on You Tube

and soon realized what my daughter found interesting. The actors in this show are real people. They're married, have kids,and talk about their very normal, very funny, lives.  They use their platform as actors to raise awareness and fundraise for causes that they're passionate about-- depression, mental illness, etc. 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyGmlyxudMOUhavkD3flVd6RRht2PjXPBBwhNgTwv5Dz1JIFQoQoz9gHQv38Jf5t9DXmBBJyZlwca_xOeQm8oSbJ_fmDgVsBnjwEob3L9HxR-RSKMVzy8eQXGcp2acFd3pJ6aeXcYmfl5O/s1600/supernatural.jpg

And then, there's Misha Collins. He's probably the most unique individual I've come across in a long time.

Misha Collins is a goofball. He has a unique and most eccentric point of view. He can go off on the most incredible tangents and keep you laughing. He uses his popularity to rally his fandom to do good. 

http://www.randomacts.org/images/promote/getInvolved/RA_badge_supporter.jpg

He  started www.randomacts.org, a 501C3 company to get people to be nice to each other--to look around them and see who needed something and then to do something about it. It doesn't have to be some gigantic active philanthropy--it can just be picking up trash, or helping out some homeless people, or singing a song to somebody who needs a song sung to them, or reading at the library. Just any act of giving. It's actually kind of cool.

Then there is  GISHWHES. The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen. Yet another fun outlet of weirdness meant to rally people together from all walks of life to do strange and odd things like making wedding dresses out of feminine hygiene products. While they're at it they also are raising money for Random Acts.
https://www.gishwhes.com/

His latest endeavor was to rappel 17 stories down the side of a building in California in order to raise money for Shatterproof, an organization that is looking to raise awareness about alcohol and drug addiction.
http://support.shatterproof.org

I have to get my kid credit. If she was going to join a fandom, she picked a good one.

I feel less worried, although it is a bit concerning how rabid some of these fans are. I don't think I would want to be a famous celebrity, always looking over my shoulder for the paparazzi or crazed fans. My daughter seems to take her "fan-girling" in stride though. She has informed me that she does not obsess about the actors she admires, and mostly goes out and does things with her friends, like riding bikes, learning how to take the bus around town, and doing her art. 

It's great having a kid with a good head on her shoulders.