Revamping the Vampire Heroine: Reshaping the Character of Bella Swan through Twilight Fan Fiction

Due to her bland personality and submissive nature, Stephenie Meyer\u27s Twilight heroine Bella Swan is often ridiculed by critics and readers alike. Yet some fans have taken to writing fan fiction as a way to defend Bella or explore her troublesome characteristics. Building on Henry Jenkins\u27 scholarly approach to fan-generated writings, I analyze fan fiction writings based on Bella Swan in New Moon. I consider what sort of new perspective or interpretation the authors bring into their original works. My findings indicate that while not all fan fiction works deviate from Meyer\u27s original character model, many do manage to flesh out certain traits and strengths of Bella\u27s character that were perhaps not present in the original text