How High Tides Built a Community Around Clara and Valerie
High Tides creator Fernanda opens up about the international community growing around Clara and Valerie, from inside jokes to friendships between readers.
What began with two fictional women has gradually become something much larger for High Tides. As Clara and Valerie’s story has moved across written chapters, images and short videos, creator Fernanda has watched readers begin forming their own community around the characters.
For Fernanda, one of the biggest changes is that the people following High Tides no longer feel like an anonymous audience. Familiar names return, conversations continue from one post to another, and readers from different countries now recognise and interact with each other.
“From my side of the screen, it doesn’t really feel like an audience anymore.”
Followers notice small details, remember moments from months earlier and develop theories and running jokes around Clara and Valerie. Fernanda has even reached the point where she sometimes knows exactly which followers will react strongly to something before she posts it.
That interaction can occasionally inspire playful visuals or additional moments outside the main story, although Fernanda keeps a clear boundary between the community surrounding High Tides and the direction of the story itself.
“High Tides isn’t shaped by what people want me to do with Clara and Valerie.”
Fernanda listens to readers and enjoys discovering how they interpret the characters, but Clara and Valerie still have to remain true to the story she originally set out to tell. That separation allows the wider community to speculate, joke and imagine possibilities without changing the characters themselves.
Perhaps the most unexpected part has been watching relationships form between the readers.
“I’ve watched people who met through High Tides start recognizing each other, joking with each other and supporting each other.”
A conversation beneath an image can now connect people living thousands of kilometres apart. For Fernanda, those interactions have changed what statistics such as follower numbers actually represent.
“Because from my side, I don’t see a follower count. I see names. Personalities. Running jokes. Familiar little profile pictures.”
It is an unexpected development for a project that began simply as a story. Clara and Valerie remain fictional characters, but the conversations and connections forming around them are very real.
As Fernanda puts it, High Tides may have started on her side of the screen, but it no longer lives there alone.
Follow High Tides and creator Fernanda through Neural Afterglow on Instagram and watch the latest Clara and Valerie videos on YouTube. You can also read High Tides on Wattpad and find more LGBTQ+ AI storytelling through SoapLandTV’s AI & Entertainment section.
