How to Rock Your MARVEL Fandom as a Middle-Aged Woman
Paid promotion for Disney. All opinions are mine alone. #CelebrateMARVEL
*For the record, I hope I have not quite reached middle-aged just yet, but yeah, close enough.*
My name is Falon and I’m a MARVEL-aholic. For those of you who have been around here for a while, you know my MARVEL love runs deep. Really deep. Obsessively deep. And you probably know I am a more recent MARVEL fan (meaning I came into this fandom as an adult). And you’ve probably picked up on the fact I’m a chick. Being an adult, female, new MARVEL fan is not always easy. In some ways, I feel like a false fan because I’m new to the game, but mostly, I just really love sharing my obsession with these characters with like-minded people (also, not gonna lie, I also enjoy forcing convincing other newbies to join the fandom with me!). And now that MARVEL is celebrating is 80th Anniversary (that’s more than twice my age, just to reinforce that whole middle-aged deal), it’s the perfect time to make new MARVEL fans, or for current fans to fully embrace their inner MARVEL-hood. (Because, let’s be real, sometimes as a woman in the fandom world, it seems easier to hide our inner nerds than try to prove them to others, but the great news is, we don’t have to do that anymore!) Amazon has made it super easy to let your MARVEL flag fly, with their one stop shop, www.amazon.com/marvel. I found so many things I love on this page, but these were a few of my standouts. Wanna buy these items too? Of course you do! Just hover over the picture and each item has its own link (I love technology).
One of the things I love the most about MARVEL, and one of the things that drew me in, was the fabulous collection of women in the MARVEL universe. It’s safe to say I love them all, but I think Captain Marvel and Gamora (from Guardians of the Galaxy, in case this is your first foray into MARVEL) are my favorites. Or maybe Black Widow and Okoye are my favorites. Sometimes it’s Wasp and Scarlet Witch. Honestly, it’s hard to choose just one. And how amazing is that, that there are too many strong women for me to narrow my picks down to just one or two? Truly, one of the best parts about being a new MARVEL fan is getting to go back and dive into eighty years of women who are their own heroes (all the while wondering where they have been all my life…right there, in front of me, in the comic store). Yes, please. My favorite thing about this MARVEL 80 Years of Comics Anniversary Shirt? It comes in women’s sizes! Woohoo! 
You guys know I am all about repping my fandoms in my everyday life. One, it makes me happy. Two, I love letting my inner nerd shine. And three, I’ve made some legitimate connections with strangers out in the world because of our fandom bond. So clearly I’m a sucker for the merch. Give me all the merch. And with MARVEL‘s 80th Anniversary Celebration, there is only one home for the merch. Amazon. Duh. Amazon’s MARVEL-centric landing page, www.amazon.com/marvel is the only place you need to go to find all your MARVEL fandom goodies. 
So trolling the www.amazon.com/marvel page left me drooling over many, many MARVEL items, but of course, the number one for me was the MARVEL’s Box of Super Heroes: The 80th Anniversary Notebook Set. These could not be any more made specifically for me. Notebooks! With MARVEL characters! The only problem is they are so cool, I don’t want to write in them. That’s a lie, I will totally write in them because I want an excuse to carry them everywhere with me. Right now they are sitting on my desk, just off to the right of my computer, and they are calling out to me. All the heart eyes for these beauties. 
The other item I absolutely could not resist from www.amazon.com/marvel was the Funko Advent Calendar: MARVEL 80th Anniversary. And yes, I already opened some of the boxes because HOW COULD I NOT. But then I was good and put them back in their homes, where they will live until December. At which point, I will be rearranging my bookshelf in my office to display them all because they are the cutest and I cannot get enough of them already. (And yeah, I’m definitely going to have to fight my kid for some of these, but I will win.) 
One of the ways I truly rock my MARVEL fandom in my middle-aged(ish) life is by displaying all of my MARVEL goodies in my office. Because I’m a grown up and have an office. Who cares if there are Funkos on all available surfaces? One way I love to display these Funkos from the advent calendar is by using levels. Since they are mini figurines, some of them could easily get lost in the display, so to create some height, I flipped over a vase to make a kind of shelf. Cap gets a place of honor because he’s Cap. 
Another way I display all my MARVEL madness is on my desk. My notebooks are within easy reach, and I placed some of my Funkos at various spots so I can see them while I work. Every once in a while I catch a glimpse of them while I’m typing and they make me happy. 
Whether you are an old fan, a new fan, a young fan, or a (not quite) middle-aged fan, the best thing about MARVEL is there is a place for everyone. I could not be more proud to be a MARVEL fangirl, and I am so thrilled they are celebrating eighty years of entertainment, and brilliant stories, and truly awesome characters. Here’s to the next eighty!
