SHE’S BACK!
Hi! I’m Ashling and I used to run a Dan and Phil blog called phanarchy! I wrote phanfiction and had a decent following, as well as founded a group and WhatsApp of adult phans to connect.
The start of my blog:
For some more background and in the interest of chronology: I started my blog sometime in the late 2010s. Personally, I had been through a breakup after a 6 year relationship and while I’d known of Dan and Phil previously, I was drawn in by my sudden loneliness and increased spare time. Dan and Phil, and the phandom at large, made me believe in love again during what otherwise could’ve been a very dark time for me.
I appreciated reading the stories from other writers, which were always easily approachable when I needed light entertainment. And when I had time, this community allowed me to hone my own writing skills. My stories can still be found on AO3 under phanarchy. But what I am most proud of in this season of life was that I had developed a blog and group with other adult phans so we could connect unfiltered without worry about making ourselves, or worse any minor phans, uncomfy.
Why I disappeared:
If I remember correctly, I think my blog began to trail off sometime in 2019-2020. I don’t remember exactly what started it, or what was the final nail in the coffin, but I can tell you what was going on in my own life at the time.
In late 2018, I met someone and started dating. The relationship was in its early stages, and while I did share being a fan of our boys, I wasn’t quite ready to share how deep this rabbit hole went for me. And I wasn’t quite ready spending an increasing amount of time with this person. It was getting serious.
In the midst of this, we hit the hiatus. Videos were few and far between. I kept watching them all, but suddenly I felt like I had little to say about it all. Little to post. I started watching from afar while my own life got, well, complicated. I got married. I worked a lot (a public-facing professional job that always drove me to blog under a pseudonym, which I will continue to do). And just recently, very recently in fact, I had a baby.
Why am I coming back now?
As stated above, I just had a baby, who is now 4 months old. I left my job to stay home with him. I wouldn’t say I have free time, in fact I have less free time than ever before. But I will say that being home with my son has made me crave connection more now than ever before. I have friends, real life friends who I see often and who love me and my child, but I need my hobby back. Now more than ever, I need something just for me.
Oh, and that person I met back in 2018, who I married and had a baby with? Somewhere along the line they came out as trans, and they have joined the phandom too along the way. So that inkling to keep this secret from the biggest person in my life? No longer a factor.
What happened to phanarchy.tumblr.com?
I legitimately, do not know. I search for it now and get a message that there’s no such website. I have tried to log into it, and the one Gmail account I know of does not lead to tumblr. I tried logging in with another Gmail, one I specifically thought I had made for this tumblr, but Gmail says it does not exist. I also tried to take back the name “phanarchy” but alas, tumblr still says someone else already has it.
Did something happen to Tumblr while I was away? Did I delete it all in a fit of shame? Who knows. Maybe someday I’ll figure it out and reclaim my old account. Until then, welcome to phancestrial.
Who gives a shit??
Probably no one, honestly. And that’s okay. But maybe my old friends, those of you I am able to find, will forgive me for disappearing, and maybe I can reconnect again. Or maybe I find new people to chat to who are interested in my story.
What can you expect from this blog?
Well, I still have very little free time, as I mentioned I have a 4 month old son who takes up almost all of my waking hours (and some when I should be sleeping). So I will be honest that I’m unlikely to be making my own photo/gif content, or even much fiction anymore. But I would love to spin up this blog to reblog great posts from others and cultivate my own little corner of the internet for my sense of humor, and my love for those two British twinks.
