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How ‘The Twilight Saga’ Completely Changed My Life – Share How It Changed Yours!

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This is the story about how ‘Twilight’ changed my life – share yours in a comment, or video response, which you can send to kimmy@pagetopremiere.com. I’ll compile them into a ‘Thank You Twilight’ video!

When I say Twilight completely changed my life, I’m not exaggerating. It completely changed it! I went from being a very shy teenager who would never be caught dead public speaking and planned to be a nurse (but wasn’t really sure); to a 20 year old who moved to Los Angeles, runs this website for a living, covers premieres, goes to set visits, does quite a lot of public speaking, and hopes to be a working actress someday. Woah. How did that happen?

It all started when I was 15 years old, and I decided I should probably go to the bookstore and use the giftcard to Copperfields, our local spot, that had been sitting in my backpack for 6 months after I’d gotten it from my friend for a birthday present. So, my sister, mom and I all headed out to the store and that’s when I spotted Twilight. It was just like any random book on the shelf, not highlighted at all in a display, and nobody reccomended it to me. I just picked it up, liked the cover, and I remember saying to my sister, ‘A love story with a vampire? That sounds cool!‘

I read it and went straight back to the bookstore to pick up New Moon after I finished. Back in 2007, the first two books were the only ones out! So, I had to wait a really long time for Eclipse. I think that’s part of the reason why I started my website, HisGoldenEyes.com (which has since been integrated into Page to Premiere). Back then, I didn’t know much about making a website at all, I only had minimal HTML knowledge from having a MySpace page and a Neopets account. You remember Neopets and MySpace? Oh, nostalgia! You should have seen the very first layout! I started the site using another website called ‘Freewebs,’ which allowed me to make a site at Freewebs.com/GoldenEyes. As the site grew, I wanted to get a real domain name, and GoldenEyes was taken so I purchased HisGoldenEyes.com. Fun fact: I originally really wanted the site to be named for all the Cullens (GoldenEyes), not just Edward (HisGoldenEyes), but I grew to love that name!

I was right there when Kristen Stewart was cast, and Robert Pattinson was cast. I got the news from Stephenie Meyer’s official website – I still remember sitting in my room with my sister, looking at the announcement post when Robert Pattinson was cast (they used a terrible picture of him – he had a beard if I remember correctly), and being very unhappy about his casting. Oh, how that has changed. That is one insane aspect of having been involved this long, I literally have been scruitinizing Robert and Kristen’s careers ever since they were cast, and watched them go from nobodies to household names.

At first, my site was just for me. It had a small chatroom, I promoted it on the IMDB page chatboard for the film where a lot of fans flocked to talk about it. I remember finding the other two sites that were up already, TwilightLexicon.com and BellaAndEdward.com, and feeling totally in awe of them. Their sites were so big, and I never in a million years thought mine could get to that level…but it did.

When I started out, I was a very shy person. The site was just me, in my room, talking to other people that loved something that I loved. It was just a pass-time, something I spent a lot of time on after school…but then Summit Entertainment took notice. Right before Twilight came out, I was contacted by someone at the studio (who I now know very well) who invited me to the premiere of Twilight in Los Angeles! You have no idea how excited I was. I’d never done anything even remotely similar to this, and I was nervous! I was so nervous, in fact, that I had my partner in crime on the carpet do all the interviewing. I just did the video-recording.

Here I am at the Twilight World Premiere on November 17th, 2008:

The whirwind that followed was more than I ever even dreamed of. Since that first premiere, I’ve met so many amazing people who are now some of my best friends. I traveled to a convention in Italy, I covered all the premieres of the movies…and now will be working with different studios that I’ve connected with through Twilight to promote and cover their films; such as The Hunger Games. I discovered The Hunger Games at a Twilight event, and launched a seperate fansite about it with two of my friends. Now that site, Mockingjay.net, has grown to be bigger than I ever imagined (we are at over 40,000 on Facebook), and there are still three more movies to go! I know many fans of The Hunger Games don’t like Twilight…but Mockingjay.net would not exist without it.

Other films I’m covering right now closely with the studios include The Host, The Mortal Instruments, Divergent, Warm Bodies, and Ender’s Game. I love adaptations, I love books, I love the world of the movies…so being able to do this is a dream come true!

The adventures we have had with Twilight and HisGoldenEyes.com may be over, but we still have so much more to come here at Page to Premiere. It’s all thanks to Twilight.

Some of the amazing friends I’ve made:

The premiere of Breaking Dawn – Part 2 – November 12th, 2012:

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About Kimmy West

Kimmy is a 20 year old actress and nerdfighter, who owns the Page to Premiere Network. She is passionate about online media, travel, fashion, literature, and film. She also enjoys Tumblr-ing, eating chicken tikka masala, drinking Thai iced tea, and being lazy with her cat Rue!

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  • Aiculairam

    Congratulations for a work well done. It has been a long ride and for me it will never end. Thanks to Twilight and the great Twihards around the world my life is much much better.

  • DJ

    First, many congrats on all of your successes!!! Yours has been an awesome journey.

    How has Twilight changed my life? Well, without having read the four books in four days for the first time, I would have never let my imagination wander. I wouldn’t have thought about alternate story lines… Or about what would happen if Edward and Bella didn’t get back together until years after New Moon. It wouldn’t have led to a fan fiction. Which may have lead to a few others… Anyway, a few years later, here I am writing an original novel series. One and a half out of three complete.

    Beyond the friendships and blessings, these movies/books have allowed me to rediscover writing. Has told me that I’m not that bad at it as everyone in my real life told me all those years ago. I have the confidence to write and feel comfortable with my style. I can never thank Ms. Meyer enough.

  • Anna

    Life fact: I’d never have read THG without the recomendation of Stephenie Meyer. So as a once twihard I say #ThankyouTwilight

  • Vicki

    How the twilight saga changed my life:

    When I first saw this subject, I was a little apprehensive and taken aback by the implications of the statement. Twilight? Life changing? Really?

    I mean, I love the saga as much as the next person…but then I realized that my love for the saga isn’t exactly…normal.

    I was a movie to books converter. I saw Twilight for the first time around the Thanksgiving holiday of 2008. The commercials looked interesting and I’m always one for a love story. Walking into the theater, a lot was weighing on my mind from my personal life. I was in a rocky place with my on again off again boyfriend, wondering if my relationship with him was gonna last, basically in relationship purgatory.

    And then I see Twilight. 

    I was sucked into this world immediately. I fell in love with Edward and Bella’s relationship. I fell in love with the way it built, the way it was strengthened, and the way you knew, by the end of the film, that this was something that was gonna last.

    Being in relationship purgatory in my personal life made me latch on to this idea of a lasting love. A love that could remain strong despite any obstacles the couple may face. That day, I fell in love with Bella and Edward, not for who they were, but for what they represented: consistent, sustainable love.

    The day after, I went to Wal Mart and bought the first two books in the series, devoured them in a day, then high tailed it to Barnes and Noble for Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. 

    I completed reading the entire saga in one weekend.

    Since then, I’ve been a faithful fan. I’ve stood in line in freezing weather for premieres, bought the t-shirts, converted family members and friends, watched awards shows religiously and voted for those in the saga. I even wrote my senior paper in college on the saga and presented it at a campus wide seminar. I so fully believed that everyone should know about these books and these movies.

    Now that Twilight has come to an end, I’m saddened but joyful simultaneously. I never get to go to another midnight showing. I’ll never get to drag friends and family members to see the same film repeatedly over the course of one weekend. I’ll never have that yearly anticipation of a new film being on the horizon.

    But I will have my memories. I’ll have the bundled nights waiting in a line, with fans like me, for the newest installment. I’ll have the shopping trips to buy t-shirts and DVDs. I’ll have those moments in the aisles of bookstores where random conversations start just because we’re both holding books we love. But most importantly, I’ll have an everlasting reminder of a consistent, sustainable love to admire and cherish forever.

    Thank you for the Twilight Saga. It really has changed my life.

    Vicki

  • http://gatesguardian.tumblr.com Brea Lynnett

    This post made me so happy… Honestly. Congrats to you and your career, that is truly amazing and inspiring. I understand what you mean whenever you say that Twilight changed your life. It changed mine as well. I read the first book when I was 16, back in 2007. I was in the 10th grade and my lab partner was reading it. At first I wasn’t at all intereted because I didn’t like reading about vampires or anything like that. But then my best friend recommended it. I read the first 5 chapters and couldn’t stop. I read the entire thing in 2 days and then went back for New Moon. I remember whenever my best friend, Alyssa, and I found out about your site: hisgoldeneyes.com. We were obsessed. It was bookmarked on my computer. My mom’s computer. Even my computer at school in the yearbook room. (Where we had a Twilight page my senior year, when the first movie came out.) I would check hisgoldeneyes every single day for new information. I’ll admit, I hated Robert as Edward. But now, I cannot imagine anyone else for the part. Twilight changed my life for the better. How? Because it inspired me to start writing a novel of my own. I recently finished and am on my own journey to get it published. It also brought me closer to a group of girls that I never thought I would ever be friends with. Bless Stephenie Meyer for creating it. :)

  • Elle

    So proud of you Kimmy! Have been following the site for years and so happy to have seen both you and it grow. You definitely inspire people to do what they love!

  • Aloise

    Your story is amazing! I think its wonderful that you found what you want to do and love doing it. Congratulations :)

  • melly

    Twilight has changed my life in so many ways…. I have given this story my all for the past five years, and I plan on being a Twihard forever <3

  • http://malaysiantwilighter.blogspot.com Mell M Nathan

    What a journey, Kimmy! Congrats on everything! :)

    As for me, I picked up the book right before the time Rob was cast as Edward. I was like ‘Hey isn’t that Cedric Diggory?’. Thus, my Twilight journey begins.

    I remembered wanting to get the book at this local bookstore we have here, and they say ‘oh sorry, it’s banned’ (not surprised, since my country, Malaysia, kinda has laws against books that has dark elements. surprised, because it’s only vampires, and there are plenty of vampire-themed books lining the shelves). So i went to another bookstore, and they have it there. The first three, all in a row. I only picked up Twilight, and reserving the other two for another day. I was so immersed in the story that I went back a few days later to pick up New Moon. Eventually, I picked up Eclipse, and reserved a copy of Breaking Dawn.

    I spent much of my savings on merch. Gotta import them, mainly because we don’t have a store like Hot Topic here. We only have Borders, but that’s not much I can get there. I also followed a thread on a local movie site’s forum about Twilight, and asked if we had a local fansite. Since most of them said no (and a little Googling provided no results), I started one in November 2008, about 3 weeks before the movie premiered. I still remembered that HisGoldenEyes was one of the sites I visit frequently.

    Eventually, my site was featured in the local papers. Best moment ever! Then someone else came up with their own site, and because they had better networking (they’re working people, i’m just a student), they got a wider audience and attention. It didn’t matter to me (much…) ; my site still has views :)

    So, yes, Twilight has certainly changed my life. I didn’t know how deep I got into it until all people asked me was about Twilight every time each movie was about to premiere. What’s worse, I can’t find a book to fit that gap that twilight left after I finished Breaking Dawn, until Hunger Games came along, and that’s all thanks to Stephenie Meyer’s recommendation.

    Thank you, Twilight, for everything!!

  • Monique Wray

    It’s not that Twilight changed my life but more it held it together during an extremely difficult and emotional time in my life. I just happened to be pregnant after my first fertility treatment when I watched Twilight with my sister and 2 nieces in May 2009. We were hooked from the start (my sister and I Team Edward and my nieces Team Jacob) and immediately bought the books and read them within 3 days. Then it was the long wait for the release of New Moon so we reread the series, googled websites to find as much information as we could on the series and movies. This in turn led us to exploring a genre of books on fantasy and science fiction we had never really considered before To be honest it got me back into reading after not having read a book in years. My love of music in turn got me into the album soundtracks so I then started researching the bands to see what else they had produced. This in turn got me going to music gigs which I had not done for a number of years. Sadly my pregnancy did not work out and I went on to do another 5 which in the end also turned out unsuccessful. The Twilight Saga, characters, music, my love for Edward and Bella helped tremendously taking my focus away from my personal struggles. Now being a South African we unfortunately missed out on the twilight cast visits (until Ashley Greene’s recent visit) so I just happened to be passing through London last year at the same time as the UK première, so I decided to join the thousands of fans I had only read about and envied from afar who camped out and attended a première. As I did not know anyone nor had I ever attended a première I made friends on the website that I visited almost daily (robsessedpattinson.com) and asked if I could join a group of ladies who had planned to camp out for the premiere. When my sister heard I was doing this she dropped everything, got a visa and flew in from SA arriving the day before the UK premiere. We headed to Westfield the location of the premiere and camped out on an extremely cold night however the shared experiences and mutual love for ROB kept us going. We were rewarded by meeting all three stars Taylor, Kristen and our beloved English gentleman Robert Pattinson. Somehow we were caught on camera during the live stream whilst meeting Rob and my family in Ireland and SA saw the whole thing. We also met a couple of girls from Malta who we have also remained in contact with. There and then I decided in 2012 for the final instalment I would be making my way over to LA for the final premiere (thinking it would be warmer in LA of course and just to experience a Twihard fan camp. This all came about for me and as far as I can gather I was flying solo for South Africa which truly made me feel blessed to be there at fan camp LA. It of course could not have happened without my supportive hubby who although not a huge fan of the movie’s has gone to watch all of them with me and then bought me my ticket to LA as an early christmas and birthday gift encouraging me to go do the LA fan camp. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life and I can assure you as an intrepid traveller I have done some exciting things i.e. the Inca trail and riding an African elephant. I met some amazing people including the cast members at fan camp and came away not only with special friendships but a wealth of memories which I will treasure forever (and oh yes all the free goodies which I am ever so grateful for. Thank you Summit! Just to top it off I flew back to London to attend the UK premiere and catch up with the ladies I met at last years premiere. So as you can see Twilight holds a pretty special place in my heart and I would like to say a huge thank you to Stephanie Meyer for writing the books and to all the cast for giving back so much to their fans. I only had a taste of the twilight love and will be forever changed by this unique experience. Much love from Twilights biggest SAFFA fan.

  • Emma

    When I checked out that glossy big book in everybody’s hands on May 5th, 2008, my life changed. After reading Twilight, I sped through New Moon and Eclipse. I came to bond with upperclassmen at my school who I finally had something to talk about. I made friends at movie and DVD releases. I found so much amazing music through Stephenie Meyer’s playlists that encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone, and discover artists I love to this day. My love of reading went through the roof, and I became a self-proclaimed fangirl of The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Beautiful Creatures, The Fault in our Stars, and others. I became enamored with film editing and happily consider myself a film junkie. I’ve followed most of the saga’s actors’ careers and gladly support their work. And not only has Twilight changed my life, but all the critics who constantly tried putting the books and the fandon down did as well. Because for all their bashing, I learned to ignore and focus on the things that truly mattered to me: The fandom, the books, and most importantly, Edward and Bella’s love story. I truly believe I am a more caring, considerate person because of Twilight. Through the fandom, I witnessed firsthand how we all came together for different causes like Breast Cancer Awareness, Haiti Earthquake Relief efforts, among others. I do not know who I’d be today had it not been for that big book I picked up nearly five years ago. I know in my heart that Twilight will live on forever.

  • Lindsay

    Such inspiring stories! :)

  • leah klein

    Thanks to Stephanie Meyer and her series, i began to love reading books! Before Twilight you couldn’t get me to pick up a book for fun if my life depended on it. Then i picked up a copy of Twilight because i wanted to know what all the hype was about…. i read those books so many times I’ve almost got them memorized, lol. Now i read everything i can get my hands on and i love it! Twilight changed my whole view of books and reading just for fun :)

  • LadyLawyer

    I am a 62 year old lawyer and Twilight changed my 40 year marriage from a friendly place into a wonderful adventure. I got a Kindle for my birthday in November 2008 and decided to read Twilight as one of my first downloaded books since the film was out. I thought I would just read the book before seeing the movie. I never expected to be mesmerized by the book. I still remember reading the last page and gasping out OMG.

    I am married to my high school sweetheart. We have been together since we were 16 and are living proof that teen relationships can work and last forever. So many of the events in Twilight were so similar to my HS years that they triggered wonderful memories and feelings of first love. Suddenly, I was more in love with my hubby than ever and our intimate life got a kickstart that has not let up since.

    I have read each book or listened to the audiobooks 5-6 times each. My hubby has even read the series so he could connect with what was happening to me. I have found fanfiction to download to my Kindle and that is still practically all I read.

    Twilight created an imaginary universe that I love to go visit whenever I need to wind down from my stressful real life. My 42 year old marriage is the happiest it has ever been. My hubby said he ought to pay Stephenie Meyer $10k for what she has done for his love life. You don’t have to be a teen for Twilight to change your life. Thanks so much to SM.

  • Louisa

    I’m really glad for everything that happened to you because of Twilight, it sounds really amazing!
    For me, Twilight changed my entire life. I watched the movie first before i started reading the books. It’s kind of a hilarious story how I became a Twi-hard :D
    The first Twilight movie was released in january 2009 in germany and my sister read the first book and wanted to watch the movie and she forced me to go with her. However I didn’t want to go and watch it at all XD i clearly remember how i said to my sister:” No, I don’t wanna watch this damn movie. I hate vampires and that story sucks.” and more ugly things about twilight which i really regret. However back then i’ve never heard about it or knew anything just that it is a book about vampires and i had all of those prejudices against it. My sister still convinced me to go and when i saw the movie I instantly fell in love with it! After that i bought all the books, read them and fell more and more in love with the story. What is quite funny is that my sister now hates Twilight and I love it XD
    What it really changed about my life is that i totally got into vampires and everything about that topic. I started watching The Vampire Diaries, True Blood and more fantasy TV shows which I’m totally addicted to. I opened my own Youtube-channel where I am making fan videos and I met all of those amazing people who love the same as i do.
    Without Twilight i wouldn’t be who i am now, I would have been someone entirely different. I wouldn’t have started watching and reading all of those stories and my personality would have evolved completely different. It changed so much that i cannot even describe it in words or in this comment but i know that I wouldn’t be who I am know without it and a huge piece of my life would be missing if my sister wouldn’t have forced me to go to the theatre with her nearly 4 years ago :) I also wouldn’t have discovered my love for making videos about my fandoms if i wouldn’t have watched it. So I can never ever thank Stephenie Meyer for writing this amazing story. I owe her everything! And for me the Twilight Saga will never end, it will always have a special place in my heart and I wouldn’t wanna miss it :)
    So thank you so much Stephenie for having the dream of Edward and Bella!

  • pham

    Well, Twilight’s changed my life too. And I have a question, and I really need ur opinion about that. HOW can u come to real life, real hard life after u see this film. I just watched Breaking dawn 2 about 3 hours ago. Now I feel so sad that it finally comes to an end. I feel like I dont want to come back to my normal life… I think as a Twilight fan, u definitely know that feeling. Do u have any advice for me?

  • Stephanie

    I loved reading your description here of the ways in which your life evolved because of Twilight. I know so many people find the series trite and the movies poorly acted. Maybe I have blinders on because the series has always touched me. I first read Twilight after going through a horribly break-up and I was able to read them all in succession as Breaking Dawn had just hit the shelves. I remember late nights sitting in my backyard pouring through the books. I went to the movie by myself because no one I knew was interested. By the time the last film came out I was in a group of fifteen. Everyone by that time had been won over LOL.

    I guess the reason I loved it was that my heart was broken and I had made a decision to stay alone for the rest of my life. But the book restored my faith in love, and it also raised a question in my mind. There could be someone out there just as kind, and funny, and good, and intelligent, and talented and loving as Edward Cullen. And, while I had a full life, and great friends and family, I yearned for that connection. I yearned for the great love and I had never known it. Years went by and movies came out. And then one day I met my Edward. We were married two years ago and he is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

    Twilight gave me hope and helped me through a difficult time. And now I am living out my own adventures with my own great hero :)

  • Bre’A

    Most people think Im exaggerating when I say this, but Twilight changed my life 360 and 100%. I was in the seventh grade when I bought the first book from Walmart. I didn’t think about it too much and really didn’t make an effort to reading it, but a few weeks later I started getting bullied. No one used to think much of this kind of stuff back when I was in middle school, but it had me scared to even walk in my own two shoes. I wasn’t happy with the life I was living at all. I just used the book as a way of ignoring my bully, after a while, I started meeting people outside of the circle of people I was being bullied by and who I thought were my friends and the others were also reading the books. By the time I was into the fourth or fifth chapter, the fact that I was trying to ignore someone was completely behind me and I had finally found some friends who I had something in common with and they accepted me and all my weirdness. It’s a funny story. It gave me confidence even during my softball seasons, the music from the soundtracks made a great impact on me, and my wall was completely covered with Cullen posters. lol. I think it also taught me not to be afraid to break away from the rest of the crowd and to do my own thing and now I seriously couldn’t be happier. Where I come from, being a little black girl was all about sticking with the same people in your race and everybody had to be alike, but by the end of the year I was able to embrace my love for different types of music, reading, and different types of movies. Honestly, if I could shake Stephenie Meyer’s hand and thank her for literally saving my life I would. She is truly a hero of mine. From day one of beginning this series, I have changed completely and I am proud of the person I am now. I think Im truly blessed to be friends and to be accepted with the people Im with today. People are very judgmental about the way I dress, the kind of music I listen to, and apparently at my school its practically one of the seven deadly sins for a black kid to have any culture or like to read. By finally getting to see Breaking Dawn Part 2, I feel like it was the end of a chapter of my life and it was time to open up a new one. Thank you Twilight, even twenty years from now, I’ll still remember you.