10 Lessons I Learned From Being a Nerd | Jordan Dinwiddie | TED

Do you all want to know what my favorite word is?

(Laughter)

It's the F word.

(Audience: Yeah!)

Some people think it's a little dirty.

Others really like to throw it around.

Oh, y’all thought I meant “fuck”?

(Laughter)

No, no, no, no, no.

My favorite word is “fandom.”

This talk is about fandom

and how fandom can enrich your life

and build a community of people

that you might not have always talked to, right?

But I'm sure when you all think of fandom,

y'all think nerds and cosplay and fan fiction and neck beards

and people in dark basements and stuff.

And all that is true.

(Laughter)

But you also probably think about America's ass.

(Laughter)

I do.

(Laughter and cheers)

And yes, fandom is all of this stuff,

but it is actually a community of people that share a passion.

Fandom is a community of people that share a passion.

Right?

But like all things, a there's a spectrum, right?

You have your casual fans, your fans, your hardcore fans,

and then you have your fanatics.

And it can get really ugly, just like that ugly thing.

Every time I see it, I run scared.

Sorry to all my Phillies fans, it's ugly, right?

But I want to talk about the difference between being a fan

and being a fanatic, right?

Fans want to bring in joy.

They want to share stuff as much as possible with you, right?

Fanatics are --

And I know I watched Obi-Wan last night, so "Star Wars" is on the brain --

But fanatics are those "Star Wars" fans

that chased two grown women off of the internet

because they gave the Millennium Falcon to a girl, right.

They weren't happy about that.

Those are fanatics.

We want to be fans.

We don't want to be fanatics, right?

Because fans create worlds.

Once the story is over, once the movie is done,

they want to keep it going.

So they start to create cosplay, fan fiction, video games.

I mean, I myself have a lot of feelings and fandoms,

so I have a newsletter that I write whenever I remember to write it.

(Laughter)

And also, because we're friends here,

I cosplay.

(Laughter)

I'm not new to this, I'm true to this, right.

I wanted to still still engage with all of the worlds that I love,

even though the movie was over.

Fans aren't gatekeepers.

Y'all can clap.

(Applause)

We all have that friend that watches us watch a movie

because they want us to like the same part that they like.

(Laughter)

That is a fan.

Fanatics are those people who quiz me when I come into a comic book store

thinking because I look like this,

that I can't know about comics, right?

And fans learn life lessons from some of the nerdiest places, right?

So for a quick example, how many Blazers fans are here?

(Cheers and applause)

Right.

Y'all are really patient people, I'm sure.

(Laughter)

Y'all will continue to be patient.

With that number seven pick, y’all got, sucks for y’all.

(Laughter)

Or if you were an Oregon women's Ducks fan, which we all should be --

(Cheers and applause)

You probably understand the importance of women in power,

the value of women in sports

and you're probably just overall a much better person.

(Laughter)

Because fandom when harnessed is greater than any box office number.

Right, fandom when harnessed is greater than any box office number.

You meet people who you might have not necessarily always talk to, right?

You learn from so many different people

and you learn a lot of things from these things that you love so much.

Whether or not you realize it, right?

Think about what you put on your locker when you were a teenager

or in your three-ring binder

or even on your phone background right now.

Something somewhere has inspired you

or guided you along this journey called life, right?

So I'm going to give you all ten things --

I have a lot of fandoms, I have a lot of them,

but I'm going to give you ten things that my fandoms have taught me.

Number one, Storm from the "X-Men,"

y'all should be clapping right now.

(Applause and cheers)

She is the leader of the X-Men.

As a young Black girl seeing this tall,

beautiful Black woman with all this white hair

and a very operatic voice leading the way,

it was very impactful for a Fox Kids Saturday morning.

That's my son.

(Applause and laughter)

“Star Wars” taught me that my world can be as big as a galaxy far, far away.

Whether that is real or fake.

My world can be much bigger than just the six blocks that I call my home.

Wonder Woman --

(Cheers and applause)

Taught me that my body at any sculpt, at any shape is beautiful, right?

Wonder Woman spent her entire life --

Y'all can clap.

(Applause)

Wonder Woman spent her entire life training for battle.

She was not going to be a size zero.

She was going to have quadriceps and deltoids.

I learned that word a couple of weeks ago, deltoid.

(Laughter)

And she was going to look strong

and look beautiful while doing it.

Alright, the fourth one.

(Cheers and applause)

Venus and Serena, as any Black girl, specifically --

We were forced to watch them,

whether or not we liked tennis or not.

(Laughter)

It's also because it came on cable so you didn't have to, like, look for it.

But my North Star as a big sister has always been these two.

Because when the world was against them, they always had each other.

So whether or not I am being a good sister in the moment,

that is what I always look towards.

(Applause)

All right.

Sneakers taught me the importance of quality and detail, and nerds --

Sneaker heads, you all are nerds.

Nobody cares about quality leather from 1987 to 2022 except y'all.

Y'all need to just accept it.

(Laughter)

"Harry Potter" fan fiction --

(Cheers and applause)

Taught me that I could write myself into any story.

Those books are about this big

and Black people had about what, eight words?

(Laughter)

So I wanted to fill in those gaps and I was very good at it too.

Also wrote some smut, you can look for that later.

(Laughter)

“Sailor Moon” ...

(Cheers and applause)

Taught me the power of female friendships.

That's it.

(Applause)

And now, this isn't really a lesson,

but my father is a massive nerd

and he would see me glomming on to these superheroes, Storm,

and he would be like, "Well, what about Black Panther?

What about Luke Cage? What about Misty Knight?"

And in doing that, he was trying to teach me, yes,

you can love everything that is current, but you have to know about your past.

And so showing me all of these Black superheroes from the '70s,

from the '60s,

kind of led me through life.

And now I'm a nerd here talking to you all here, so blame him.

Boy bands.

(Applause)

B2K specifically, taught me to scream really loud.

(Laughter)

Then Chyna ...

(Cheers and applause)

Taught me that I can be the ninth wonder of the world,

that I can stand in a ring or an office room

or here on this red carpet

and take command, right?

Because in a lot of rooms,

I will probably be the only woman.

I will probably be the only Black person.

I'm for damn sure probably going to be the only Black woman.

So people are going to look at me anyway.

I should have something to say.

I should be able to take center stage.

(Applause)

So listen, don't be afraid of the F word.

Because when you love what you love out loud,

that is audacious.

When you love what you love unapologetically,

it is beautiful.

All right, so fuck it, y'all, be a fan.

(Cheers and applause)