Pride, Prejudice, and Neopets

Many millenials have fond childhood memories of the virtual pet community Neopets, especially YA author Jordan Ifueko. When Ifueko was 10, she was obsessed with Neopets—and Jane Austen. She brought her two passions together in the form of a popular serialized story titled “Pride, Prose, and Princes.” Ifueko spoke to Elizabeth Ballou at Vice about how fan fiction fostered her love of storytelling and allowed her to comment on the social dynamics around her. “The Internet may tend towards trash fires, but Ifueko’s experience is proof that certain online communities can allow players to express their most heartfelt creative impulses. Neopets filters out violent or sexual content and requires users younger than thirteen to get signed waivers before posting, so at the peak of its popularity in the mid-2000s, it was a soft landing place for kids and teens just starting to experiment with storytelling.”