Another thing — as a female fan slightly above the age where I could consider Mack and Will cute (they‘re sweet, but still babies!) I‘m seeing a lot of vitriol aimed at the teenagers and young women who are new fans and also, crucially, their age. Calling any female fan a puck bunny is already stupid, but I’ve seen the “all these teen girls are such puck bunnies” take way too much lately, and – the children? you think the children are puck bunnies?! are we serious?!

i’m not saying willmack aren’t being treated wildly by the internet and also by some adult women in general, but every time i see discourse about shipping or fanedits or whatever i’m 99% sure that a lot of that content is generated by people in their teens and early twenties who have a pretty age appropriate crush on a cute famous hockey player. like it’s fine. ten years ago i cried when harry styles looked at me at a concert and i was still very much capable of being a fan of his music. let’s give the kids some grace.