From ‘smut’ to ‘shipping’ to Harry Styles: here’s your guide to teen fanfic

Fanfic is, in short, fiction written by fans. A lot of fanfic is read and written by teens, and it’s generally inspired by popular culture, including books, songs, celebrities, TV shows and movies with a large, dedicated, active fandom. Often, storylines are inspired by situations fans wish had happened in real life or a particular fictional universe—from Harry Styles falling in love with ‘Y/N’ (short for your ‘name’ and a prompt to the reader to insert themselves into the story) at a concert, to a ‘femslash’ version of the recent Addams Family reboot, Wednesday where two of the main female characters, Wednesday and Enid, get together.

A popular aspect of much fan fiction is ‘ships’ or ‘shipping’ (short for relationship), which refers to supporting a pairing of two characters that might diverge from the original storyline. For example, there’s a popular Harry Potter fanfiction community in which Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy (dubbed ‘Drarry’) are lovers. 

Sometimes, but not always, fanfic is sexual (Fifty Shades of Grey began as Twilight fan fiction, after all). When fanfic is very sexually explicit and focuses more on this than plot or character development, it’s often referred to as ‘smut’—a term which has been used since the 17th century to mean ‘indecent or obscene language’ and was popularised in the 70s and 80s by soft porn and the British tabloids.

When publishing fanfic on various platforms, including Wattpad, Archive of Our Own (AO3) and Tumblr, fans often ‘tag’ their content to communicate its themes and let readers know how explicit a story is. Examples include:

• ‘fluff’: used for ‘feelgood’ stories written to give the reader warm ‘fuzzy’ feelings. Its usual genres are romance or comedy
• ‘lime’: referring to sex or contains ‘sexual relations’ but isn’t explicit
• ‘lemon’: usually has a lot of sexual content, and is sometimes used interchangeably with ‘smut’

While it may be alarming for parents to learn their teen is reading or writing stories with elements of erotica, fanfic can be a healthy avenue for teens to explore their sexuality and desire and is much better for their development than watching mainstream pornography, because:

• text-based material relies on teens to imagine for themselves, and because the way erotic descriptions are pictured is different for everyone it will be more in line with their age and stage of development
• there is less risk of sexually-explicit visual images getting ‘stuck’ in a young person’s head and causing flashbacks, which is fairly common and can be disturbing for young people
• teens can control the pace in which they engage with sexually explicit content by choosing for themselves what they do and don’t write and/or read

Fanfiction is also used sometimes in place of sexting, where young people write it for each other as a way of having a sexual conversation in a safe way, through fiction.

On top of showing an interest in their hobby (you could ask about their favourite characters or stories and what they like about them), talking to your teen about fanfic can be part of a broader conversation about online safety. It’s helpful to have agreed-upon rules and expectations about what they share online and the kinds of stories that are/aren’t appropriate for their age. It’s also important for us as parents to respect our young person’s need for privacy and not be too invasive with our questions or interest; teens need a space that is private to explore this very personal part of their development.

Even with content filters and online safety software, there’s still a big chance they will come across inappropriate content online, whether through fanfic or something else. Letting your young person know they can always come to you if they see something they know is inappropriate can help mitigate the risks if/when it happens (we’ve written more about talking to young people about explicit content here).

Additionally, a clear discussion about what fantasy means in a sexual context is also very helpful for your teen’s development. Talk about how fantasies can often be something that a person likes thinking about but that they would never want to do in real life. Just because a person has a fantasy—sexual or otherwise—it doesn’t mean they necessarily want to or will try to experience it in real life. Fanfiction can help provide a safe space for the imagination to explore different fantasies in a safe way.

Like most online communities, certain corners of fanfic contain violence or even descriptions of sexual abuse and other content that might be disturbing—particularly for young readers. An ongoing conversation about consent, body safety and respect, especially concerning TV shows and movies you watch together or events in popular culture, will help support your teen to approach fanfic more critically. As our young people move towards adulthood and gain more independence online, they should continue to know they can always speak to us without judgement if they see anything that worries or confuses them.

Fan fiction can be a safe avenue for young people to use their creativity or explore their sexual interests. While it’s not without risks, keeping an open conversation with your teen about both safe relationships and consent, as well as internet safety, will support them in having a positive experience with fanfic.

• ‘Have you heard about fanfic? Do you think any people of your age read it or write it?’
• ‘What do you think they might like about it?’
• ‘Do you think fanfic could be preferable to watching pornography? Have you noticed that certain genders are drawn to fanfic or porn? Do you think guys read or write fanfic?’

• THAT Sex Ed Podcast ‘Talking sex with your teen’ (listen here)
• our fact sheet, ‘Let’s talk: 5 tips for answering tricky questions’
• Scarleteen (‘sex education for the real world’)
• The Line (sex, dating and relationships)