English 425
Nicole DiGiacomo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieGNHBQWk5g
Anorexia: A Fat Girls Best Friend: A Transmedia Franchise
Anorexia: A Fat Girls Best Friend is a book loosely based on my own battle with my
eating disorders. The book follows a girl named Cassie; her age is never mentioned
because these disorders affect so many people at every age that I wanted her to be
ageless so everyone could feel that Cassie represents them. The book follows Cassie
through the toughest years of her eating disorder, from day one up until she finally
starts to be able to control her urges. There is no conclusion to this book; there is
no happy ending where Cassie is able to eat and not think about how badly she
wants to puke it back up. That is unrealistic; having an E.D. is an every day battle for
the rest of your life. It never goes away, it just gets easier.
Justification
This book is not like most other eating disorder biographies. I use humor to make
the situation I put myself in light-hearted and less “elephant in the room.” So many
men and women see speaking about their E.D. as a faux pas that when it is spoken
about everything is doom and gloom. I wanted to tell my story in a way that showed
that this disorder is much more common than some think, and it isn’t something
that should be kept quiet. Twenty million women and ten million men battle eating
disorders every day in the United States alone. (National Eating) By writing this
book I was able to tell my story and hopefully let others see that there is no shame
in having an E.D. and it is about time that we are all able to speak about it, and even
joke about it sometimes.
As a Transmedia Franchise
With eating disorders being such an important, yet hushed topic, creating a
transmedia franchise based off the book only helps spread the word of this issue
faster and louder. Issues like this need to be spread across as many media as
possible in order to open up the line of communication between the sufferers and
their supporters. In order to best represent this book as a franchise we will be
adding a website, graphic novel series, social networking, and guerilla marketing.
The first thing that will be released will be the book and the website simultaneously.
Social networking and guerilla marketing will also be implemented at this time.
Finally, the graphic novels will begin to be released at a later date and continue to be
released as the story progresses.
The Website
With the internet being such an important place to get word out about anything
quickly, creating a website will be a very important part of this franchise. The
website will be used to bring fans together and give them a place to communicate
with each other as well as the author of the book. The website will contain a weekly
blog entry from Cassie as well as a place to upload your own story via written word
or video upload. From there, others will be able to comment with words of
encouragement. There will also be a section of the website dedicated to a Q&A area,
whether someone is looking for help or just has a question they can do so, even
anonymously.
The Graphic Novel
The graphic novel portion of the franchise will be released after the rest of the
franchise has been released. The different issues detail different sub-stories from
the book. Each issue covers either a specific situation relating back to an E.D.
episode or habit formed from an E.D. The graphic novel will have an air of humor
just like book. If there was anything to compare the graphic novel in this franchise I
would compare it to the graphic novel Terminally Illin’ by Kaylin Andres. Kaylin is a
young woman who has battled cancer, twice, and has found a sense of humor in the
battle she faced and still faces. She created the comic to not only share her story, but
to share it in a way to let others who battle cancer get a laugh out of it as well.
Knowing how much good her graphic novel has done for the world of cancer
patients I knew I wanted to add a graphic novel portion to the franchise. Not only
are comics popular, but also they have emerged as a key vehicle for constructing
transmedia narratives. They are popular not just with the audience of the franchise,
but they cost much less to produce than a television show or movie so their risk is
much lower. (Jenkins)
The Social Network Collaboration
When it comes to franchises there is nothing more important to their success than
their fans. By starting social network pages creates a starting off point for fans to
create grassroots sections of the franchise. We will start a Facebook page, a Twitter
account, and a Tumblr page that will be updated daily. The Facebook page will focus
more so on the news of the franchise, when the next issue is coming out, book tour
dates, etc. The twitter page will have daily tweets of inspiration and facts. The most
important part of our social network section will be our Tumblr page. Tumblr is an
extremely popular blogging site that focuses mostly on pictures. Over the years
Tumblr has become a place that people log into every day as they grow up. They
confess their darkest secrets, make life long friends, and become influenced by
others blogs. Unfortunately “thinspo” has become a very popular blog topic on
Tumblr. Thinspo is short for “thinspirational” or blogs that post strictly about being
as thin as possible and how the only way to feel beautiful is to be thin. These blogs
are huge triggers for people with E.D.’s and represent a part of E.D. culture that
states that there is nothing wrong with starving or purging. These blogs promote
E.D.’s and are extremely harmful to be on a website with so many young girls and
boys coming into their own. Tumblr has very recently started a movement
promising to ban any blog that represents any type of thinspiration or self harming
which is an amazing step in the right direction, but it is not enough. These blogs
always seem to pop back up and we want to include a blog that fights against those
blogs. Getting the word out there via Tumblr is a great way to not only expand the
franchise, but more importantly help anyone struggling with these disorders see
that empowering these thinspirational ideals is unhealthy and harmful.
The Guerilla Marketing Campaign
Guerilla marketing is the final step in this franchise. Guerilla marketing, or
advertising, is advertising through unexpected, usually outdoor, online, and
interpersonal avenues. (Serazio) This part of the franchise will again benefit the
franchise in the form of getting it out there on a broader scale, but also help people
fighting this disorder in their every day lives. The plan is to go to places where food
is served, whether it is a restaurant, bar, movie theater, etc. and post flyers about
eating disorders. They will range from flyers on bathroom mirrors stating that
purging isn’t necessary and to stay strong, to flyers posted in menus or on menu
boards stating information about the food. Of course the second one will need
approval from the restaurants themselves, but they can have a massive impact. The
menu flyers will state information about the nutritional value of the healthiest
choices on each menu, and then give facts about what they do for the body in a
healthy way i.e.: energy, growth, healthy skin, etc. Then state how skipping that meal
is bad for you and how it affects the body negatively. Each flyer will have the link to
our website on it so each person effected can go on and get more information/help.
Other than social media helping the grassroots side of this franchise this might just
be the most important parts of the franchise. Not only is it the best way to spread
the word quickly, but these flyers can literally help someone from skipping a meal
or purging afterwards.
Conclusion
What makes this franchise have the potential to be extremely successful is that there
is nothing else out there like it. There is no other franchise speaking on these issues,
and that makes us one of a kind. One of the most important things that make a
transmedia franchise successful is its use of new media literacies, without them the
franchise becomes boring and trite. By performance the audience becomes Cassie,
by collective intelligence and networking the fans of the franchise continue to
spread the word to new fans and are able to help each other in their battles, and of
course the new media literacy of transmedia navigation is used every time a fan
reads the books and then explores the rest of the franchise. This franchise will not
just be a successful franchise that started off as a lone book, but a franchise that will
actually be able to help people. Struggling with an eating disorder has always been
a very secretive and lonely issue. By creating this franchise we have the ability to
open the doors to discussion and communication on eating disorders, and even
possibly help the people struggling to get healthy.
References
Jenkins, Henry. "We Had So Many Stories to Tell: The Heroes Comics as Transmedia
Storytelling." Confessions of a Aca-Fan. 3 12 2007. 4 Dec. 2013.
<http://henryjenkins.org/2007/12/we_had_so_many_stories_to_tell.html>.
National Eating Disorders Assoctiation. NEDA Feeding Hope. 4 Dec 2013.
<http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/get-facts-eating-disorders>.
Serazio, Michael. "Your Ad Here: The Cool Sell of Guerrilla Marketing." University of
Pennsylvania Scholarly Commons. 22 12 2010. 4 Dec 2013.
<http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1320&context=edisserta
tions>.
References for pictures
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/12/24/article-0-0F44C2FD00000578-42_468x314.jpg
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1424345/thumbs/o-ANNA-REXIA-570.jpg?8
http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Terminally-Illin-cover.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jK64n3c0V4/UcFodyAufaI/AAAAAAAAAVw/xYdO_QGrDek/s1600/img-thing.jpg
http://i3.bebo.com/052/19/large/2011/03/24/20/10957449571a12900162475l.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/21cbe64177c6c19892fb32329368a32e/tumblr_mnmge1KMp
w1r4ihvco1_500.jpg
http://we-are-anti-thinspo.tumblr.com/image/60093773549
http://we-are-anti-thinspo.tumblr.com/image/58911299770
http://fuckyou-thinspo.tumblr.com/image/51928147272
http://fuckyou-thinspo.tumblr.com/image/51868108830
http://24.media.tumblr.com/d57c8de1a18d348ba5f557a2386f3a21/tumblr_mkrmifFQct1r
ijpbwo1_500.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/38075f34caf60fc0f27316c37b43b44c/tumblr_mk20r8vuZv1r
skepco1_500.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2dd0y8WTW1rnt2nlo1_500.png
http://fuckyou-thinspo.tumblr.com/image/21124942166
http://we-are-anti-thinspo.tumblr.com/image/48204136842
http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqr6lwUss21r1tlfpo1_500.jpg
http://imgur.com/gallery/O10DH