Hi! I'm Jess! |
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Though you may know me better as @femalepeterparker on most socials. If you couldn't tell by my daily postings of Avengers skits, I am a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Comics. And while becoming a social media creator was never originally in my bingo card, it certainly has changed my life for the better. Though, my journey with Marvel started long before my time on social media.
It was 2012, which many of you early day MCU fans may recall was the release year of the very first Avengers movie. Friends and family members had been raving to me about Thor, Iron Man and Captain America for weeks, and I became curious. I remember going to my dad and asking, "What is Thor, anyways?". I was immediately whisked to the couch, sat down with my dad and my brother, and we proceeded to watch the first five movies classified under the Marvel Cinematic Universe realm: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger. The end-credit scene played for Captain America which, for those of you who may not remember off of the top of your head, was the trailer for The Avengers movie. Which, I was quickly informed by my dad, was in theaters. And I would be seeing the next day. Sitting in that theater, watching a group of Heroes team up to fight, and avenge, and protect, and be a part of something bigger than themselves all for the greater good of the people around them, I couldn't help but be in awe. I was never one to be interested in Super Hero stories. Sure, I knew who they were. I'd seen plenty of kids dress as them for Halloween, or watched the thousands of ads played to promote Sunday morning cartoons. But in this moment, as the credits rolled and the infamous Avengers theme played out amidst the small gathered group of our little movie theater, I knew I was hooked. I saw myself in these characters. Through their stories, their personalities, their passion for greatness and wanting to look out for other people. How little I knew that this casual weekend would change my life forever. I continued watching the films. Movie after movie, year after year. I made friendships and connections with others through our mutual love of characters that we grew to adore the more we spent time with them on the big screen. It became my heart and soul. I read fanfiction, I wrote fanfiction, I looked at fan art and Instagram posts and watched fan edits. It became a part of me. And sitting there in the theater with my two college roommates at the end of The Infinity Saga, the three of us bawling our eyes out, I truly knew how much these characters meant to me. Seeing all of the stories that meant so much to me over the years, knowing that they had gotten me through so much of my childhood and even still were such a huge part of my being, it felt bittersweet watching those signatures of the Original Six roll across the end credit screen. The community basis around Infinity War and Endgame was so surreal to me. And social media was such a huge part of that aspect. Instagram was my go-to for Marvel memes for the longest time (the biggest one that stands out to me now is the "Infinity War and Endgame Spoilers Out of Context". Those will never stop being hilarious to me, even after all this time). That was, until TikTok came along. I have to admit, I did not see the hype around the app at the time, TikTok was just another social media platform, and before then I wasn't super interested in other video platforms like YouTube or Vimeo. But my college roommate insisted that I download it, and so on October 16th, 2019, I made a TikTok account. I was a lurker for a while. No intention of making content, just watching and enjoying what was popping up on my For You Page. I mean, I posted a little. They were mostly just what was trending, no niche or relation to Marvel at all. Just about my daily life. But you won't find those anymore, anyways ;) You all know what happened in March of 2020. Life was thrown into a whirlwind as I quickly got moved back into my childhood home. No one knew how long the pandemic would last. All we knew was, to quote a famous TikTok audio, we were "bored in the house, and we're in the house bored". I know I was. Besides online school (ouch) I really had nothing going on. By that point, niches were becoming more prominent on TikTok. It was no longer just "the dance app". You could find community there. And I found mine in (you guessed it!) the Marvel fandom. And so there I began, creating more Marvel content. It was always with audios at first. I was originally not super comfortable with speaking in videos. I was not really used to being on camera, and I didn't really have much acting experience. Unless you count the videos I made when I was ten using the iMovie trailer templates, it was all a learning curve. And then one video in August 2020 changed it all. For those of you who don't know this already, I am a HUGE Disney Parks fan. It is my safe space, and I am the happiest when I am there. Watching as all the parks shut down that year absolutely broke my heart, and I knew it was making a lot of others sad as well. So I thought hey, what the heck. Why not try to combine two of the things I love so much? And so the Avengers at Disney TikTok Series was born. The first episode was Tony Stark leading the team around the parks, making sure no one was left behind and trying to fit in as much Disney as he could into his park time. I never expected the video to get traction at all, but it got a pretty decent amount of views, and lots of people commenting requesting other characters as well. And so I continued to make more. I think it's important to mention that at this point, my username was just my name. Nothing special. Nothing related to Marvel. Just me. So when I posted the second video of the series of Peter Parker enjoying his time at Disney World, and people started commenting that I sounded like a female version of Tom Holland's Spider-Man, I changed my username. Out of curiosity, I typed in "femalepeterparker" to see if it was available, and it was. So I took it. At the time, I never realized how much of my identity that username would become for me. It changed everything. It's my entire niche on social platforms now. It isn't until now, looking back on that moment in time, that I realize how important that is to me. Spider-Man is my favorite, my everything. I see so much of myself in Peter Parker's character. Knowing that people open up their socials and associate me with him makes me so, so, so unbelievably grateful and happy. Since starting my platform, I've grown on Instagram and YouTube as well. I've had collaborations with Marvel themselves (oh my god, I still can't believe that I can even type that out. Marvel. MARVEL!!). I've been in a TikTok ad to promote Spider-Man: No Way Home, been flown out to both Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris by the Disney Parks social teams, and even got the opportunity to attend the red carpet as a plus one to the world premiere of Thor: Love and Thunder. And it's all thanks to you. To my lovely community here, that constantly uplifts me and supports my silly little skits. I am so incredibly grateful. Every day. And I know this is only the beginning of an incredible journey. Thank you to each and every one of you for everything that you have done for me. And for those of you that took the time to read this whole "About" section, thank you. For getting to learn a little about me, my story, and what made me who I am. And as a pretty famous guy in a gold titanium alloy suit once said, "I love you 3000". I can't wait to see where the rest of this journey takes us. -FPP Last updated: April 13th, 2023 at 6:30 p.m. |
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