By: Myriam Akbar
Meet Megan Loucks from Michigan! She’s known on social media as @wondermeg_ and is a member of the Michigan Movie Critics Guild. She was born and raised there, admitting that she wouldn’t pick anywhere else to live. Loucks has her own website, wonderwatchlist.com and has been on over 100 podcast episodes as a guest speaker. Content creation didn’t come naturally for her, she says that she just wanted a space to talk to people about the things she loves. The inspiration behind having her own corner of the internet came from her love of MySpace. In 2019, she began posting videos on YouTube and Instagram about collectibles, comics, and eventually film.
Loucks attributes her love for television and film to her family. Growing up, her parents worked a lot and often did opposite shifts. However, they always made time for movie nights. “I found myself watching movies all the time, anything from True Lies to Hercules. I don’t know if my parents thought it would have that big of an impact on me, but it did,” she says. “I’m really an open-minded person with genres! If you ask any of the editors I work with, they’ll tell you the same,” she adds. Loucks gravitates towards monster and comic book films, fantasy, and anything directed by a femme person. As long as it sounds interesting, she says she’s willing to give it a chance. Her current top four on Letterboxd are Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Sorry, Baby, Excalibur, and The Bride of Frankenstein. These films capture what she loves most about cinema, a film’s ability to transport audiences into perspectives and stories that allow them to escape for a couple of hours. Additionally, she adores anything by Ridley Scott and emphasizes that her Twilight phase never truly ended. In terms of television, Loucks enjoys Game of Thrones, The Wire, and The Sopranos.
When asked what the best parts of making content were, Loucks lists a handful of aspects. She highlights designing posts and trying to improve each time, as the most fun part of the experience. She says having her work recognized by her followers and other creatives makes her feel that she’s doing something right. She also treasures seeing comments and messages from people who speak various languages and come from different cultures. “It’s nice when something you post goes viral, or a review you spent a lot of time on gets compliments. Nothing has to be perfect right away, part of the fun is seeing how far you’ve come in writing, designing, or producing,” she says. Loucks shares that due to social anxiety, she has met many of her friends on the platforms where she makes content and has found opportunities to do collaborations. For example, in 2022 she went to New York Comic Con with Comic Book Resources and interviewed some of her favorite comic creators, including Todd McFarlane. As a collector, she had always wanted to go to a large convention to see all the new items coming to shelves. She had never been on a plane or went to a big city, other than Detroit. “Needless to say I was really nervous, but I look back at that moment with pride. It was a pinch me moment and I’m very proud of myself for doing it,” she says.
Another moment that was peak for Loucks was working with people from around the world to advocate for the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention. In 2020 and 2021, she and two other women (The Nerd Queens) made their own online convention called Justice Con. They used their voices, time, and resources to celebrate Zack Snyder’s journey to getting the Snyder Cut released. They chatted with members of the AFSP, Ray Fisher, and Snyder himself. The convention raised thousands for charity, while giving people stuck in quarantine a few days of fun. “It wasn’t perfect, but it was born from love and respect for the art of filmmaking,” Loucks says.
On the other hand, like with most creators, there’s challenges. Loucks lists time management, comparing herself to others, and finding motivation after a long day of work to be the biggest obstacles. “It’s easy to see others doing things like going to festivals or conventions, and think–why not me? Social media fuels a negative algorithm towards creators and although we try to foster a positive feed, it still impacts us,” she admits.
Loucks tries not to think too far ahead due to the state of the world; however, she shared a few of her goals moving forward. She plans to spend more time perfecting her work, putting more pieces on her site, delving into opinion-styled writing, and doing guides on how to get into film. Like many content creators, she also has aspirations to quit her day job and do film reviews as a full time job.
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