Have you heard of creepypasta?

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A friend’s stepdaughter is suddenly into a thing called creepypasta stories. My friend keeps an eye on all social media of this girl “C” while in their home, and follows her on Facebook and pinterest whether the girl is there or at her mom’s house.
Recently she started a new pinterest board called creepypasta which turns out to be a type of fan fiction, using regular existing characters in murder or suicide fiction.
C is only 12, has always had a hard time making friends, and is becoming hostile and secretive. Both of those traits could be normal 12 year old girl things, but I feel like these stories are really bad. One of the most famous characters is Slenderman. Bad stuff.
I told my friend that I would ask here, any suggestions from anyone who might be more familiar. Is it just foolishness? or is is very dark, bordering on occult? One of her pins was a list of “normal girls do this, we do that” and ended with “normal girls fangirl boy bands. We fangirl serial killers”. That really disturbs me!
Thanks for any thoughts!
 
savedbygrace71 said:
A friend’s stepdaughter is suddenly into a thing called creepypasta stories. My friend keeps an eye on all social media of this girl “C” while in their home, and follows her on Facebook and pinterest whether the girl is there or at her mom’s house.
Recently she started a new pinterest board called creepypasta which turns out to be a type of fan fiction, using regular existing characters in murder or suicide fiction.
C is only 12, has always had a hard time making friends, and is becoming hostile and secretive. Both of those traits could be normal 12 year old girl things, but I feel like these stories are really bad. One of the most famous characters is Slenderman. Bad stuff.
I told my friend that I would ask here, any suggestions from anyone who might be more familiar. Is it just foolishness? or is is very dark, bordering on occult? One of her pins was a list of “normal girls do this, we do that” and ended with “normal girls fangirl boy bands. We fangirl serial killers”. That really disturbs me!
Thanks for any thoughts!
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Reading/writing fanfiction is not unusual for teenagers, but this sounds bad. All about murder and suicide? This is not good for anyone to read, especially teenagers. Teenagers may be more maudlin then most, but “fangirling” about serial killers is NOT normal.

Is there any way your friend can speak to her step daughter and ask her why she likes to read about this? Could your friend encourage the girl’s mother or father to do this if the girl does not feel open with your friend? Maybe a school counsellor, if the girl considers this to be too difficult?

I would be worried if I knew someone was becoming secretive and hostile whilst reading about suicide all the time. It would be better to end this behaviour now, before something serious happens.

Lou
 
I would not want my 12-year-old on any fanfiction site. Even fanfiction that is based on reasonably clean literature, designed for children or young teens has a tendency to be extremely violent and sexualized in the fanfiction world. It’s not uncommon for the girls (and less frequently, boys) to write about explicit sex acts, homosexual acts between characters who were never presented as homosexual in the original works of fiction, extremely vulgar language, sex with children, rape fantasies, and every other nasty thing you wouldn’t want your kids reading about. There are occasionally good stories out there, but a person has to wade through a cesspool of garbage in order to find it. I don’t want to even imagine what one would find looking though fanfiction that’s based on a book or series that wasn’t reasonably wholesome to begin with.
 
I have read many creepypastas, and they are NOT just messed-up murder fantasies. It is more like a website for aspiring writers, namely of the horror genre.

Allegra, your concerns are valid, but Creepypasta rejects stories that are simply made to be disturbing or messed up. It’s one of the subcategories on their reject website, called “crappypasta”. They state that disturbing is not cruise control for horror. The same goes for excessive blood and guts in stories.

For the record, I have read some excellent spine-tinglers on this website. :bigyikes:
 
I think that your friend doesn’t really understand what creepypasta is. It isn’t fan fiction, but a form of horror fiction. (Sometimes, however, they are based on “Lost Episodes” of famous television shows, with disturbing imagery that make people go insane/kill themselves/be haunted for life.) But they are not occult, any more than any other horror story is occult.

Slender Man is about as real as Cthulhu. Which is to say, he’s not real at all. He’s a product of an internet message board, created with the purpose of being the most frightening thing possible. (And yes, while there have been attacks in the name of Slender Man, there have been people who did vampire killings as well. Mental illness is an awful thing, but more on that later.)

If she’s having behavioral problems, it goes deeper than what she’s reading. My early childhood was spent reading Goosebump books, Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark, and supernatural-themed comic books. I didn’t have behavioral issues.

The whole serial killer thing is disturbing, but what she’s reading necessarily isn’t. However, the root of it likely goes deeper. Why is she attracted to those things? Is she bullied in school? Does she have a bad family life? Does she suffer from depression? People need to stop blaming media and start actually thinking that there might be mental illness involved or other things that need to be dealt with.
 
xNoOnex said:
I think that your friend doesn’t really understand what creepypasta is. It isn’t fan fiction, but a form of horror fiction. (Sometimes, however, they are based on “Lost Episodes” of famous television shows, with disturbing imagery that make people go insane/kill themselves/be haunted for life.) But they are not occult, any more than any other horror story is occult.

Slender Man is about as real as Cthulhu. Which is to say, he’s not real at all. He’s a product of an internet message board, created with the purpose of being the most frightening thing possible. (And yes, while there have been attacks in the name of Slender Man, there have been people who did vampire killings as well. Mental illness is an awful thing, but more on that later.)

If she’s having behavioral problems, it goes deeper than what she’s reading. My early childhood was spent reading Goosebump books, Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark, and supernatural-themed comic books. I didn’t have behavioral issues.

The whole serial killer thing is disturbing, but what she’s reading necessarily isn’t. However, the root of it likely goes deeper. ** Why** is she attracted to those things? Is she bullied in school? Does she have a bad family life? Does she suffer from depression? People need to stop blaming media and start actually thinking that there might be mental illness involved or other things that need to be dealt with.
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THIS^^^. Red flags should be dealt with.
 
xNoOnex said:
I think that your friend doesn’t really understand what creepypasta is. It isn’t fan fiction, but a form of horror fiction. (Sometimes, however, they are based on “Lost Episodes” of famous television shows, with disturbing imagery that make people go insane/kill themselves/be haunted for life.) But they are not occult, any more than any other horror story is occult.

Slender Man is about as real as Cthulhu. Which is to say, he’s not real at all. He’s a product of an internet message board, created with the purpose of being the most frightening thing possible. (And yes, while there have been attacks in the name of Slender Man, there have been people who did vampire killings as well. Mental illness is an awful thing, but more on that later.)

If she’s having behavioral problems, it goes deeper than what she’s reading. My early childhood was spent reading Goosebump books, Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark, and supernatural-themed comic books. I didn’t have behavioral issues.

The whole serial killer thing is disturbing, but what she’s reading necessarily isn’t. However, the root of it likely goes deeper. Why is she attracted to those things? Is she bullied in school? Does she have a bad family life? Does she suffer from depression? People need to stop blaming media and start actually thinking that there might be mental illness involved or other things that need to be dealt with.
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Great response, thank you. I really appreciate your insight. I think you hit the nail on the head here.
 
JackVk said:
I have read many creepypastas, and they are NOT just messed-up murder fantasies. It is more like a website for aspiring writers, namely of the horror genre.

Allegra, your concerns are valid, but Creepypasta rejects stories that are simply made to be disturbing or messed up. It’s one of the subcategories on their reject website, called “crappypasta”. They state that disturbing is not cruise control for horror. The same goes for excessive blood and guts in stories.

For the record, I have read some excellent spine-tinglers on this website. :bigyikes:
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Ok, good to know. I’m a sissy when it comes to horror! It’s all too scary for me.
 
Lou2U said:
Reading/writing fanfiction is not unusual for teenagers, but this sounds bad. All about murder and suicide? This is not good for anyone to read, especially teenagers. **Teenagers may be more maudlin then most, but “fangirling” about serial killers is NOT normal. **

Is there any way your friend can speak to her step daughter and ask her why she likes to read about this? Could your friend encourage the girl’s mother or father to do this if the girl does not feel open with your friend? Maybe a school counsellor, if the girl considers this to be too difficult?

I would be worried if I knew someone was becoming secretive and hostile whilst reading about suicide all the time. It would be better to end this behaviour now, before something serious happens.

Lou
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Exactly. That’s what scares the step mom. It’s so dark. The girl’s father is trying to help her, and point her in a healthier direction.
 
Allegra said:
I would not want my 12-year-old on any fanfiction site. Even fanfiction that is based on reasonably clean literature, designed for children or young teens has a tendency to be extremely violent and sexualized in the fanfiction world. It’s not uncommon for the girls (and less frequently, boys) to write about explicit sex acts, homosexual acts between characters who were never presented as homosexual in the original works of fiction, extremely vulgar language, sex with children, rape fantasies, and every other nasty thing you wouldn’t want your kids reading about. There are occasionally good stories out there, but a person has to wade through a cesspool of garbage in order to find it. I don’t want to even imagine what one would find looking though fanfiction that’s based on a book or series that wasn’t reasonably wholesome to begin with.
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See, that’s what I saw on her Pinterest. Characters who were just sort of characters doing something awful. Squidward’s suicide seems to come up a lot. Someone named Ben’s suicide. Average teen characters killing and committing suicide. Maybe that’s more ****** pasta…
 
savedbygrace71 said:
Exactly. That’s what scares the step mom. It’s so dark. The girl’s father is trying to help her, and point her in a healthier direction.
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Has the girl’s mother been told of your friend’s concerns? Is she keeping an eye on this when the girl is with her?

Lou
 
savedbygrace71 said:
See, that’s what I saw on her Pinterest. Characters who were just sort of characters doing something awful. Squidward’s suicide seems to come up a lot. Someone named Ben’s suicide. Average teen characters killing and committing suicide. Maybe that’s more ****** pasta…
Click to expand...
Those were original stories years ago that were very popular. They spawned a whole host of (un-scary) copycat stories about haunted video game cartridges in which the game does something abnormal and creepy, leading a kid to do something horrible, or “lost episodes” with something like “Squidward’s suicide”.

And yes, crappypasta has categories for those, such as: “red ring of dumb”, “lost for a reason”, “stolen ingredients”, and “you didn’t even try at all”. 😃

There are also “parodypastas” and “trollpastas”, where people write deliberately bad stories for the laughs.
 
Buy the girl a good horror book.

I’ve read some of those stories and are pretty popular around the elementary-school type I imagine.
I have some friends who’ve read into these and simply like them.
They’re not suicidal or hostile at all.
Perhaps ask her what’s wrong? :confused:
 
Dean R. Koontz is a practicing Catholic, and was recently interviewed on EWTN. Perhaps you could steer her that way.
 
savedbygrace71 said:
A friend’s stepdaughter is suddenly into a thing called creepypasta stories. My friend keeps an eye on all social media of this girl “C” while in their home, and follows her on Facebook and pinterest whether the girl is there or at her mom’s house.
Recently she started a new pinterest board called creepypasta which turns out to be a type of fan fiction, using regular existing characters in murder or suicide fiction.
C is only 12, has always had a hard time making friends, and is becoming hostile and secretive. Both of those traits could be normal 12 year old girl things, but I feel like these stories are really bad. One of the most famous characters is Slenderman. Bad stuff.
I told my friend that I would ask here, any suggestions from anyone who might be more familiar. Is it just foolishness? or is is very dark, bordering on occult? One of her pins was a list of “normal girls do this, we do that” and ended with “normal girls fangirl boy bands. We fangirl serial killers”. That really disturbs me!
Thanks for any thoughts!
Click to expand...
I would say that it’s just foolishness and very dark/superficially “occult.” I don’t have kids or anything, but I think it would actually be impossible to keep a twelve year old girl from exploring this kind of stuff - if she’s online, she’s going to investigate leads she picks up from Tumblr girls and peers. I think it’s entirely unavoidable. The best thing your friend could do is to strengthen her bonds with her stepdaughter, and try to help her feel confident and loved. Probably better to approach the whole “serial killer fangirl” thing in a very open and good humored/black humor kind of way, rather than let this girl know it actually freaks her parents out. Extreme phenomena just interest kids, and kids who feel like they’re unaccepted outcasts will sometimes gravitate toward that kind of thing. Are there any more extreme outsiders than serial killers? It’s internet culture, the new norm, and it filters down to twelve year olds from older kids.🤷
 
Eduardo06sp said:
Buy the girl a good horror book.

I’ve read some of those stories and are pretty popular around the elementary-school type I imagine.
I have some friends who’ve read into these and simply like them.
They’re not suicidal or hostile at all.
Perhaps ask her what’s wrong? :confused:
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Yes, of course they’ve tried to ask her what’s wrong. That’s the part that a sullen, reclusive 12 year old girl doesn’t work well with. Asking her what’s wrong, can easily be met with a reproachful glare and a day of silence. I think it’s completely normal for parents to see their kids reading this and get concerned. Even if most readers are not suicidal or hostile at all, that doesn’t mean it’s perfectly fine for “C” to be reading it and fangirling about it.
 
Exiled_Child said:
I would say that it’s just foolishness and very dark/superficially “occult.” I don’t have kids or anything, but I think it would actually be impossible to keep a twelve year old girl from exploring this kind of stuff - if she’s online, she’s going to investigate leads she picks up from Tumblr girls and peers. I think it’s entirely unavoidable. The best thing your friend could do is to strengthen her bonds with her stepdaughter, and try to help her feel confident and loved. Probably better to approach the whole “serial killer fangirl” thing in a very open and good humored/black humor kind of way, rather than let this girl know it actually freaks her parents out. Extreme phenomena just interest kids, and kids who feel like they’re unaccepted outcasts will sometimes gravitate toward that kind of thing. Are there any more extreme outsiders than serial killers? It’s internet culture, the new norm, and it filters down to twelve year olds from older kids.🤷
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yes, good points, thank you. It can be very difficult for a step mom to get close to a preteen step daughter. She is trying her best!
 
Elizium23 said:
Dean R. Koontz is a practicing Catholic, and was recently interviewed on EWTN. Perhaps you could steer her that way.
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I didn’t know that. I read about half of one of his books and it scared me so much that I had to stop. Like I said, sissy here. There’s something about his matter of fact description of the killer’s point of view!
 
I frequent Creepypasta. Some of the stories can be pretty good although most of them leave a lot to be desired. Actually I continue to flirt with the idea of trying to write some subtly pro-Catholic Creepypasta but I’ve never quite gotten around to it.

Much like the horror genre as a whole, Creepypasta vary widely in content and quality. When compared to child-friendly horror (I’m thinking Goosebumbs here) Creepypasta tend to contain a lot more graphic violence although it should be noted that this isn’t always true. The other, main problematic trend I see in Creepypasta is the powerlessness of good in the face of evil. Generally most of the stories have a downer ending which I suppose is meant to be scarier but it just comes across as depressing.

Ultimately, as other posters have said, it’s nothing more than a bunch of amateur horror stories. That doesn’t mean its appropriate for someone that age, but I think that’s a different problem than what you were initially alluding too.
 
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