I see nerds everywhere nowadays…and that’s a good thing! Being a “nerd” has officially become the new “cool”.

The number of cool, nerdy black girls is growing and becoming more visible. There’s Issa Rae’s character “J” in Awkward Black Girl–a little bit nerdy, a bit awkward, but still super-cool, and super-relateable. Janelle Monae is busy doing her thing, all the while walking among us disguised as an Android. I did a google search on “black girl nerd” and got 18.2 million responses.

Nerdy black girls, we are not alone in the universe after all.

For the longest time I just couldn’t embrace being a nerd. Nerds had bad teeth, they were socially awkward (not like Issa Rae kinda Awkward, but awkward as in “slightly uncomfortable to be around”),and not considered fashionable. Little did I know, there are actually several different types of nerd, and the image of the nerd I had in my mind was just a stereotype–not a real life nerdette. What brought me around to accepting my nerd-dom you ask? Well, I stumbled on a site called Black Girl Nerd (BGN) and found a description that fits me to a tee!

According to BGN, I’m the Bookworm nerd:

The Bookworm – She spends several hours a day reading. She has so many books in her apartment, that she uses books as coasters on her coffee table. Her dusty TV set is not only outdated, but barely is used. She’s always recommending the latest best-seller book and she thinks Oprah’s book club selections are way overrated. She’s usually seen at a Starbucks or inside of a Barnes and Noble reading a book and not confined to a laptop. Her favorite author is Toni Morrison and prefers that books never be made into movies. She has an expanded vocabulary and sometimes forgets that her vernacular can come across as intimidating to others.

Likes: Reading e-books on her Nook.
Dislikes: TV

I don’t even own a TV. When I’m enjoying a book, I mean really enjoying a book, I’ll stop and smell the pages every so often while I’m reading. Toni Morrison? Oh my goodness, if you have not yet read The Bluest Eye go to Amazon.com right now and put it on your wishlist. Sula was an excellent read–and so is every other piece of fiction Toni Morrison has ever written.

There’s also the fashionista nerd, the recluse nerd, the soul sista nerd, and the feminist nerd. There’s a nerd for every occasion and an occasion for every nerd.

Perhaps its the rise in the popularity and coolness of nerds like Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, or “the Steve’s” who founded Apple, or Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founders of Google, that’s making it such a good time to be a nerd. Whatever the reason, nerds are finally getting their time to shine–it’s practically Facebook official.