Rona Maynard is a Canadian writer and speaker who began writing during her adolescence. She was raised in a literary family, and her mother pressured Rona and her sister to write and enter writing contests. Rona later built a career in the magazine industry, working as both a writer and an editor for publications like Chatelaine. In addition to her editorial work, Rona has also written and spoken extensively on mental health, including her experiences with depression (“Meet Rona.” Rona Maynard). 

Maynard wrote “The Fan Club” when she was 14. She submitted it to a writing contest and won, with the story becoming her first published piece of writing. The story was inspired by an incident in which she witnessed a classmate being bullied in her English class in Durham, New Hampshire. Her passivity in that situation informs the story’s focus on Bystander Silence as Complicity. Laura occupies an in-between position—not fully scapegoated like Rachel but also not considered popular. Throughout much of the story, Laura is an anxious bystander. She notices Diane and Terri “cooking something up” (1), and she remains silent when Ellen encourages her to mock Rachel’s appearance. Inwardly, Laura even blames Rachel for her own bullying, revealing her own fears about attracting negative attention—“The gaudy flowers of Rachel Horton’s blouse stood out […] Did she have to dress like that?” (2). While she doesn’t initially join in, her silence and internal judgment suggest that her inaction is not neutral. This pattern extends to Miss Merrill’s character, as the teacher fails to intervene on behalf of Rachel when the other students publicly mock her. This emphasis on inaction informs the story’s underlying argument that social hierarchies are maintained through bystander complicity.