Thanks to my friend, Tanya, for that name. Its a badass way to describe what I’m about to talk about.

Here’s the thing:

It took me a long to come to terms with who I am: as a person, as a writer, as a daughter, as a sister, as a friend, as a girlfriend, as a complete nerd and as a bisexual. All of those things were hard.

And its going to sound crazy, but that hardest one was embracing the nerd in me.

I’ve always been that nerd. I’m that kid in school that no one remembers because I was too busy with my head in a book. I read A LOT. And for the longest time, people made fun of me and teased me and bullied me because I liked to read, because I was obsessed with Harry Potter and Star Wars, because I got excited about those things. I literally was teased all the time.

Now those things are cool. That’s a whole ‘nother blog post, man. I could go on and on about this new phase of geek is cool and fake geek girls/guys. But that’s the point of this post.

The point is, it took me a long time to embrace my inner nerd. But I have. Oh believe me I have.

I love Harry Potter and Star Wars and Doctor Who and Hunger Games and what little I know about superheroes and I love Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit and I love Percy Jackson and the Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices and Firefly and Glee and The Walking Dead and Once Upon a Time and I love books and I love anime and I love video games.

And you know what? I like Twilight too.

And I’m not afraid to say that anymore. They are some of the most horribly written books ever, my god. The writing in those books is terrible! But they’re entertaining and I like them. I’m seeing Breaking Dawn Part 2 tonight at 10 pm (no midnight for this old lady) and I am pretty stoked about it.

And I’m tired of all the judgement. I’m tired of the Potterheads vs the Twihards. I’m tired of Star Wars vs Star Trek. I am so damn tired of everyone bagging on everyone else’s fandoms.

I’m not guiltless. I’ve done that before. I’m not blameless. I have definitely judged on fandoms before.

I don’t get Star Trek at all. I think a lot of the young adult paranormal romance is terrible. I think the Call of Duty game needs to go away because paying 60 bucks for the same game over and over again is ridiculous. I do think Twilight is a bad book. Its just bad. I think its entertaining oh but don’t you dare ever tell me its better than Potter because that’s crazy talk.

But here’s the thing: if you stand up, and say proudly that you are a Twihard or you’re a hardcore COD fan or you’re a Trekkie…I gotta say, that’s badass. I want to see your badass Trekkie tattoos. I want to see your walls papered with posters. I want to see your COD and Halo cosplays. I want to see that.

Because if there is one thing that I’ve learned from being a nerd and being involved in all these fandoms and being exposed to all these fandoms is that I’d say 9 out of 10 times, the fandoms preach tolerance and togetherness. We have to work together to make things work. We have to tolerate and accept and respect each other.

And that’s what the rule is:

I don’t care what fandoms you do or don’t like. I don’t care how strongly you feel about it. You are more than welcome to have your opinion. If you think Harry Potter, Twilight, Percy Jackson, Star Wars, Star Trek, whatever, sucks, that’s okay.

But its never, never okay to disrespect a person for the fandom they enjoy. Never. I do not tolerate any disrespect or intolerance on this page. That includes my Facebook page, my Twitter page or my Tumblr page.

It’s called respect. Kindness. Tolerance. Acceptance. RESPECT. 

Here at WhataNerdGirlSays, we welcome people of all fandoms. I may not spend a lot of attention on some fandoms because it is my personal blog and it’s not something that I get excited for but I welcome you to this blog. If you’re a nerd, you’re welcome.

Because nerds need to stick together. Together, we can accomplish a lot. Divided, we’re just going to spend way too much time online, arguing over which fandom is better.

Especially since Harry Potter is the best one.

Just kidding. Or am I…

The point is, I’m tired of people hiding the things they like because they’re afraid to be made fun of. I’m tired of those brave enough to come out and say what they love getting attacked. Especially since I’ve been on both sides.

So let’s stop. Let’s band together and unite as nerds, no matter what we like.

What do you say?

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