Twilight: A fan site with bite
Written by Betsy Woodruff | | bwoodruff@toledofreepress.comLike many 17-year-old girls, Michelle Pan loves the “Twilight” saga. Unlike most of them, however, she has started a successful fan site (www.bellaandedward.com), been to the premieres of all three “Twilight” films in Los Angeles, and written a book on the series.
Pan started reading the series in 2006 as a school summer reading project. Her teacher gave her a list of books and told her to pick one that sounded interesting. She chose “Twilight.”
Pan
“I was immediately hooked!” she said.
That October, she started the website.
It receives 200,000 to 300,000 unique visitors every month — more around the times of the movie releases, Pan said. Because of the site’s popularity, she was invited to interview the films’ cast and crew at the red carpet premiere of the “Twilight” films and to sit on a panel of fan site owners at a “Twilight” convention in Dallas last year.
She has a staff to help maintain the site. When “Twilight” news breaks while she is in school, they update it for her.
She said she can still spend several hours a day working on the site, especially on weekends.
It features a variety of content, including exclusive interviews with cast members, fan art, wallpapers and news updates.
Pan said it was one of the first fan sites created.
She has also written a book called “Bella Should Have Dumped Edward: Controversial Views on the Twilight Series.” Pan compiled fans’ answers to more than 20 controversial questions (Which “Twilight” saga book is the worst? Would you rather be a vampire or a werewolf? Should Bella have ended up with Edward or Jacob?) She also wrote her own answers to the questions. And for the record, she said she thinks Bella made the right choice by choosing Edward.
The book is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Borders.
Tags: Eclipse, Michelle Pan, Twilight
