I am completely unashamed of being a nerd

Let me describe a hypothetical person to you:

You’re a huge fan. Every time it’s on TV, you tune in. You have a large amount of merchandise related to it—t-shirts, hats, posters, signed memorabilia, maybe even a tattoo. If there’s ever been a live event related to it nearby, you’ve bought tickets and attended it. If there’s a convention for it, you’re there the entire weekend. If you ever were to see someone involved in it out in public, you’d immediately make your way over to them to snag a picture and maybe to say a few words about how impressed you are by them and the impact they’ve had on your life.

If you have a particular favorite person involved in it, you learn everything you can about them. You follow them on their social media accounts, watch videos of interviews with them, read up on their past experiences in their field, buy shirts specific to them, buy any products they endorse or independently produce, etc. Sometimes you seriously consider naming a pet—maybe even one of your future children—after your favorite.

Did I just describe a nerd or a sports fan?

I never really stood a chance at being “cool.” Growing up, I never dressed up as a princess or a fairy for Halloween—I instead dressed as Jengo Fett, Hermione Granger (and not just in her Hogwarts robes, but in a very specific outfit that she wore in Prisoner of Azkaban), and Paul Revere (everyone thought I was a pirate, and I was genuinely pissed that no one was able to recognize me, a 12-year-old girl, as the famed Revolutionary hero).

When Star Wars: The Phantom Menace first came out on DVD, I constructed a me-sized podracer out of printer paper and would sit in it whenever I watched the film. For my 11th birthday, my parents (at my request) took my sister and me to Philadelphia so I could visit its historical district. When I was 15 and had to choose a saint name for Confirmation, I chose Hermione (Hedwig was a close second). In October of my freshman year of college, I drove to Toronto with a friend and attended a weekend-long convention for the TV show Supernatural. I play Beater on my university’s Quidditch team.

I could go on and on.

Needless to say, I am a gigantic nerd. But this is something that I’ve always been completely unashamed of. As TFiOS author John Green once said, “Nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff. Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it. When people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is ‘you like stuff’, which is just not a good insult at all.” I love being nerdy, and I love displaying my interests with pride.

I’m also a big fan of sports. I played soccer for the better part of 11 years, and I grew up watching the Chicago Cubs and Syracuse basketball with my family. At IU, I have season tickets to both the football and basketball games, and I attend as many sporting events as I can.

But what I’ve come to notice about sports fans is that many of them tend to hold themselves to a higher standard than those exclusively interested in “nerdy” things. Despite the similarities between the behaviors of both sports fans and TV/movie fans, many sports fans seem to possess the mentality that they’re somehow “better” for putting their passion into something athletic rather than something related to fiction or fantasy.

Additionally, as a nerd girl and a female sports fan, I’ve encountered suspicion and criticism from both male sports fans and male members of various nerd communities. I remember having my knowledge called into question during conversations about sports in middle school and having guys ask me to “name five players” on a given team, as if my having breasts had somehow made me incapable of actually knowing something about the teams I supported. I’ve seen countless instances online of female fans of various film series, TV shows, and video games being viciously attacked and accused of being “fake fans” by males who seem to think that their testosterone automatically makes them a more knowledgeable consumer than a woman could ever possibly be.

These sorts of judgments are absolutely ridiculous. Women are fully capable of having passions outside of makeup and fashion (although passion for either of those topics is perfectly fine as well), and they should be allowed to live their lives authentically and to enjoy their interests without being criticized for them.

What’s more, nerds in general shouldn’t be treated as inferior just because their interests don’t necessarily involve (hardworking and talented) sweaty humans moving a ball around a designated space. People should simply allow other people to enjoy whatever they enjoy without bringing condemnation of others into the equation.

Life is short, and the purpose of all forms of entertainment is to bring a little joy into our numbered days—why spend any of your already limited time on this earth bashing what makes someone else happy?