The Clone Wars' Ashley Eckstein on Female Fandom

Ashley Eckstein is fully immersed in geek culture. The voice of Ahsoka Tano on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Eckstein has also found success with her company, Her Universe, which makes genre-based clothing and other licensed merchandise aimed at the female audience. Her Universe began with Star Wars items and now also makes and sells Syfy-based items, including Battlestar Galactica and Warehouse 13.

Earlier this fall, I spoke to Eckstein at the Her Universe booth at New York Comic Con. Eckstein is a familiar face at conventions and while I was with her, fans of all ages were approaching her, such as a dad wowing his two little boys with the fact that they were talking to Ahsoka herself – which Eckstein amplified by doing a couple of Ahsoka lines for them, to their delight.

Eckstein and I chatted about Her Universe and the larger prominence of female fandom these days, along with The Clone Wars and what's to come as Season 4 continues.

IGN TV: I remember going to San Diego Comic-Con in the mid-90s when the female presence was pretty small. But you look around today, and there are so many girls here.

Ashley Eckstein: I think it's come so far. Of course, I would say even just the past ten years, you didn't see that many women here at these conventions. However, I believe that the female fans were always there. It just wasn't as accepted to show up. I have to applaud all those brave girls that started to say, "You know, who cares? It may be a convention full of boys, but this is what I love and I'm going anyway." And it's those women that started showing up and started coming that made it more acceptable for everyone else. I mean, the general population still doesn't believe this. Anybody who's here recognizes all of the female fans. It's not a surprise to any of us. We expect to see this many women.

I think the biggest thing for us at this point is now to try to change the mind of the mainstream media, the general population, to let them know, "No, the women are here! It's cool, it's okay for your little girl if she wants to have a Star Wars birthday party. It's okay! Because there's Ahsoka and there's all these other girls for your little girl to look up to." So if we can start changing that, changing the general population's mind that it's normal and it's cool and it's okay, that would be amazing.

IGN: You began with Star Wars at Her Universe, but now you've branched out and have the Syfy items. I love the Sharktopus shirt by the way!

Eckstein: Thank you! We make it in guys too. His and hers Sharktopus shirts! [Click Here to see them!] But I think it has been amazing. We met the folks at Syfy, actually, when we launched last year at San Diego, and we started talking about a relationship way back when. The fact that now a year later we have the product and we're meeting all the fans, it's just been surreal. And actually we were approached by a new license this year at San Diego Comic-Con, and it is major. It's the number one license that all the girls have been asking me for, and I didn't even think it was possible. They found us, and they said, "You know, we have a lot of female fans, and we want to cater to them." So I can't announce it yet because it's not signed on the dotted line and I'm very superstitious, but that's surreal to me. It started with Lucasfilm because I had my foot in the door there. And the fact that it's growing is just surreal.


IGN: At the Clone Wars: Season 4 premiere, you had I talked about people asking you, "What if Ahsoka really has figured out that Padme and Anakin are married already?" But you have a theory on that, right, about why that isn't the case?

Eckstein: Yeah, I'm not saying she won't figure it out. She may figure it out at some point, but I don't think she'd believe it. She looks at Anakin I think like a younger sister looks at an older brother, and that older brother can do no wrong. She just really looks up to him, really idolizes him. And I think if she knew the future, it would just break her heart. She just looks up to him as such a role model and only sees the positives. So, it'll be interesting. If and when she finds out, I think it will crush her, honestly. I don't think she'll believe it.

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More from Eckstein on The Clone Wars on Page 2.