Category: 2018 Bios & Platforms

C. Ryan Smith’s Bio & Platform

C. Ryan Smith

Bio

C. Ryan Smith: Ryan’s earliest memories of being in fandom stem from watching Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! in the early morning hours before school with his dad. He can remember talking about the shows and games with other children in his class and feeling that familiar sense of camaraderie that we all feel today. If asked though, he would point out that his first true encounter with fandom at large wouldn’t occur until years later in 2008. It was at this point that he was able to access the internet without restrictions and began interacting with other fans on the likes of Bulbagarden and Fanfiction.net. Ryan first started volunteering for the OTW during his first year in university in 2013; due to personal circumstances, he left the OTW for a while before returning to service in 2015. He’s also attending university again, working towards a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology.

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Lex de Leon’s Bio & Platform

Lex de Leon

Bio

Lex de Leon: Lex currently works for the United States Government as a document and content management information technology specialist, with a specific focus on records import, migration and long term retention. He began by writing fanfiction for the Valdemar series and has since accumulated multiple fandoms which he is always willing to discuss. An unapologetically passionate femslash shipper, he enjoys writing fic that draws upon his life experiences and imagination, and reading any fic that catches his eye or features a pairing he enjoys. A fortuitous visit to the Archive just after recruitment for Support was announced led to him applying, with the belief that his decade of experience in technical support would be helpful within the OTW. He firmly believes in the mission of the OTW and wishes to continue its work into the future. Somehow, a lovely woman agreed to marry him and always be willing to listen to his fanwork ideas. Together they are raising two cats, a dog and one ornery, flightless bird.

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Michelle Schroeder’s Bio & Platform

Michelle Schroeder

Bio

Michelle Schroeder: Michelle has been in fandom for a little over fifteen years now. Their first fandom was Harry Potter, which led to more and more fandoms and eventually to AO3. They joined the AO3 Documentation committee in 2016, and then the Tag Wrangling and Support committees in 2017. They currently spend most of their time working at an arcade, doing committee work, or reading whatever they can get their hands on – and sometimes all three at the same time!

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Natalia Gruber’s Bio and Platform

Natalia Gruber 1 Comment

Bio

Natalia Gruber discovered her first fanfiction by accident while waiting for the last Harry Potter book to come out, and thought for the longest time that it was a wonderful, but isolated idea. Thankfully, she eventually found out that not only was this story not the only one, but that fandom was a lively, rich community full of amazing people and more fic than she could ever read. She lurked for several years reading mostly Harry Potter, until she joined the Tolkien fandom. There she finally started publishing her own works and making friends with other fans, and it’s where she still feels the most at home.

An English teacher during the day, Nat joined the OTW in 2016 as a Brazilian Portuguese translator. A few months later she became part of the Policy & Abuse and Tag Wrangling committees, where she has had a wonderful experience and learned a lot more about the OTW and its work. At the end of 2017, she decided to join Translation staff, working to support and assist translators in their work, and engaging in a lot more inter-committee and managerial tasks.

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