These are responses by Aileen to the assertion someone over at hanson.net made that Hanson hated all fan fiction.  I haven't edited them or changed anything, but I think they are beautiful and really do explain why any of us love, read, write it.

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i started writing fan fiction when i was 14 years old. fourteen. i was practically a child. i'd read a few stories that were being circulated around the internet via emails, and i thought...'gee, i could do better than that.' and so i sat down, and started writing. 98% of my really early writing is horrifying. terribly mary-sue stuff with poor characterization and plot holes, and excessive dramatic situations which were unecessary and not even tied together. drama for the sake of drama.

but i started writing. i started writing. do you even understand that? i was 14 years old, and i started writing (perhaps, if you talked to family or old teachers, it would be ' i started writing again,' but i digress). i didn't look back either. i'm 21 now, and i'm still writing. fanfiction, but mostly, real fiction, and poetry, and creative non-fiction. i'm majoring in english at new york university, and i'm minoring in creative writing. when i graduate in the spring, i will work in marketing where i will put my copy-writing skills (honed through years of writing on my own, which got me years of important marketing internships) to work.

and you know what. i give hanson, and fanfiction, a lot of credit for that. why? because i started writing when i was 14. and reading fanfic insatiably (and some if it is wonderful writing.). and then i started branching out further with my writing. and i kept reading. and reading makes your writing better, which makes your reading better, which makes... the fact of the matter is, all that reading and writing got me an 800 verbal on my SATS. which got me into NYU, which opened doors to internships and will continue to open doors to jobs in my future. and i'm still writing.

hanson inspired me when i was 14. and i learned a lot about myself and for myself, through that writing.

now, i want you to ask hanson if they think THAT is some kind of problem or let down or loss. ask them if THAT was a waste of my time and talent.

if you think hanson fan fiction is just about sticking those brothers in a story and screwing around with their lives, then you are sorely, SORELY mistaken. and i'm sorry for that.

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because hanson has never written about divorce *cough*bridgesofstone*cough*.

and hanson has never dealt with death/possible murder *cough*thistimearound*cough*.

people deal with these things every day. they are a part of life. people write about these things every day. what makes placing someone named 'taylor hanson' into the situation any different than placing someone named 'joe shmoe'? not very much, i'd argue. in good fiction, the character stands on its own, regardless of its name.

and if you want to call it slander or libel, or disrespectful or whatever. fine. you do that. but these stories come from a place of love, even when they're dark or seemingly misguided tales, i know that, and i thought other people did too. if you didn't love hanson, why would you bother writing stories involving them? none of these stories are meant to harm any one of those brothers, and i can't site any instance in which the stories have done any such thing.

i don't write fanfiction for isaac/taylor/zac anymore. i write my own characters. they just have hanson's names. partly, because i started those stories a long time ago, and i owe it to myself, and my vision and my characters and my world, to finish them, regardless of how i feel about the real isaac/taylor/zac. but mostly, because there is an audience. you discount that theory so easily, sahie, how much writing have you done? how much have you published? its INCREDIBLY difficult to find an audience for regular fiction. (its hard enough to find an audience for fanfiction) especially when you're 14 years old. feedback and support and encouragement, those things are all important to young writers. fanfiction offers those things, in addition to a wonderful creative outlet, which for most people, will someday blossom into something else entirely different.

you're painting hansonfiction into one category with a very wide brush. and that is very unfair. people are right to compare your sweeping generalization to the way music fans in general tend to box hanson up.

if you've read so much "good" fanfic, that people are "wasting" their time on, how come you didn't ask about that fiction? how come you asked about the other stuff? ...because you didn't want the answer that goes along with the good stuff. you were searching for something else. you were searching for someone to validate you. and you did it in a way that is equally as disrespectful to these writers as any fiction has ever been to hanson.