How Ed Miliband became an unlikely internet sensation

It started not with teenage girls, but with a grown man. The first ever mention of the word “Milifandom” was made last June, when someone tweeted out a story from left wing blog Shifting Grounds about the phone hacking scandal:

Then nothing.

Until now. Last night, BuzzFeed published a piece about an emerging ‘fandom’, predominantly among teenage girls, for the Labour leader. At some point over the weekend, some young people decided to formalise their increasing attachment to Ed Miliband by declaring themselves Milifans – proud citizens of a Milifandom.

It started to get picked up by mainstream news outlets, such as The Guardian and BBC News – even Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald was reporting on it. The Daily Express, meanwhile, sombrely noted that the four hour old craze had not delivered a significant poll boost for Labour: But how did it all come about? It did seem to start, at least partly, as a joke, that quickly took on a life of its own. Many of those who consider themselves Milifans are also part of other fandoms – there seems to be regular crossover with devotees of Doctor Who and Sherlock. The commonality here appears to be qualities of nerdiness or awkwardness, with a possible explanation being that the media representation of Ed Miliband is similar to how these characters would be portrayed through the press were they real.