25+ Years Of Fandom: A Millennial Retrospective

Sarah Prince Toy Story Buzz Lightyear and Woody

As I get ready to go to Disney World, I’ve been thinking about my path to becoming a professional fangirl. I’ve gone to the most meet and greets in Disney theme parks, so I have no doubt that’s where my interest in posing with famous characters and people came from. It goes back for so many years that my first meet and greets were not captured on a digital camera. After all, it was the early 90s!

I’ve also spent more than a year talking to super fans of Kim Kardashian and more recently, Taylor Swift, daily. This made me want to reflect on my personal history of relationships with pop culture icons. Let’s go back, shall we?

Barney

Before I built a personal brand as the girl in the red jeans, I loved all things purple. Between the clothes, videos and stuffed animals, I basically collected Barney products. 

In middle school, I took on a new Barney project: re-selling new VHS tapes. I bought them at a phenomenal bargain price and sold them on sites likes Amazon and eBay. It was a challenging time to do this because VHS tapes were being phased out. I’m not sure how much $$$ I made, but it was a good way to learn about e-commerce.

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SCENE Members Can Get Free Popcorn At Cineplex!

 

 

National Popcorn Day (CNW Group/Cineplex)

I can’t resist a good national ______ day AKA social media holiday, but it’s even better when one of my favourite brands gets involved. Friday is National Popcorn Day and Cineplex is giving away free popcorn to celebrate!

The promotion is available to SCENE members and if you haven’t signed up yet, then it’s long overdue. I believe I forgot to mention that I saw The Post for $0 because I redeemed 1,000 SCENE points. I guess you could say I’m all about those loyalty cards.

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We Need More Role Models Like Kay Graham From The Post

Photo Source: Vulture

Photo Source: Vulture

Awards season starts tonight and everyone is obsessed with Meryl Streep, so of course I had to see The Post. I live for watching movies about the media industry! Over the break, I finally saw State of Play. I also loved similar movies based on real stories, especially Obit (The New York Times) and Spotlight (The Boston Globe). In fact, one of my top professional highlights of 2017 was writing a tweet that was noticed by Kim Kardashian and then featured on the Boston Globe’s website.

The Post is about how Meryl Streep’s character Kay Graham, the first female newspaper publisher in America, handled the decision making process when her team at The Washington Post had the opportunity to publish the Pentagon Papers.

These papers were key because as one character points out, the U.S. government “knew we couldn’t win and still sent boys to die.” The movie explains how the classified documents went public while presenting the workplace drama that transpired at The Washington Post, as well as The New York Times and The White House.

If you’re passionate about politics and journalism, then this is a movie to strongly consider seeing.

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Concert Review: Barenaked Ladies

Hot On The Street Barenaked Ladies December 2017 (3)

5 years ago, I went to see Barenaked Ladies perform in London and I commented that it wasn’t as good as the concert I remembered in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre.

Walking into Massey Hall last night, I wondered if my claim that it’s better to see them in Toronto would be true and Saturday’s show proved that I was right. I loved everything about it, except for the encore because they played 2 covers I didn’t enjoy.

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How Michael Landsberg Inspired Me @ Social Media Week

Michael Landsberg

Attending Social Media Week was a great experience. I got to hear people like Kirstine Stewart and Claudia Oshry AKA @girlwithnojob on Instagram. The session with Michael Landsberg stood out the most, as it made me think about not just social media, but what it means to be an influencer today. When I say influencer in this context, I mean it in the sense of being a powerful public figure that connects well with fans on a personal level. In today’s culture where everyone’s busy, 1:1 relationships with people you admire and respect can be rare, so that’s what I’d like to explore.

In 2009, Michael Landsberg interviewed an athlete named Stéphane Richerand and convinced him to acknowledge his experience with depression on-air. Once they both publicly confirmed they were dealing with mental health issues, emails started pouring into Michael’s inbox. People started confiding in Michael via email because they connected with him in the interview.

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