Due to high popular demand, Tabula Rasa has finally decided to add a new section to their award-winning literary magazine’s submission options: fanfiction.

   Dating all the way back to the 1940s, fanfiction has been a fundamental tool of growth and expression for many phenomenal writers throughout the decades. This concept of writing a story using characters and settings from pre-existing, often popular works, is a true and sincere form of art that the Tabula Rasa staff believes deserves proper recognition. Capturing the wondrous naivety of adolescents in lusty, fluffy scenes depicted through personal journals or modern websites, fanfiction is a truly influential gemstone in a canyon of rocks.

   “Especially for teenagers in high school and junior high, fanfiction is fundamental for capturing students’ complex feelings in typically cliche, trope-filled mini-novels,” co-editor-in-chief of Tabula Rasa Kathleen Xie said.

   Josephine Tu, the second half of the iconic Tabula Rasa editor-in-chief duo, agrees with this wise sentiment.

   “It really provides a unique insight to the minds of these kids as they grow and experience the world through the media that they consume,” Tu said. “Unlike poetry and essays, fanfiction allows us to write without any societal pressure holding us back. To be cringe is to be free.”

   The few students who have heard of this new category are bustling with excitement.

   “There are lots of very beautiful fanfiction pieces that I love to read!” freshman Anna Byun said. “I am very excited for this new section and plan to submit to it in the future with some of my own steamy, enemies-to-lovers Drarry* works!”

   Fanfiction is incredibly culturally significant for Gen Z. Over the years, it has grown into an unstoppable force that the government keeps trying to take down, for some reason. Archive of Our Own, or AO3, is one of the main fanfiction websites where anyone is free to create and read stories, along with Wattpad. Opening up Tabula Rasa’s prestigious literary magazine as another place to share these works pushes fanfiction’s massive network one step closer to world domination.

   Future plans for this new section of Tabula Rasa include expanding the submission category to include fan art as well, a similar concept to fanfiction depicting similarly poetically cringe relationships in the form of art.

   Both Tabula Rasa’s staff and students look forward to reading new submissions in this category and are excited to explore Pinewood’s true talent in this vital art form.

   “Heh, I can’t wait for my true self to shine through this revolutionary opportunity!” Byun said.

*A common, foundational ship* between JK Rowling’s Harry Potter protagonist Harry Potter and antagonist Draco Malfoy

*A term used for a romantic pairing between two or more people or characters, short for relationship