Sold to One Direction

"Sold to One Direction" is a trope related to One Direction fan fiction that originated on Wattpad involving self-inserts or the reader being sold to the group. The trope broke containment and has become a meme in wider fandom, including other bandoms like BTS. Crack fics are also written about real-world figures being sold to said band.
==History==
=== Pre-One Direction ===
Fics featuring kidnapping and characters being sold to fictional characters or celebrities pre-date One Direction. In studying the phenomenon, YouTuber Strange Æons speculated that the trope may predate the internet altogether, though this cannot be conclusively proven.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7A-xMHGCZY Her video "Sold to One Direction" found examples of the trope in the Lord of the Rings fandom in 2002, Harry Potter fandom as early as 2006, in the Supernatural fandom in 2007, and in the Twilight fandom around 2007/8.
=== One Direction ===
In the early 2010s, many young fans of the band One Direction incorporated the trope of being sold to the band. While this did eventually devolve into parodying the trope, it is likely that at least some of the earliest versions were sincere. There is not one specific story known to exemplify or to have originated the trend. Often, the trope involves a teenage girl whose parents sell them to One Direction, often for drug money. The use of a reader-insert (y/n) point of view is also commonly referenced when speaking about this trope.
The trope is most commonly associated with fanfiction posted on websites such as Wattpad and Quotev. The trope is known to have existed on the former as early as 2012 and on the latter as early as 2013.https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/u0h2kw/the_original_soldtoonedirection_fic/
The trope was also known to appear in contemporary fandoms such as 5 Seconds of Summer. https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/whd1fa/origin_of_sold_to_boyband_trope/
=== Containment Breach ===
Eventually, the trope reached memetic status within the One Direction fandom and outside of it. Many of the more recent works featuring and referencing the trope are poking fun at the trope instead of genuine portrayals. Eventually. parodying and making jokes about this trope spread past the One Direction fan community, officially breaking containment. This seems to have by 2019 and the early 2020s. On AO3, fics featuring this trope are almost entirely satirical. 
== Commentary ==
===2021===
===2022===
==Examples==
* "Sold to Wonder Woman (by my evil adoptive father Batman)" AO3 linkWBM by JeanjacketCarf (2022), in which a young Jason Todd writes a badfic in this vein
* Joe Biden Gets Sold to BTS. AO3 link by meowmeowspartyworld & vanessa_doof_was_my_gay_awakening (2022)
* The Nuns Sold Me To The Orkneys? AO3 link by aggravain, a variant where the reader is a fandom character instead of y/n
* Sold to One Direction!! Wattpad link by citrusdarling7 (2020) parodying the classic tropes found in older fanfiction on the same site
* 'do you ever watch videos of youtubers reading[...]' (Aug 2023) - Tumblr thread started by dear-ao3
*"AITA for selling my daughter to One Direction" (2022) - Reddit shitpost 
* Re: "Which batkids would sell Bruce for One Direction" - An inverted ficlet in which Batman's children sell him to One Direction
==Resources & External Links==
* Sold to One Direction - AO3 tag
* https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sold%20to%20one%20direction?sort=top
* https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/whd1fa/origin_of_sold_to_boyband_trope/
* https://www.reddit.com/r/FanFiction/comments/u0h2kw/the_original_soldtoonedirection_fic/
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7A-xMHGCZY YouTube video essay by Strange Æons
==Notes==
==References==
Category:One Direction
Category:Tropes & GenresCategory:Self Insert Fandom