Blast from the Past: Why Fandom?

As I continue merging Contented Comfort's website with this one, it just seems fitting this month's Blast from the Past post revisits a post originally published on Contented Comfort's blog back in November 2016.

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Why Fandom?
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When I first started Contented Comfort, the idea behind it was just what you'd expect given the name. I knew I wanted to sell the soaps I was making. I got started in an effort to make keeping clean a more comfortable experience for my family, and then when I began hearing similar stories from others. It made sense.

Then the idea grew. I had begun learning to knit and crochet several months before I started soaping. Even after I finished making items for my family, I wanted to keep up with the hobby.

The warnings are true. Fiber arts can quickly become almost an addiction. There's something very therapeutic about watching a project grow stitch by stitch and knowing you are the one making it do so.

​Then there are the books I wanted, no needed, to write. Half the point of writing is to share those stories, so trying to sell them is a natural extension of it. I wanted to find a way to combine all of these ideas and desires under the umbrella of one business. Contentment and comfort are two words that sprung to mind when I thought about being clean, snuggled up under a cozy blanket, and reading, so that's how the business got its name.

So why did I decide to focus on fandom inspired fragrances and items in 2013?

Funnily enough that too goes back to the same idea of comfort.

Some of my earliest memories are of watching old Star Trek: The Original Series reruns with my mother. I've always been a bit weird, even within my family. I was one of those quiet, bookish children most of the others forgot about or ignored until they needed something. In school, I retreated into books or the stories I'd tell myself during those times when I finished my work early or on the bus away from the friends I'd made. At home, my parents sharing the series they enjoyed with my brother and I form some of the happiest memories I have.

Stories, those within the various science fiction and fantasy genres in particular, have always been connected with a sense of comfort and belonging in my mind. That was before my first experience with any sort of fandom group upon discovering Anne McCaffery's Kitchen Table during my senior year of high school. For a girl who had never been to a convention of any sort and just discovered the wonders of the internet, the idea of large groups of people getting together to discuss series they loved was mind blowing.

Our shared love of Star Trek, Stargate, Star Wars, and several other series in addition to the fact we were studying the same form of martial arts is what originally drew C. L. and me together. Sharing what we can with our girls, given their ages, is something we continue to enjoy and find a sense of comforting togetherness in as a family. Strange as it may seem to some, fandoms can shape you and bond you to others.

Given that, why wouldn't I turn to fandoms for inspiration?