Hi everyone, I wanted to introduce myself as I just registered today. I've been following many of the posts on this forum as well as reading tons of interesting information on the website in general, so I figured I'd finally register in order to be able to join in on your discussions! I am a high school student, and just like everybody else here (I hope) I am fascinated by Anne. My interest in her began when I was around fourteen and began reading historical fiction. Obviously, Tudor period novels interested me, and especially Anne – she was portrayed differently by every single author. So I started doing a little bit of research on her, just out of curiosity, and what I learned was so different from what these novels had told me. Obviously. My interest grew over the past few years, and I realized at some point during this span of time that I wanted to actively research and learn more about her. I actually had an excuse to do this: in a spcial program I'm in at school, we are asked to write a 18-to-22-page paper on a humanities-or-arts-related topic of our choice. Of course, I wanted to write about Anne. So far, I've already completed my thesis paragraph (kind of..) and my background section, and my rough draft is due in two weeks, so we'll see how that goes! I'm arguing that despite her inferior societal role as a woman, Anne managed to influence the powerful men around her, especially Henry, to a great extent, and that as a result of her effect on these men, she was the main reason for the English Reformation and perhaps the Protestant Reformation as a whole (some people argue that she was only a factor) – but at the same time, her role was limited, obviously because she was a woman. Wow, that was a mouthful. I'm considering tweaking it, because right now it's super-expansive and covers a variety of topics, and I'm not sure I can discuss all of that in 20 pages. And I just talked too much about this essay of mine. Oh, and I'm TRYING to find a way to interview Eric Ives…I don't know if this will be possible, but I managed to dig up an email last week. I'm not sure exactly how I did that, because now I can't find one anymore and I lost the sheet where I wrote it down. Once I find it, though, I'm going to email him and cross my fingers. However, I'm not sure what I'll be asking him…Ah well, I'll figure that out!

Anyway, this is just to say hello to everybody out there and to tell you all that I'm excited to be able to participate in all your interesting discussions, and that I'm glad I've found a place for nerds like me. 🙂