The creativity and community behind fanfiction | Cecilia Aragon

TED Talks Daily

TED

Creativity, Business, Design, Inspiration, Society & Culture, Science, Technology, Education, Tech Demo, Ted Talks, Ted, Entertainment, Tedtalks

4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2022

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The wildly diverse, thoughtful and hilarious world of fanfiction -- where writers reimagine favorite stories like "Harry Potter," "Pokémon," "My Little Pony" and more -- is ever-growing and becoming a vital social and learning tool. Author, professor and fanfiction writer Cecilia Aragon has observed how this incredible outlet for creativity encourages and empowers young people to embrace their imagination. Detailing her research into the vast online fanfiction community, Aragon shares its potential to foster a sense of belonging, strengthen writing skills and shape the future of literature.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to TED Talks Daily.
0:05.9	I'm your host, Elise Hugh.
0:07.7	Today, a surprising way to teach kids to be stronger writers.
0:11.9	In her talk from TED Women in 2021,
0:14.7	professor and author Cecilia Aragon shares an entry point
0:18.1	to authorship and readership that deserves to be taken seriously and can be so
0:23.4	much fun too. So when I was 10 years old, I was a lonely, geeky girl, a first generation Latina,
0:35.4	growing up in a small Midwestern town
0:38.5	where hardly anyone else had parents who spoke with thick accents.
0:44.1	But then I came across Tolkien's fantasy trilogy,
0:48.3	the Lord of the Rings, and I fell in love.
0:53.4	What a cool world of elves, orcs, and small but heroic hobbits fighting against impossible
1:00.9	odds to defeat a powerful enemy.
1:04.6	Kind of like life.
1:06.6	But one thing bothered me.
1:09.3	There weren't enough female characters in this book.
1:13.1	The adventurers accompanying the protagonists were all male.
1:17.3	It made me feel left out.
1:19.9	Like I did in school when, you're not going to believe this,
1:24.6	when my seventh grade teacher told me,
1:28.3	why are you working so hard in math?
1:31.3	You should be getting a boyfriend.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from TED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of TED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.