Cindy Crushes Programming: 10 Popular Fandoms to Base Teen Programming On, by Teen Librarian Cindy Shutts

One of the most difficult parts of doing teen programming is knowing what to build your program idea around. One of the best places to look is to see what fandoms are currently popular with teens, more specifically with YOUR teens. Today, teen librarian Cindy Shutts is sharing some great teen programming ideas based upon currently popular fandoms. If these fandoms aren’t popular with your teens right now, find out which ones are and build your programming ideas around those. And if these fandoms are popular with your teens right now, well here are some great programming ideas for you.

1. Animal Crossing: Animal Crossing has had a very big year in 2020. It is not as hot for teens as it was last year but it is still very popular and teens still want programs based around it. We have done a lot of Animal Crossing programming at the White Oak Library District.  Here is a link to more about Animal Crossing programming https://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/2020/08/cindy-crushes-programming-animal-crossing-and-the-virtual-library-by-cindy-shutts

2. Star Wars: This has always been a strongfandom that is always very strong as the force is strong with Luke.  We have done crafts and other activities. We are trying to keep our crafts cute and fun. We are going to have felt Porgs and felt Baba Yodas.  We already have done a The Mandalorian Escape Room created by Faith Healy

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSctFhbJkeHyS8xw66EzmEYnvXuTMvgjYYocwV1wK6XI0XYHIA/viewform

And for Star Wars Day, May the  Fourth be with you,  Linden Galloway  created a new escape room on just Star Wars https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScbtFynvgP6NRmU3vVi56JYKeLJ7AfTQDbW5PLvobh7goAPuQ/viewform

3. Marvel Cinematic Universe: Since Marvel has been doing more series on Disney + this fan base has grown even more. We are planning to do a lot more with Marvel but my co worker Faith Healy made an amazing Wandavision felt figure template. We had those run out within the first two days of being placed out for Take and makes.

4. Shadow and Bone and Grishaverse:  Shadow and Bone is the first trilogy of the Grishaverse series by Leigh Bardugo. This one is really taking off after the Netflix series was released on April 23rd. We are planning to do Mini Shadow and Bone charms for a May Take and Make. We did release a virtual escape room before the series released. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdN6Mb8Xy9NmDgf5BcNGN2QNhSEDXqJjqeWqv1S8aeEBbgh0w/viewform
5. Pokemon: Pokemon has always been popular even though Pokemon leagues are shut down officially because of Covid-19 there are plenty of Pokemon related activities you can run. We did a Pokemon puffball as a Take and Make craft.

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We also did a Pokemon escape room https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf82ydPBGRycYSHAr0C99KBOAEJUH7nAgFLUX9r2_ZSyxbSZg/viewform

6. Anime: Anime is of course Japanese animation and is one of the most popular fandoms that teens will gravitate to. The popular series right now are My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer, at least at my library, Faith Healy released not only anime trivia and a Take and Make of Anime figures (You can find templates for Anime figures here: https://www.paperizedcrafts.com/search/label/Anime), Faith also created an amazing anime based escape room.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsvvQmknXcFz21H9BMOV5RkcsRaN6-wgBclnHT3xEypFKORA/viewform

7. Percy Jackson : This popular book series by Ric Riordian series which is going to be a Disney + series has grown a lot in popularity. We have noticed Percy Jackson taking the place in teen’s hearts since J.K. Rowling has come out with anti-trans statements. We had to run our Percy Jackson trivia twice and we released a Percy Jackson escape room.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfmVuWnlT_uZvmc0_YQaA0Wy-xLoRVe-MZrLcAXRfXPhdnT8A/viewform

8. Mario: People love Mario from the Nintendo video games. We always have teens who ask for more Mario based programming. We plan to do a virtual after hours with the Mario games.
9. Twilight: Twilight was dead and then it came back with the release of Midnight Sun and also Twilight TikTok also has reinvigorated the fandom.  I am constantly asked for Twilight based programming again. I never thought it would come back. I thought vampires would but there is a nostalgia for Twilight that has really come out of the pandemic.  We are doing trivia for adult and teen fans and Faith is working on a Twilight Escape room.
10. Hunger Games: This is another fandom that really came back with the pandemic especially with the release of the prequel focusing on Snow, The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes. Hunger Games had not gone away as much as Twilight but people have rediscovered their love of the series and keep asking for more. Also having a new book release helped it grow in popularity. We did a Hunger Games escape room that did very well and are planning a Hunger Games Trivia.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeBKFlynz-7Im8ENs-uDIPhe7oUuG7zizgozhT_ZY8rm1tfKw/viewform

Cindy Shutts, MLIS

Cindy is passionate about teen services. She loves dogs, pro-wrestling, Fairy tales, mythology, and of course reading. Her favorite books are The Hate U Give, Catching FIre, The Royals, and everything by Cindy Pon. She loves spending times with her dog Harry Winston and her niece and nephew. Cindy Shutts is the Teen Services Librarian at the White Oak Library District in IL and she’ll be joining us to talk about teen programming. You can follow her on Twitter at @cindysku.

Filed under: Teen Programming