Never underestimate the power of community. There is perhaps no more potent example than fandom. Swifties are the thriving epicenter of a growing movement that has taken on a life of its own, independently of the artists or media they coalesce around. Two avid Swifties, Krista Doyle and Bekah June, want to slingshot that euphoria outward. Both have had their selfhoods shaped by a coursing river of collective enthusiasm. “There’s just so much connection that comes with a group of people passionately loving the same thing,” Krista smiles. “Fandom runs through your whole life. Even thinking back to the 90s, riding around with my teenage aunt, listening to Alanis Morissette and loving Hanson and Backstreet Boys so much that I was writing fan fiction to share with my friends. It really becomes a part of your life. It’s a way to share bits of yourself while knowing that the other person is fully going to get you and understand you. And I love that.” Bekah chimes in: “Fandom has really molded my identity in the sense of community and feeling like I belong with a group of people, even if we are very different. It’s made me feel a much deeper sense of belonging with people, and I think that’s been integral to my identity.”
A seed of inspiration blossomed in the afterglow of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. The idea for Chalant, a site celebrating and connecting all walks of fandom, was born. “We definitely have talked about how impactful that was in that sense of being able to go to an Eras tour and feel very connected with one another around Taylor Swift and wanting to replicate that in social media, which we feel is very broken and disconnected,” admits Bekah. “So how can we bring that feeling to something like Chalant and create that in our community?” Krista noticed that Taylor Swift’s impact resonated far beyond the icon herself. “When I was working on Taypedia, which was my Taylor Swift website right before this, it really was so sitearent that while it was fun to people publish fans’ essays and articles, the most exciting part was when people would reach out to let me know how it had impacted them or about their own experience with a certain Taylor Swift song or lyric or show they went to. I’m excited to go so much deeper on the community element of it all.”
Bekah is committed to making the site inclusive for everyone. “Accessibility within technology is extremely important. Accessibility standards are only improving because dev teams are more open and trying to make sure that everyone can enjoy that product. My viewpoint is that how you build something and the intention of your design is what can then lead to the impact that you’re seeking. Even just having the intentionality and at the forefront of what you’re building, thinking about these different communities is extremely important. Thinking about the way you design that and moderate it so that different communities are not disproportionately viewed or marginalized either through moderation or through certain content that is created.” Inviting more fandoms also means inviting more perspectives. “We need to make sure that we have a diverse array of fandoms because everyone can come from a different background and still love this one thing. Creating that space and being really intentional there allows that harmonious community to really be built. You might have differing backgrounds, you might be in different places in the world, but you are coming together. That was my experience on stan Twitter and Tumblr was the excitement of learning of different cultures and different communities in different areas and being able to feel more connected through Taylor Swift or through Beyonce.’
The dream is for Chalant to be a place of positivity and emotional restoration. In a landscape where turmoil triumphs, it will be a lighthearted lighthouse of shared support. Bekah explains: “What I want a user to experience from Chalant is a deep sense of joy and a feeling of belonging. I want them to walk away feeling like they had so much fun and feeling that they matter in that community, and that they’re more connected because of that. Really the main thing is a sense of joyful fun. That is the best part of fandom. I think in the state of our world, in the state of a lot of different social media platforms, that feeling of joy and fun is not prioritized. My priority is to make sure that you walk away feeling better, not worse because of the interactions that you had with other like-minded fans and the new experiences and meeting new types of people within that same fandom.” Get ready for Chalant to heat up. “We plan on launching this summer,” Krista teases. “In the meantime, people can sign up for our wait list and be the first ones to know when it launches.” You might also become one of the architects of the site! “Within the signup, you can add a fandom,” Bekah reveals. “So we’d love for anyone that doesn’t see a fandom on there that they connect with to add a fandom that they’re interested in. As soon as you get on the site, we want to know about your experience and your feedback and how we can make this sitelication and this community be more fun and more inclusive. Your voice matters to us.” Founded and driven by such effervescent zeal, Chalant is a platform for the people.
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Forthcoming Site Chalant Beckons Fandom to Unite. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Krista Doyle.
