#time machine meetup

[energeticwarrior]

hi everyone :) I was stalking my old posts since I decided to use Tumblr again and saw how meetups used to be super popular (back in my day.. lmfao). I'm not sure how often meetups still happen, or if they are still as popular, but I thought it would be fun to do a "then and now" meetup! It doesn't matter if you started watching them yesterday or 10 years ago, just have fun with it :)

If you've never participated in a virtual meetup, all people really do is post something about themselves (related to the meetup topic/theme) and reblog other people's posts! I found that I often followed new accounts too after seeing them on other blogs.

purpose ♡

I thought it would be fun to post "then and now" photos of when you started watching dan and phil OR when you started using tumblr, etc.. to how you've changed to now!

if you feel uncomfortable posting photos of yourself, you can also reblog your old work, old art, silly posts you made that you are proud of/think are funny [do what is comfortable please!]

how to participate + rules ♡

reblog this post so others know and can participate

on january 11th, post selfies, old posts, reblog your old work, whatever it may be! And tag it with #time machine meetup

if you feel uncomfortable posting about yourself, feel free to reblog other people's posts! make new friends!

this is a dan and phil blog but if you want to post old work about other tv shows, games, etc.. idgaf bestie go crazy and have fun [aka this is not a phandom-specific meetup]

this is strictly online, not a physical place!

be kind [this was a given]

feel free to send me [@energeticwarrior] a message or inbox me if you have any questions

this is a digital meetup starts 12pm CST and lasts a full 24 hours! here is a timezone converter

if this flops forget i said anything i just thought it would be fun

[deadandphilgames]

me a few months before watching dnp vs literally the night before dan posted BIG and i started watching them vs when i rebranded to deadandphilgames vs now. i don’t look too different because it’s only been 5 years (side note it’s been almost 5 years since dan and phil gay?!)

thanks @energeticwarrior for organising this!

i have definitely grown a lot as a person. i graduated university with my bachelors in maths (no thanks to dnp …the tumblr obsession coincided with my final year), i came out to my family which is something i never thought i could do but honestly the love i got from this community helped with my confidence to do it. and i moved out with my gf, we have 3 cats and a dog together and are living our best gay lives <3

[freckliedan]

also for the time machine meetup: arguably the first dan and phil related me post on any platform. unfortunately for my younger sister there has been much more dan and phil.

& shoutout to my mom for liking her own facebook post #confidence #girlboss #women

[deathclassic]

thanks for organising this @energeticwarrior - what a wonderful throwback with meetups :’)

on the left im 10 or 11 years old. It’s 2008 or 2009 and i had just discovered this guy who makes funny youtube videos called amazingphil. in 2011 i eventually subscribe to danisnotonfire. Oh man it really went downhill (uphill) from there.

On the right im 25 years old. This is the most recent picture of me. I’ve been watching dan and phil for more than half my life and ive made friends because of them. Ive had a career because of them.

It’s crazy to think about looking back.

[sisterdaniel]

hi gay people on my phone i’m doing the time machine meet up!!

my internet name is just T :) she/her :)

on the left you will see 16 year old me in 2013, looking absolutely Busted in that lame asf doctor who tee… that was right around when i got into dnp 🥰 i was still wholly under the impression that i was straight but i was mysteriously drawn to the lgbt community (speak valentina!)… ok girly!

and now 11 years later i have a whole ass doctorate in music and im like a real adult now. and not afraid to be queer 🌈 i do still talk about dan and phil with people i met on the internet tho. slayyy

[ahappyphjl]

2014 & 2023 // i’ve been a dnp fan since 2011, and i’m so grateful for how much happiness they’ve brought me over the years. i joined phannie tumblr about 8 years ago now, and still having this place to share with such lovely people makes me feel extremely lucky. i’m forever thankful to this community and dnp for being such a comforting and supportive presence throughout my life. the future is bright 🫶🏻

[phulge]

2012-2024

hi meetup people!!! look at them! 14 years old and definitely cishet and months away from being so stupidly obsessed with dan and phil and chronically on tumblr it makes their tummy hurt. here i am now 12 years later more or less thriving i guess.

finding dan and phil tumblr was one of the major things that got me out of the catholic school conservative mindfuckery that i subscribed to and felt stuck in. for the first time in my life i was exposed (through the power of the internet) to ideas and perspectives so radically different than everything i grew up around. i was connected with real life queer people and was able to consider that maybe i had a queer identity myself (i do). its crazy to think how wildly different my life would be if i hadnt found dan and phil tumblr.

to me its always been more than these two dudes. its about the people i met. the things i was safe to explore within myself with the community for the first time in my life. the freedom to be so unapolagetically cringe and free and myself when the world i lived in didnt want me to be that. to learn about social issues that i had been taught didnt matter or were part of some liberal agenda. so here i am and its safe to say i pretty much 180'ed in these 12 years and it was for the better. so thanks dan and phil and honestly thanks everyone who i met along the way.

[danrifics]

Okay time machine meet up!

i started watching dnp in 2012 when i’d just turned 13 (we have now discovered my first dnp video was mid 2012 so i would have been 13 not 12 like i thought) now 12 years later i’m 25 and yes i’m still rocking the red hair but now i’m emo and not rocking those cringe 2012 glasses lmfao

bonus 2012 bethanie photo:

[energeticwarrior]

Hi!! My name is Nikki (she/they) and I’m the host of the time machine meetup!! I started watching dnp in December 2015 and started using tumblr in like July 2016

I was a freshman in high school when I started watching them + went to tatinof, a senior when I went to ii, then I fell off of tumblr, and now I’m momentarily back and in graduate school idk how that happened

For those who weren’t previously mutuals with me, I was very active 2016-2018ish (too active for my own good imo) and then had my own hiatus until like a week ago

From then to now I graduated HS and college, got a girlfriend, and did many things in between. I feel wiser, gayer, and happier :) just like dnp :) hope everyone has fun with this meetup + nice to meet you (in advance)

meetup info if you want to participate

[querida]

hiiiiii!! god i've missed phandom meetups, they were so fun back in the day! thank you so much to @energeticwarrior for organizing the time machine meetup, this is such a cute idea!! the first picture is actually the first selfie i ever posted for a phandom meetup abt 5 months into being a phannie and now i'm almost 8 years in and i have changed A Lot, lmao

[freckliedan]

i'm posting 3 pics for the time machine meetup! pronoun me any which way, just know i'm a fairy fagdyke 😊 & thank you @energeticwarrior for planning this—it's great to be able to connect with community thru stuff like meetups!!!

the first is me in january 2013—i was sixteen!!! it was only a few months after i'd discovered dan and phil, i was in a knitting class at my high school (it's where i made that hat), and i remember reading a sad fic by @thelionandthellama and just SOBBING under a table. mid-hat. my friends had no idea what was going on because i had yet to get them into dan and phil & they were VERY concerned.

pic 2 i've posted on this blog before, for a fandom meetup in may of 2018! i made this blog in the spring of that year, though i'd been on tumblr on a different main account for half a decade at that point. i've made such amazing friendships thru this fandom and we all could already tell something big (coming out) was coming soon in 2018! it was an amazing time to be in the phandom and it's been amazing seeing similar energy returning with dnp's return ^_^

the third pic is me on my birthday in 2023! baby me who got into dan and phil had big dreams of falling in love someday and of living in [city] in the PNW with all my friends, and 2023 was the year my husband and i moved to [city] to live with/near beloved friends we met and got to know through tumblr—the friends i saw introactive introverts with in 2018‼️ & yes, that includes @freckliephil, and yes, our very first conversation years before that included talking about dan and phil, too 🥰

it's been a wild ride yall, but the phandom has been such a constant that's brought nothing but love and connection and joy into my life over the years :') a chance to reflect on all that is just lovely!

[2009phan]

time machine meetup

okay so, one deep dive into my dropbox folder later... here is me in 2015 when i joined the phandom!

i realised that i was gay partially thanks to the phandom bc everyone was so accepting. and what's the first thing you do after finding out that you're gay? that's right, you dye your hair lmao. but yeah, i was an instagram phannie and had an account called 2009phan where id post dailybooth screenshots and pics from that era. we even started a collab channel on youtube with a group of mutuals, it was lots of fun!

before finding these pictures i had to scroll through my questionable 2016-17 hoe/coquette/party phase. so this was when i left the phandom. and i was really struggling with internalised misogyny/homophobia and was trying to appeal to the male gaze and convince myself that i wasn't gay, it was not a great time. but that's when i got on tumblr! for the purpose of reblogging black and white lana del rey gifs and quotes about liking older men (ew).

and here is me now! well, without my face. but here are my favourite dresses, they're both vintage and im obsessedddd

i finished high school, got in and out of a 5yr relationship, got my bachelors degree in maths, started working on creating my own company... yeah, so many things happened.

so yeah, nice to meet you guys! let's be friends! <3

[heterophobednp]

first image: me in 2015, around when i first joined tumblr. my first ever account was for doctor who

second image: me at interactive introverts at the peak of my dan and phil phase. i impulsively decided to get tickets four days in advance and i had an amazing time and still remember it as one of the best days of my life

third and forth: me recently, at the broadway museum in manhattan, and with my partner @deanisdamned who has been one of my best friends this whole time

i started watching dan and phil when i was 13 and the joy their videos brought me and the fun i had on here got me through the worst years of my life. their videos gave me something to look forward to, and now i have a lot of other things to look forward to. i'm about to go back to college after spending the past year working. i was 13 when i first started watching dan and phil, and now i'm almost 21 and actually kind of feel like an adult now?? i'll be 4 years on T soon. i have my few amazing queer friends.

i'm not the absolutely obsessed weird little kid i was, and i'm not that active in the phandom anymore, but i still will always love watching dnp

[blondephil]

sooo i can’t remember the first dnp video i watched but it was definitely in middle school or early high school (so like. 12 years ago!!) because i have very distinct memories of finding vlogbrothers → charlie!! → dan and phil. and that is time bound because i did a portrait of charlie in eighth grade art and have a vivid memory of one of my friends in ninth grade saying they had a crush on dan (now gay. obv.) so it’s been a long time and a long journey for them and for me! i don’t have any pics from that time in middle school without trawling my mom’s facebook so here’s baby me, me circa 2014 (age 16), and me starting my first Real Big Job post-grad school this september (age 25). and i would be remiss to not shoutout the group chat that has now existed for five whole years (as of tomorrow!)

also hi i’m jill she/they!

[lesbiandanhowell]

Time Machine Meetup

Wasn't even going to participate but fomo got to me so this is me in early 2017, around the time I started watching Dan and Phil and now last summer.

In those 6 years I have changed so much and a lot of it due to fandoms giving me a place where I felt comfortable to be myself and like I belonged as myself. I found so many queer friends that made me learn so much about the community and myself. Getting to explore what being a lesbian and nonbinary means to me with the support of online communities and friends has been amazing and I genuinely wouldn't be me without those experiences.

The hair honestly says it all. While I have always loved my blond the long hair never felt like me and always like a burden. I had been wanting to cut it for years before moving out and the moment I cut it short I never looked back. It's been so amazing to explore different short haircuts and see how they feel like me, more than long hair ever did. Gender might be a silly concept, but it does exist in hair and expressing yourself outwardly.

Looking back might not always be easy, because times were hard, but I look back on my past self with fondness. I wish I could tell my past self that things would get better, that I could be more myself and some of the things I didn't understand back then just needed time.

Thank you online fandoms and friends <3

[phansterdam]

baby seasons change and people change with them! on the left is me at 15, at the height of my dnp obsession, and on the right is me now, age 22.

a lot has changed since the pic on the left; i think the year i took it was in hindsight actually one of the worse ones of my life haha, mostly because i was just so very 15. since then i got gayer, got better friends, learned to at least like myself, and touched a fair bit of grass! i think 15 year old emily would be pretty happy with where i ended up