From the days of usenet groups and bulletin boards, fandom has been what the web has been made for (well, that and p0rn). From the time when Deadheads converged on The Well, the web has been a place for fans to congregate and discuss the lucky subjects of their fandom. In very minute detail. A lot of this has proved some of the most innovative of online communities while other have just been.. well.. deadheads.

And all that is great about persnickity and dedicated online fandom is coming together as the Fangirl Project .

Conceived by Love Ablan (Photographer) and Jennifer Zern (Producer and Videographer), two certified fan girls themselves, “through our respective interests, we’ve met a lot of fascinating women who matched, if not surpassed, our enthusiastic passion for all things “geeky”.

The project aims to create both a portrait book and video documentary that expresses the variety and depth of fangirldom; “a unique and under-represented subculture that [they’re] both connected to”. Beyond the photos, the Fangirl Project has furthered the discussion of what constitutes fandom and jumped on the big pink (anime) elephant in the room that is gender. Ablan and Zern refute the idea that fandom is solely a male domain and that “girls aren’t into that sort of thing”. With this project, Zern says they’re aiming to “simply to celebrate the amazing individual fangirls themselves, and immortalize them in print for prosperity. Kind of like encasing Han Solo in carbonite, only not in a galaxy so far away”.

The premise is simple. Participants forward photos of themselves and their fandom as well as a statement as to what makes them a fan girl. The end result is a book starring the fangirls and an accompanying documentary.

“We’ve met women who’ve created musical dance troupes, who’ve gotten fandom tattoos, who’ve quit their jobs to make fanfilms, who run roleplaying conventions, who carve Star Trek captain’s faces into pumpkins… you name it. But that’s what makes them so fabulous, that they happily toil away on these labors of love, and it thrills us to shine the spotlight on them for a change”.

Progress of the project is recorded on their blog(s). Full disclosure is key.

The diversity of fandom expression is one of the many ways the web has provided for fangirls. The internet has become an integral part of fandom and ultimately changed the ways fandom is expressed. Sites like the Fanthropology focus on the more academic side of fandom, Television Without Pity revels in the irreverence of popular fandom and the Battlestar Wiki celebrates the every minute detail.

And, rather than isolating a particular fandom, these sites tend to unite people more on their level of dedication than on their favourite characters. Instead of the ghettoization and competition, they recognise the creativity that is central to fandom. Sans any possible commercial gain, the girls interviewed are using their fandom as a basis of their own creative projects. And the variety of these projects is truly impressive as Ablan and Zern have found; “We’ve discovered, to our delight, that there is no limit to the lengths people will go to express their love for their favorite fandom subject and the community they’ve become a part of as a result”.

The Fangirl Project has so far documented gamers, doll collectors,TV nerds, harry potter slash fiction writers. Ablan and Zern have also been touring the conventions of North American to record fandom in its natural habitat. You can keep up with the project on the livejournal , myspace or official website.

Image credits: Carbonite and Eagle Nebula