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Thank You! 25YL is 1 Year Old Today

If you had asked me a year ago how I would have felt about the site making it to a year, I wouldn’t have known how to respond. My expectations were small – this was just supposed to be a cool little site designed to celebrate the return of Twin Peaks. A year ago I didn’t see any of this coming. I had no clue that a year later it would be myself and 38 other writers. That we would be partners with podcasts that I listened to, such as Twin Peaks Unwrapped and Bickering Peaks.  I never expected that we would have a fully formed virtual office complete with workspaces, a style guide for our writing, an editing team that consisted of 2 Executive Editors and five additional editors, two webmasters and the list goes on and on. What was supposed just to be a fun little project has turned into a well-oiled machine.

I’m not the type to stop long enough to look at what’s going right or what we’re doing well at. I’m always looking at what’s next, how we can improve or trying to catch the next idea. Stopping to smell the roses isn’t my strong suit. Today I am forcing myself to do just that though. I’m filled with great pride when I think of John, Brien and Gisela and how they’ve become 3 of the most respected Twin Peaks writers and theorists out there. I’m filled with pride when I think of the brave work Lindsay has published, forcing people to look at social issues that very much need to be discussed. Laura, Matt, J.C. and Pete have made this site a place to not only celebrate the onscreen material we love so much but also to celebrate the people we share the Twin Peaks fandom with and that to me is more special than I can adequately articulate. That sense of community being fostered here is priceless. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve heard me say this numerous times, but Eileen hands down provided the best coverage of The X Files anywhere on the internet this past season. 25YL gets to wear that badge of honor based on her hard work, and that fills me with pride. I am truly humbled to work alongside people like Jon, who has kicked in doors since the day he got here and Rob who always goes the extra mile, whether it be traveling to Odessa to get an idea of what Carrie Page’s life might have been like or the amount of research he puts into making sure he gives readers the best experience he possibly can. Now that I stop and think about, I could sit here all day and gush about the crew here and the work they’ve done. This is a seven day a week, two articles a day, unpaid job. It’s a labor of love for every single one of us and I’m filled with gratitude that the team loves this site as much as they do so we can continue to provide the content to those who enjoy what we do.

The biggest thank you of all goes out to everyone who reads our work, follows us on Twitter or Instagram, is a member of our Facebook group or who has signed up to get emails when we publish something new. As much as we love this site, we wouldn’t be writing and publishing two articles a day if it weren’t for your support. We are living out a dream, and that’s entirely because of each and every one of you.

All things considered, we’ve had a damn fine first year. Our work seems to be enjoyed. We’ve been fortunate enough to have several interviews with cast and crew members from Twin Peaks on the site, most notably Mark Frost. (If you would have told me a year ago that I would have the chance to spend 15 minutes on the phone with Mr Frost I would’ve laughed.) We’ve even recently started getting interviews from other shows we cover. So what does Year 2 look like for us? We’ll never stop writing about the world of Twin Peaks and all that comes with it. We’re having a blast writing about the works of David Lynch too. Somewhere along the way, though, we realized we could grow this thing. We could do our best to capture the hearts and minds of other fandoms that we’re passionate about. We could provide our same level of analysis to films we love and to the “Golden Age of Television” we’re fortunate enough to live in. So that’s what we’re doing. Year 2 is going to be about continuing what we’ve been doing and at the same time growing into the world of television and film. We’re already doing the work but we’ve just got started. I think I can speak for the team when I say we’re all really excited for our future.

This past year has been the most amazing experience. From all of the nerves that went into planning our launch to feeling those same nerves today as we push our way into the future, this past year has been nothing short of thrilling. Thank you to our podcast partners, to the “Between Two Worlds” Facebook group and the Bookhouse Babes for being our partners as well. Thank you to every guest writer who has ever submitted an article to us, to the writers that helped us get where we are today but are no longer a part of the team. Thank you to everyone who has ever interviewed with us, embraced us on social media, or even read one of our articles. I might have been the dreamer, but together, we live inside this dream.

Written by Andrew Grevas

Andrew is the Founder / Editor in Chief of 25YL. He’s engaged with 2 sons, a staunch defender of the series finales for both Lost & The Sopranos and watched Twin Peaks at the age of 5 during its original run, which explains a lot about his personality.

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