Nerds and Beyond Staff Talk ‘Wayward Sisters’
Those of us at Nerds and Beyond have been doing everything we can to help save Wayward Sisters. Yesterday we shared stories from our readers about what Wayward Sisters means to them, and today we wanted to take a minute to talk about how our staff feels about it. Our staff has been working around the clock to spread the word, Tweeting and RTing, and writing as many articles as we can because we are extremely passionate about Wayward Sisters both as staff as a whole and individually.
Strap in and get ready for a whole lot of feels.
I can’t pinpoint exactly when the Wayward Daughters movement first came to my attention – but I know as soon as I heard “All female Supernatural spin-off starring Jody, Donna and Claire, I was hooked. I was a fan before it was even really a thing to be a fan of.
Then it was announced that there would be a pilot and two other lead-in episodes in season 13 and I was so. on. board! I didn’t even need to know the plot – I knew with Bobo and Dabb in charge with Kim, Briana, Kat, Kat, and more on the way, it was going to kick ass. And it fucking did. Say what you want, it was a fabulous episode. There were great fight scenes, great character development, and told a complete story while leaving so much untold for a first season. (Also, #Dreamhunter… I’m just saying.) I walked away from that episode not just wanting more – but needing more.
In the months since then, I have been in this weird limbo between saying, “You know what, this has been great, but networks usually suck and it wouldn’t surprise me if it didn’t get picked up,” and “OH MY GOD OF COURSE THIS IS GOING TO BE PICKED UP HOW COULD IT NOT!” There was never any “Let’s wait and see.” But all this week, seeing the cast and the fans tweeting about it, I felt it in my heart of hearts that I was going to see the tweet in my timeline saying “The CW has picked up Wayward Sisters for its first season.”
And that was not the tweet I got to see.
When Charlie died on Supernatural, I cried for a solid half hour. Like – just grieving. But I have yet to shed a tear, because as Briana said, “We’ve still got work to do.”
In the wee minutes of Saturday morning, it was announced that Brooklyn Nine-Nine had been picked up by NBC. Just 24 hours after being cancelled by Fox. If that does not tell you the power of the fans, I don’t know what does. This show is basically a living Tulpa – for three years we have been yelling about being Wayward and our favorite Wayward ladies – and we got new characters. We got a pilot. And I sure as fuck won’t believe we aren’t getting a season for a good long while.
I have a lot of sappy things to say about Wayward, but I already wrote all of them in this article.
So instead, I will make my contribution to this article a plea: Keep. Screaming. Don’t let them think we have accepted this. Scream until you are blue in the face. Be loud. Be strong. Be Wayward. We’ve still got work to do.
This breaks my heart more than a simple post can put into words. This show wasn’t just a show. It was more than that. It was a chance for characters I can relate to finally being shown on a TV show. Growing up, my mom never let me watch Disney princess movies because she didn’t want me to think that all women could do was just sit in dresses and do nothing while the men saved the day. Wayward Sisters meant showing women didn’t just have to sit around. They were the heroes. They weren’t weak. They may have cried, made mistakes, or got knocked down, but they would’ve gotten back up and fought. Wayward meant showcasing women who saved the day instead of being the damsels in distress. For me, it meant finally seeing a woman who was the badass. I grew up watching so many shows and TV shows where the man was the fighter, the hero. I loved those characters, but I’m sick of it always being a man. Why can’t it be a woman? It can be, only network TV hasn’t realized that yet, sadly.
Wayward also was important to me because it was often talked about having LGBT characters on the show. I know first hand what it’s like to struggle with your sexuality. To wonder what’s going on with you. To need help accepting it. I found that acceptance and peace with another show and another character. Thanks to that character, I have accepted my bisexuality. I hope Wayward Sisters would have more of these characters to help others who are also going through this. Not to mention, the LGBT community is vastly underrepresented, so any additional representation would have been much needed and appreciated.
Wayward was an all female led cast. This is important because it breaks the stereotypes that media has about women’s relationships with one another. Media often shows its women as being catty, rude, or cruel to each other. They show women turning on one another. Wayward showed women supporting each other and building each other up, not tearing each other down. Something we all needed.
Perhaps for younger viewers, this show was a bit too mature for them, but they could have at least known that women are strong, that we don’t have to come second to anyone, that women can be the heroes and the fighters. During a recent trip to Disney, the only merchandise available to young girls was princess theme, but for the boys, they had all this stuff for heroes. I don’t want young women to think they can’t be that hero. I want them to know that when they grow up, they can be that strong fighter. I want the young girls to have women as role models. The female role model I didn’t have growing up. I only ever had men growing up, save for a couple women in the books I read, but the vast majority were men. I always was frustrated seeing the action hero merchandise only for men. Wayward meant, that women were now finally going to have something marketed for them.
Lastly, Wayward gave me a community of women. Women, people of color, the LGBT community, and other minorities who wanted to support each other and rally around these characters – not to mention actors, writers, and directors who were also women who also believed in this dream. They believe in women working behind and in front of the camera, together as a team. I’m so frustrated that this was an opportunity for women and minorities to finally be represented and the CW said no.
We will not go down without a fight. Our voices will be heard.
Wayward is more than just a show. It’s always been more. See, it started out as a movement. A group of people who spread the message, “Even if you’re off the beaten path, that’s okay. In fact, it’s more than okay, it’s beautiful.” Then it snowballed. It became an idea for a show, then through years of fan support, it turned into a pilot. We did that. Nothing will ever take that accomplishment away from us.
For a more in-depth look at what Wayward means to me, this documentary film I made about it will tell you all you need to know.
With all that being said, I’m giving a giant middle finger to the CW right now. The amount of fan support behind this pilot was insane. It was one of the most watched and well received episodes of Supernatural’s Season 13, and yet, the network still passed. I for one would like to know why. There were no reasons given. Just a simple, “It’s not happening.” If anything, the fans deserve an explanation. Or a change in the decision that was made.
Regardless of what happens, or what has happened, it’s important that we keep fighting. Do that however you see fit. I’m going to keep supporting Wayward and all that it stands for, no matter what. And who knows, maybe the fandom can change the minds of The Powers That Be. It wouldn’t be the first time that happened. And I wouldn’t put it past the Supernatural Family to make that change. We’re strong, especially when we’re united to fight for something that we truly care about.
Don’t give up hope. Keep being Wayward. Make your voices heard.
Do you want to know what Wayward Sisters means to me? It means being a part of something that was bigger than itself. It means seeing strong women, who were positive role models, kicking ass and saving people. They were doing it on their own, fully capable of taking care of themselves, and for once were the heroes not the victims.
Today, women are grossly underrepresented on television and in Hollywood. I was so proud of the CW network in making a quality episode with top notch female talent. I thought that the CW was going to break new ground for women everywhere.
I also love Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster. They are exceptional human beings who just happen to be female. I look up to them, I admire them; they encourage us to keep going, keep fighting. Of course I was happy when they finally got their shot. I was excited to see Kat Ramdeen, Kathryn Newton, Clark Backo and Yadira Guevara-Prip working together. I was ecstatic when I saw the ratings for the episode and social media. Our Wayward Sisters beat out Grey’s Anatomy by a landslide!
I said to myself, this is awesome! The CW can’t possibly ignore this outpouring of love and support from the fans around the world! I couldn’t have been more wrong! I sat stunned, staring at my phone in shock when Andrew Dabb’s tweet came across my screen. To say I felt sad would be a gross understatement; I felt betrayed.
Some would say, come on! This is only a TV show. They could not be more wrong. Wayward Sisters was so much more than a TV show. It was the chance to make a difference. It was the chance to show the world what can be accomplished when a network and a fandom come together for positive change.
What a bitter pill of disappointment me and the entire Wayward Sisters and SPN Family had to swallow today. We will do what we always do when these things happen. We will ALWAYS KEEP FIGHTING for our family!
Getting the news that Wayward Sisters wasn’t getting picked up was heartbreaking. When word first broke it felt like a gut punch. Tweets and statements began rolling in from my fellow fans, all echoing the same sentiments of heartbreak and anger. The anger quickly spurned on something that started the Wayward pilot in the first place: action. Anger turned into “what can we do about this?” We were all ready to fight. And I was quickly reminded of what started the Wayward movement in the first place, and what it truly meant to be Wayward. It was more than a tv show, it was more than t shirt campaigns. It always had been and it always will be.
WE are more than a TV show. More than t-shirts. WE are wayward.
The movement that Wayward started will carry on long after the televisions have been turned off. And that’s what I will cling to. The friends I have made and the community that this movement fostered. And maybe in a way, that’s what is most heartbreaking about this. This movement was started with an idea, that spread like wildfire through social media, into our homes and onto our screens. We’d gotten a taste of it, loved it, and then to have it taken at the final precipice is…seemingly cruel. But, the Wayward Sisters fandom was founded in and by long time Supernatural fans who had finally found something that we felt we could be a part of and see ourselves in. Supernatural with always be the story of Sam and Dean, but Wayward gave us the opportunity to see ourselves on screen after so many seasons of what felt like being cast aside. For a show with a largely female fan base, the show has been less than kind to women over the years. Wayward gave us something we’d been hoping for for so long. Representation, and a place at the table. Female characters who were wayward in every sense of the word. And though they were wayward, they’d found a place. Like we had through the wayward community.
And though we may not see Jody, Donna and their girls on our screens every week like we had hoped, we will continue on this journey with Kim and Briana and everyone else who told us we were Wayward AF. Because that will always be bigger than what’s on a screen.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the Supernatural fandom, it’s that we’re a passionate bunch. It’s not a secret that the show that’s been on the air for fourteen years has a strong fan base. What has separated it from other famous fandoms is how we can mobilize. Four years ago, in response to watching Charlie Bradbury (the woman created as a reflection of the fandom) get brutally slaughtered for the sake of “story”, we decided we’d had enough. Enough of being used as a plot device. Enough of being called a “casual female viewer”. And so like a thunderous storm, Wayward was born. We demanded a spin-off, a place to see the women of Supernatural’s stories played out the way they deserved. Not just two or three episodes a season, but in equal billing to its predecessor at twenty-three hours a year.
But Wayward at its core is so much more than a television show. Right now, we face an incredibly tumultuous time in our country. A time when we’re seeing some of the social progress we’ve made get pushed back. Women and minorities have to fight for some pretty basic rights, some of which they’ve only recently earned. One of the biggest pieces to this puzzle is representation in the media. Television, movies, books – stories in any form – they give people a chance to see themselves reflected and accepted. Media has the power to normalize to the masses the stories of the marginalized. When people feel seen, feel heard, feel understood – they can move mountains. They don’t commit atrocities – they try to make things better.
Wayward is a place of acceptance for everyone. It doesn’t matter what color you are, or who you love, your age, your occupation – if you come forward with authenticity, you are “in” this amazing club. The show reflected that in every character, which spanned ages, sexualities, colors and motivations. From Supernatural’s foundations of “found family” a beautiful movement was born.
And the truth is, this movement won’t die with this show. I know that, which is why I’ve tattooed Wayward over my heart, quite literally. What’s happened now is that thousands of other people have been robbed the chance to get in on this movement via a weekly show. To see their stories reflected in Kaia, Claire, Alex, Patience, Jody and Donna. To feel like they too can conquer their fears and live out their dreams because they’ve seen these amazing women do it themselves. To rob a television watching generation of that is just cruel and short sighted.
The CW needs to reconsider the side of history they want to be on. They can take the easy road, not wanting to scare any viewers or rock the boat in any way. Or they can lead network television in giving a voice to the voiceless. In reflecting what it is to really be a woman in the world now. I hope they hop on this train, because it’s coming whether they get on it or not.
I haven’t been a part of this fandom for very long, and honestly, I’ve been a fan of Kim, Briana, and the rest of the cast of Wayward Sisters for less than a year. I kept seeing so many of my friends talk about their love for Kim and Briana, and while I had watched the Supernatural series once and did enjoy the characters of Jody and Donna, I honestly didn’t get what the fuss was all about.
Until I went to my first convention and heard these ladies speak.
As a woman who grew up surrounded by other women who deferred to men for decision making and money making, I always felt like the odd one out. I was ridiculed, name-called, and shamed for having my own opinion and for refusing to shut my mouth when men thought I should. And let me tell you, watching Kim and Bri on stage – two beautifully, unapologetically opinionated women – was life changing for me. I saw parts of myself in them. So much so that I walked into that panel not knowing who the women were outside of characters in a handful of episodes of my favorite TV show, and walked out of it with tears streaming down my face because I was so inspired by them.
Then I learned about the pilot Wayward Sisters. I heard these women, along with Katherine, Kathryn, Clark, and Yadira, speak passionately about this show and the topics they were hoping to explore if the show went to series, and I was immediately all in. I saw more episodes with Jody and Donna that made me fall in love with the strong characters they were. I saw Alex, Patience and Kaia stumble into a world they didn’t know anything about but jumped into head-first anyway, and I fell in love with each of their characters, too.
I cried for Kaia. I felt Patience’s turmoil. I saw through Claire’s false bravado. I admired Alex’s attitude. I wanted to be best friends with Donna. My heart broke when Jody’s did – and all of that was in one single episode!
From that moment forward, I did everything I could to support Wayward Sisters. I bought photo ops, I bought merchandise, I wrote articles, and I Tweeted until my thumbs were sore. And I did it all because it meant so much to me to be represented by such strong women in the Supernatural world where women were often not treated as anything more than a plot device.
The episode was so well received by fans and had such high ratings, I honestly had no doubts that Wayward Sisters would go series. In fact, I had an article prepped to release as soon as the news broke because I was positive it would get picked up. The heartbreak I felt when I read it was passed on was harrowing. I cried actual tears. Many of them. And my eyes are brimming with them again now because it just isn’t fair.
There is no logical reason that this show should not go forwards. Wayward Sisters has the fan base. It had the ratings. The cast has the talent to carry the show. It has many possible story lines that need to be explored. It has every ingredient a new show needs in order to be successful, and still it got passed over.
So that’s why we’re here now: to fight. To fight the way Jody, Donna, Claire, Alex, Patience and Kaia would fight for something that isn’t right. To fight the way the women who play the characters would fight for something they believe in. To fight the way all twelve women deserve to be fought for.
Women everywhere who haven’t already been touched by the passion and inspiration of the six leads of Wayward Sisters the way I have been deserve to be, and we won’t stop until they get that chance. If the network thought we were going to go down quietly and not fight for a show that deserves to be fought for, maybe they didn’t know what wayward really means. Because me and every other Wayward fan will live up to the definition of the word – difficult to control or predict – and we won’t let anything hold us back.
When the news first broke that the CW chose to pass on Wayward Sisters, I had already been having a rough week with too many endings. Wayward Sisters was supposed to be the bright happy beginning we were all looking forward to. Something new, something we already loved, something we wanted and had fought long and hard for for three years.
The Wayward movement has played such a big role in shaping me and teaching me some very important lessons. It teaches us to know our own value, to embrace every part of ourselves, to not let anyone else determine our worth in this world, to recognize that we can be strong and vulnerable and beautiful and goofy and everything in between. We can fail, we can fall, but our strength is in our willingness to get back up and try again.
We live in a world where values (whether monetary, social, or otherwise) are often given to us based on what box we tick on the world’s checklist: age, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, body type, beauty standard, etc. and media plays a HUGE role in enforcing those perceived “values”.
But Wayward Sisters sought to take a step forward and throw that checklist away.
Wayward Sisters, like the Wayward movement, is about inclusion and the opportunity to expand the scope of the already extensive Supernatural universe, to tell more diverse stories, to include more worldviews and perspectives, to embrace honest characterization and representation. The core of WS is still the same as Supernatural: family don’t end with blood. We just wanted to include some new family members.
I implore you, CW executives, to reconsider your decision with regards to Wayward Sisters. Live up to your network’s tag line and dare to defy the norms of network TV. Give this show and these characters the chance to show others the power in embracing your self-worth and to empower others with strong, honest representation for women and teach them important values and life lessons.
All we’re asking for is one season. One season to prove that this show can and will do great things.
Please give us that chance.
I’ve been a fan of Supernatural for three years. In those three years I have watched the series a few times, been to several conventions, engaged in the fandom through social medial, and created a network of support through all the amazing friends I have met.
I enjoyed watching the show, as all of us do, but I would always find extra joy in the episodes that Jody was in. Her character wasn’t the typical helpless female, like almost all the female characters on this show have been, but rather a strong, independent woman who could carry the world on her shoulders while keeping a sane attitude. Jody is an inspiring character because she gives us permission to be strong women. Jody allows for us to take on the world and know we will be okay. She allowed me to know that I can experience immense loss and pain, and still come out the other side kicking ass. Jody is the kind of role model I want, and need, on a show.
Then Donna came on the show. She was an eternal optimist. We watched her deal with a horrible ex, who always tore her down and made her feel like her self worth was nothing, to allowing herself the confidence to know she deserved better. She went on a self improvement kick because SHE wanted it, not because someone else did. I quickly realized that I related to Donna even more than I related to Jody. Donna is prime example of a woman being able to be confident, be a leader, while still being a kind person. I feel like most leaders we see are represented at rude, or mean, whereas Donna is neither of those and still leads.
These two women on their own represent so much of what I want and who I am, then they met on the show and became friends to helped each other out! THIS is NOT something that is ever portrayed on television. The typical female character rarely has other female friends, or is consistently fighting with other female characters that are “friends”. It is such a poor representation of how women truly are. It is also teaching women that that is how we should treat each other.
We need this show for so many reasons because it is so much more than just a show. It is a representation of how women truly are and can be. This show is a strong cast of female leads who are independent, smart, caring, badass and inspirational! We need this show because we deserve it!
From Briar, the owner of Nerds & Beyond:
When I first started this website, I was a pretty big fan of Supernatural; it’s why I started writing about the show here in the first place. As I started looking more into the fandom, I came across Wayward Daughters and what they were about and really connected with them.
As a female in a predominantly male field, Wayward Daughters and the Wayward movement gave me confidence in what I’m doing. That I shouldn’t be afraid, or ashamed. I should embrace who I was, what I was doing, and be proud of it. Seeing other people and women help lift each other up was inspiring.
As I met more and more people from the fandom, I learned more and more about what it was to be Wayward. I added my first two staff members, Kayla and Pau, who inspired me and taught me what it was like to be a team of kick-ass women. To be Wayward AF. We started adding more and more staff that continually inspired me, and represented what it is to be Wayward. I started writing more and more about the community that surrounds Wayward; always inspiring, uplifting, supporting. More and more I saw people believing in the movement, showing up to conventions with Wayward merch, vocalizing their support. I really started to look up to Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster, who were two shining examples that just being yourself is good enough. That’s something we all – male or female – need to hear.
When the story came out that there would be a backdoor pilot, it was such a great victory. Our voices were actually being heard. The episode exceeded expectations. To see all of the women we looked up to, along with new cast, the characters being who they were, it was just incredible to see that laid out on TV.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I know Wayward means a lot to me. It’s not just a TV show. It’s a community. A group of friends. A movement. The CW can try and take that away from us by not picking up the pilot, but it’s clear that our voices will always be heard, as they are being heard right now. CW, please change your mind and pick up this show.
To all the Nerds & Beyond Staff – thank you for inspiring me and for being #WaywardAF.
As you can see, the women behind Nerds and Beyond are just as passionate about Wayward Sisters as the rest of the fandom. Please continue to show your support for Wayward Sisters by signing and sharing the petition, and if you need other ideas of what you can do to help, check out this article where we’ve laid out how you can help step by step. Lastly, a special thanks to Violue for allowing us to use her art in this article!
Most of all, remember to be loud and be consistent – we don’t want the support for Wayward Sisters to quiet down over time!