Star Wars, Anakin Skywalker Made Me Question My Gender

Fandom, fiction, and fan fiction have always played a pivotal role in my life. I grew up on a small Caribbean island, attended a small Catholic school, and had overprotective parents. I didn’t see much of the real world so I looked for answers — for an escape — in fandom, from Twilight and The Vampire Diaries to Doctor Who and K-pop. “I see many clients who were raised within a strict religious context and weren’t allowed to explore their own experience of gender or sexuality,” Crystal Britt, therapist and founder of Get Psyched Therapy and Coaching, tells Refinery29. “Fandom and fiction provide a space for them to be themselves as well as explore who they are.” As a child, I found an escape in Greek mythology thanks to Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the fantastical world of godly parental figures and demigod heroes. As a teen, I turned to Tumblr, reblogging fan art and GIFs, talking to fellow fans, and delving deeper and deeper into different fandoms. I didn’t know what I was looking for in these fictive worlds, just that I was searching for something.