New Furry Asks a Lot of Questions That Boil Down to Wanting to Be Popular

Dear Papabear,

My name is Basket and I have multiple questions if you do not mind that I am including below. Please I beg you answer them all for me as I am still new to this fandom thing and have certain insecurities an doubts about this fandom thing. Some of the questions reside from personal to questioning the fandom. Instead of pinning this up you can E-Mail me my answers if you'd like. Also if you want to edit this I give you full permission to take one of the questions and trim it away to post to your site.

Anyhow, continuing on I have the questions to follow below and I guess some information to tag along behind the questions and what I have tried with them.

How does one become a popufur like Telephone, NiiC, Radio, Vandal the Cat, you, and others out there in this fantastic and adoring fandom? Most people say you can start off by getting noticed on small sites like FurAffinity for a talent and work your way into cons with an original fursuit. I honestly have not been at a con, nor have I been able to be original with my fursuits. But how would you suggest me to become into getting well-known and unique. Basically to become a furlebrity.

What is the best way to get my FurAffinity account known better to people in the possible quickest way? I know submitting pieces of work and tagging it is probably the most reasonable way, but I don't know how peoples minds work and what tags will give them a lead to my work. I write stories for my profile, being a beginner I only have one story as a work in progress and I plan to continue working on it. Just please let me know if there is a possible way of getting the word around with my profile quicker.

How can I get more confidence and motivation to do what I love? I love to write and make stories but I find myself to either be busy and not have the time to sit there and write, or no motivation to be able to say hey let us start to write this story and get it submitted, but not least I find myself thinking what will others say about my writing then I lose my confidence, pride, motivation, etc...

Why do a selected amount of people in human society hate the furry fandom? I've heard incidents where furry conventions have been gassed, an then even shot or beaten to death while they're alone or in a small group. I know that one reason is because some of them are into zoophilia, better known as animal sex, but let them choose their path, they shouldn't choose it for them. I found the furry fandom from the start to be cute, family-like, friendly, playful, adorable, unique, different, and supportive. Something I have not had for a long long duration of time until back two years ago. I think I fell in love with the fandom while on a virtual chatting game called IMVU. However, my question leads to why do certain people hate furries, and is there anyway us furries can stop it? A riot to get a law made for just us, get in contact with celebrities that are well-known to them and have them support us, or even if possible the president...just a way to say we're humans to we just have a fandom we're into, no different from you guys in anime cons, star wars cons, etcetera.

To wrap these questions in the bag with a special delivery with a topping, my last question of this form is, can you please help me find cheap fursuit makers who do high quality work and can make my character as good looking as Telephone, Radio, NiiC, and so on. My family does not get much money at all we are struggling in real life and the only reason I am able to write this is because my neighbor has internet and gave us the password and a computer, god bless her. Anyhow, like I said our family is barely surviving I am lucky we are getting food, beverages, and rent in. We will be moving though trying to find a better and cheaper place to live. We have been asking churches to help us. Sorry for getting off board, but back to the main focus. I want to get a fursuit real bad my friend online is getting one free for talking someone out of suicide. I could of done that, done that for many people I am left unawarded and without a thanks. But, as saying I really want my character Basket as a fursuit and to be able to call myself a true furry and wear one then attend Megaplex Anthropomorphic Convention in Orlando, Florida. With a custom badge, fursuit, etcetera. But I have not found anyone cheap enough in about 500-700 dollars for a well-made fursuit that will last a long time, I am trying to save up my money to work for this, it's hard because I need to help my family. I've been denied from so many jobs and I really don't know, it must be because I am 16 years old without experience that is why I want to create a paypal and earn money on my FurAffinity. 

Papabear, please help me out with my chaos in this stuff, as I am struggling to find my way. I give complete thanks for answers to these questions and give you my fullest apology for adding question after question. However, if you read all of this and answer every single one I give you my honor and respect as to I can't find anyone to help me. I'm basically a loner in real life no one to relate to. I have absolute zero friends, maybe one but things went bad between me and him...so yeah zero friends, no mates, only online society. I need more furries in real life nearby where I can either bike it to them. PLEASE HELP! Thank you so much, I thought I'd give you a try.

Yours truly,

Basket (age 16)

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Hi, Basket,

Indeed, as I request on the form on this website, I do ask that people limit themselves to one question per letter. I really don’t want to open the barn doors so that people think that this is okay, so I am going to try to cram all your questions into one related question, which seems to be this:

“I’m alone and friendless and it seems to me that there might be a way to make friends by being a popufur because I really would like to have a bunch of furry friends, even though a lot of people seem to hate furries.”

To start, let’s get rid of some of your misconceptions. One of these is that you have to have a fursuit. You don’t. Only about 1 in 5 furries is a fursuiter, and not just because 80% can’t afford one. Rather, many people just don’t really want one. They are expensive, hot to perform in, and really take a lot of commitment. And, while we’re at it, you don’t even need to have a fursona to be a furry (although it’s a lot easier than fursuiting).

I would suggest that, with money in your family tight, you save money for important things like, I dunno, food and bills. Not glamorous, I know, but if you can earn some money and your family needs it, the best thing you can do is support your family. Family first—remember that. Now, say, for a birthday or something, your family gives you a little spending money. You might try doing a partial fursuit. Maybe even just buy ears or a tail. And, just to note, you really don’t buy a top-notch fursuit for $500-$700. That’s pretty low end. So, start small and work your way up, but only as you can really afford to.

As for being a popufur.... First off, please don’t call me a popufur as I see it as rather a derogatory term that means someone who wants to be popular for the sake of getting attention. That’s probably not how you meant it, but just for future reference.... Some people become popular because they make contributions to the fandom, such as art or running a convention. What I’m saying here is don’t try to be popular; rather, focus on enjoying being a furry. What do you like to do? Do that. Don’t worry about making friends. If you find stuff you really enjoy doing in the fandom, then you will probably meet others like yourself who enjoy doing the same things, and then you will make friends. If you do the other thing—try to be a popufur to get friends—you come off as being egotistical (“All Hail Me! For I Am a Popufur!”) Yuck.

Oh, and please don’t say things such as “true furry.” Immediately that smacks of forced definition and elitism.... and bullshit. Pardon my French. A furry is someone who enjoys the anthropomorphic animal arts. Period. Anything and everything else is just gravy.

As for furry haters. Don’t worry about them. Now, I don’t know where you heard about furries being killed, because that’s news to me. I have heard, of course, about the chlorine gas incident at last year’s Midwest Furfest in Chicago. The latest news on that is that it was a chemistry experiment gone awry—and by that, I mean someone was trying to cook up meth in their room and when it didn’t work they tried to dispose of the chemicals. They haven’t caught who did it, but it was probably a foolish hotel guest. I don’t think it was a deliberate attack on furries. Usually, the extent of furry “oppression” is mockery from mundanes who don’t understand us.

I hope that some of what I have written here will bring you down to earth a bit. Being a furry can be a lot of fun. I have made a lot of friends and have had a great time. But don’t make it into something it is not, and don’t use furry as a vehicle toward becoming popular. It might be a cliché, but, really, you should just be yourself. Relax and have a good time. Take this bear’s advice and just enjoy the bare necessities.

Hugs,

Papabear