The announcement of a series adaptation of the Wattpad hit novel “I Love You Since 1892” under Viva One has caused heated discussions online. As with other Wattpad adaptations, fans are worried that the adaptation might change the depth and emotion of the story, stripping it down for the sake of money and profit.

It’s understandable why fans are so protective of the original works. These novels are often rooted in what women fantasize about from past literature and modern media, sticking with the typical bad boy falls in love with new girl or rags-to-riches stories. But sometimes, new stories such as the historical fiction of “I Love You Since 1892” pierce through these formulas, adding political and emotional depth to stories that young readers consume. 

When these new tropes and emotions fall into the hands of capitalist productions, such as with adaptations, they often lose the magic built by personal online connections among young women. The challenge, then, is to rediscover how Wattpad stories can be used not for market gain, but for liberating the identities of young Filipino women.

Wattpad’s Digital Dreamscape

Wattpad, despite its global image as a free space for storytelling, is not separate from the capitalist structures that shape modern media. From its inception as a small Canadian company, founder Allen Lau said that its main goal was to create and share stories. Wattpad later evolved into a major self-publishing platform for other writers, especially in the Philippines, where early adaptations such as “Diary ng Panget” and “She’s Dating the Gangster” gave rise to emotional lines and memes during the 2010s. 

And yet, most Wattpad writers are not part of the capitalist system, at least at first. Many are freelancers, young students, or anonymous dreamers, expressing and writing stories in between classes or office hours. Because these written stories are often shaped by nostalgic digital media and romantic tropes, writing them became a form of “rogue archiving” that preserves emotional and cultural memory, a note that Abigail De Kosnik emphasized in her book, “Rogue Archives.” 

These stories not only entertain but also offer emotional refuge. In imagining love confessions, slow burns, or secret crushes, women write to be “remembered” and not desired. Readers form strong emotional attachments with characters, turning fantasy into a space of longing and identity.

Once capitalist producers see the strong female readership and market value in these characters and stories, they quickly turn these stories into adaptations–but not without consequence.

A Site of Struggle and Possibility

When an adaptation is first created, translations into screenplays and shooting scripts occur. A collaborative team is needed between directors, screenwriters, and production teams. While the goal is to preserve the original story of the novel, creative and cultural changes are common, which is something James Harrold explored in his article “Value of Fidelity in Adaptations.” In many cases, authors have little say in adaptations, unless they have screenwriting experience, as done in Hollywood films.

As more productions follow a market-driven system, stories like “I Love You Since 1892,” upon drawing mass attention, face alterations of plot and literary elements. Money brings the story to life, but could also reduce it to mere entertainment. Manifestations of these money-making productions are rooted in the recently adapted Wattpad series “Four Bad Boys and Me,” which also sparked skepticism among readers for its shallow interpretation of the original characters.
But at the same time, women’s popular literature, in a personal and political sense, can be liberating, especially when genuine emotions and voices are used in stories. Stories are liberating when they critically engage readers to challenge the current system and write beyond dominant narratives followed by formulaic love tropes.

Specifically, the novel, “I Love You Since 1892,” blends romance with a liberating voice through a contemporary female character going back in time to the Spanish colonial-patriarchal period. In speaking out and preserving history, the novel echoes the same liberating message Greg Vargo emphasizes in his article “Literature from Below” that the intensifying call for a more radicalized political movement in literature of the present time should come parallel with a liberating and collective remembrance of history. 

PopLit’s Liberative Landscape 

As more women writers pierce through the mainstream and churn out liberating stories, a pressing challenge remains on how young storytellers, filmmakers, and producers preserve that essence in adaptations. Lualhati Bautista’s “Dekada ‘70” and “Bata, Bata…Paano Ka Ginawa?” are examples of adaptations that do not erase the voice that birthed them. 

Evidently, progress is made in today’s literature and media, seen in historical retellings, emotional narratives, and the rise of feminist and nationalist themes. TV adaptations such as GMA’s “Maria Clara at Ibarra” may be under capitalist production houses, but they are still liberating because they strongly advocate for historical awareness and narrative reclamation. 

However, for these narratives to retain their truth, women must have a “larger say” in liberating adaptations. If women writers have their say, these stories become rooted in raw emotion, resistance, and identity that challenge dominant narratives and reimagine new futures, transforming storytelling into a literary and liberating force through collective memory. 

Outside capitalist modes, liberating themes can grow in alternative spaces—through zines, reader-led conventions, and collaborative digital archives that offer platforms for raw and unfiltered expressions. Even within Wattpad, writers can change the platform by building and bridging communities through circulating liberating pop literature, may it be in online group discussions and activities, that resist market trends.

If this liberating way of storytelling prevails, the future of Wattpad and popular literature would not be defined by what the market dictates, but by how it would empower future women audiences and writers. ●