Fangirl

Hey Steph,
  I am having one of those weeks where I love my job. It is one of those choices in life that has serendipitously been the perfect one for me. Unbeknownst to me at the time I chose to study editing was the fact that my career was one of the "sexiest" jobs out there. Take any given chick flick out there and the female lead is most likely a writer/reporter/editor. Here's a non-exhaustive list of movies that I don't necessarily condone or not condone in no particular order:

Never Been Kissed

Confessions of a Shopaholic

13 Going on 30

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

Hitch

The Proposal

Devil Wears Prada

And if it isn't the female lead, it is her male counterpart:

Runaway Bride

27 Dresses

When in Rome

Oh, and the job finds its way onto the tv as well:

Smallville

Lois and Clark

Gilmore Girls

I've tried to come up with a reason that this is such a popular job in the chick flick world. I think it is because the writer/reporter/editors are often portrayed as cute, smart, curious, and quirky, which I have to say fits the ladies I have worked with before. Unfortunately, most of these films use the job as a crutch to make their lead characters seem intelligent and complex when a lot of times they really aren't.

Nevertheless, since becoming a magazine writer and editor, I have to admit I have had an odd daydream of falling in love with someone I did a story on. I know. I hold myself up as someone who empowers women and sees the completely unrealistic portrayal of love in chick flicks. But, alas, the Disney princess-loving part of me thinks it would be such a wonderful story to share that I met my husband after writing a story on him.

I know this is utterly ridiculous, but I think there is another reason chick flicks often feature a reporter. Here's the thing. When I'm working on a story, I devote all my work time to researching on, writing about, and interviewing my subject. When I'm not doing that, I'm interviewing others about my subject. And when I'm home from work, I'm telling friends when they ask what I did that day about my subject. If I'm writing about a person, I'm basically thinking about that person most of my waking hours. And the type of reporting I do is of a primarily positive-spinning kind. We want to present the best of our subjects. So, many of us newspaper and magazine writers are the biggest fangirls and fanboys there are.

fangirl/fanboy: someone who has an irrational attachment to somebody or some group, usually a famous entity, though not always the case for writers

It's not just me. A few weeks ago, I went to a volleyball game with a coworker. She had been writing a story on one of the team for work. She kept on turning to me and making comments like, "I just want to go down there and hug him and tell him he can do it!" or "I bet he feels so nervous right now." Our reporting leaves us feeling a stronger bond than we really have with someone. One time, I was walking down a sidewalk when I saw someone I knew. I started to wave my big-hand awkward wave that I perform for all my friends, when she just passed by wondering who I was waving at. It was a few moments later when I realized that she was someone I had written a short blurb about but had never met or interviewed. Awkward.

With all these amorous feelings towards our subjects, it makes sense that magazine writers would fall for their subjects. Unfortunately, it hasn't happened for me and probably won't. But I do have one success story. I recently wrote a story on a girl who happened to be in my church group. I had met her once but didn't know much else before receiving my assignment. I got to work on her article, and, like always, I focused all my time and effort on her. Because we live near each other, I got to see her a couple times a week, so I was able to release some of my good will collected toward her while at work in actual relationship building. Now, we are pretty good friends. It might not be a boyfriend, but I'll take a good friend. It's still a good story of how we met.

Cheers,

Amanda Kae

What movies/tv shows with writer/reporter/editor leads did I leave off? What makes you into a fangirl/fanboy?