She logs onto her computer and starts rapidly chatting with friends about the newest episode of ‘Castle’. Green walls, ivory-colored furniture, and a fuzzy rug furnish her room. But that isn’t the first thing people notice. Fows and rows of ripped out magazine covers ranging from Spider-man to the Hunger Games decorate the wall. It’s senior, Roopal Goel’s fandom wall.

Fandom is a word used to describe a passionate following. The members are often active online, running blogs or social media accounts, and sometimes attending conventions and meet ups with other fans. Even the most obscure movies and books can have fandoms and other significant fan bases.

Roopal Goel, senior, is involved in many fandoms including Supernatural, Sherlock, Dr. Who, Castle and Harry Potter.

“Anytime you’re a fan of something, like a series or a movie, you’re in that fandom, but until you’ve actually started participating in that fandom you aren’t a part of it,” Goel said. “They’re important because you have your own little group of people. You have a sense of belonging through fandoms.”

Goel started actively participating in fandoms during her freshman year and has been ever since.

et, so that’s why, when you’re connected to the Internet, you really get into your fandoms,” Goel said.

Even with the ease of connecting with people over the Internet, Goel is careful to protect her personal information, only giving out her name and Skyping with people she’s known for a long time whom she trusts.

Goel said she has met people from countries all over the world, including Kenya, Bangladesh, Poland and Brazil, who are in the same fandoms as her.

“Once you start talking about fandoms you also get to know people from different cultures,” Goel said. “I discuss

“I’ve always liked Harry Potter and stuff but you actually understand the people around you more through the Intern cultures with them, we talk about their cultural background, religious background, things like that from all over the world. I think it’s really cool.”

Kate Hollander, junior, has also met a lot of new and interesting people through fandoms.

“It’s how I’ve made a lot of my friends actually,” Hollander said. “We like the same music groups and TV shows and it makes us closer.”

Hollander said she’s in many fandoms including 5 Seconds of Summer, One Direction, Sherlock and the 1975, running a Tumblr blog and Twitter supporting these bands and TV shows.

“My friend Liz Morgan introduced me to One Direction about two years ago,” Hollander said. “You meet a lot of people who like the same stuff as you and they introduce you to more things and you get into it.”

One aspect of fandoms is the concept of “shipping”, or creating a romantic relationship between two members of a band, TV show, movie or book series. In Hollander’s case she ships Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson from the band One Direction, often referred to as “Larry”.

“Larry for life,” said Hollander. “There’s a lot of bromances, but that’s the only one I ship.”

Though most people in a fandom show a strong passion for the movie, TV show or band they love, many people outside the fandom don’t understand the following and can often judge those who are a part of it.

“Why is it considered ‘normal’ for someone to know stats about a professional athlete and to scream at their games, but it’s abnormal for someone to know facts about a celebrity and scream at their concerts,” Hollander said. “In a fandom, I get to meet a lot of cool people my age and it connects me with people from around the world.”

Julia Zigman, senior, is in many fandoms including Harry Potter, Sherlock, Teen Wolf, Doctor Who and The Mortal Instruments. She’s been in the Harry Potter fandom the longest, since second grade.

“I grew up with it and it was like an escape from reality,” Zigman said. “A lot of the things I like have great character development and an interesting plot line.”

When it comes to fan involvement, Zigman runs a Tumblr blog, has bought merchandise and visited Harry Potter World to support her favorite fandoms.

“I joined Tumblr to keep track of Harry Potter things, then through that I found out about a bunch of other fandoms like Sherlock and Doctor Who which I didn’t even know existed,” Zigman said. “There are so many fan representations of things like fan art and paintings and you can see how passionate people are about the pop culture they like.”