First of all, I'm 13. Now you're probably wondering what that has to do with anything, but that's the point. It means everything. I'm underage, I read and write het and slash fiction, and for some reason, because of that, I don't get any respect for my writing. I'm passed off as a pre-pubescent teenybopper who dreams of being Justin Timberlake's girlfriend, and is so impressionable that just because Britney Spears did her "VMA: Strip Club Performance" in some nude pants and a spangled bra, it means that I'm going to buy myself some see-through underwear for boobs I don't have, and wear them to school. (No offense to Spears).

In most of the articles I've read, on various message boards and such, it is said that most badfic is written by 13 year olds. I have a problem with that. So, yeah, someone may have come across some badfic, but don't create this whole way of thinking that lumps me in this category and, in essence, pretty much says that I can't write for shit, because 13 year olds only know how to write Mary-Sue stories, in which we like to fantasize about Nsync being our boyfriends.

The whole world is one big game of "Follow the Leader". One person blames badfic on people like me, another person who's too stupid to think for themselves agrees, and pretty soon, it's a majority rules kind of thing. Everyone is too afraid to be different, so they go along with everyone else, and then it becomes a way of life to go into a site, see that the author's not in college and automatically leave because they have this mindset that I don't know what the hell I'm writing about. EXCUSE ME, but a damn dictionary or thesaurus is not beyond me. I'm 13, not three.

I'm not going to defend all people my age, because honestly, I know that a lot of children (yes, it's true, I'm not too full of myself to realize that I am still a child) my age don't know much about the art of literature. Hell, I'm not even trying to say that I'm the best author out there. All I'm trying to get across is that by making these false statements, I am not critiqued based on my words and ideas, but by the year I was born. Fan fiction authors don't like being looked upon as mindless losers, with an obsessive compulsion to write fiction about people they'll never even hope to meet in their lifetime, because they have no real life. I know that most fandom authors take great pride in their creative expression of choice. To degrade someone you know nothing about is childish, disrespectful, and just wrong. You're judging based on an assumption, that you heard someone else say most likely, and probably wouldn't have thought about otherwise.

As far as those underage authors who do really write horrible fiction, why don't people just send them some constructive criticism? Authors are always talking about how "they're sick of getting bad feedback", so why not take five minutes to free yourself from the massive cocoon, otherwise known as your ego, and help someone else out instead of complaining and shoving this albatross of a "you're badfic writer" label on every underage author out there?

I put my entire life into the things I write. Even if you don't think I'm good, everybody improves with a little help and some time. Don't make me feel like any less creative, any less of a person, just because you have a problem with people under 18.

Now, as I leave, here's a stereotypical, well-rehearsed, "OMG! I actually used some big words in there!"

- SKitzo Skizas