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Are Nerds Cool?

February 9, 2006

I've been wa-a-a-a-a-y too serious lately, so I was glad to get an e-mail today that got my mind off the global warming debate and back to why I write for children.

My correspondent was a mother who is helping to arrange an upcoming visit to her children's middle school. She told me that her daughter in particular thought that my work was "way cool."

I hope I don't offend any of my readers, but if you like this blog, you were probably a "nerdy kid" like I was when I was growing up. Only way back then, the word "nerd" wasn't part of anyone's vocabulary. But by the time I was a teen, "cool" was in, and I was obviously not. (Of course, how many teens actually believe they are "cool," even when they walk the walk, talk the talk, and wear the clothes, which I didn't?)

This morning at a bulletin-board website I share with a small group of other children's authors, I remarked on the oddity of becoming "way cool" at my advanced age -- no I'm not spilling those particular beans -- and got a cute flirty comment from a woman who is about the same age as my children, announcing that I was indeed "way cool," because I was a nerd, not in spite of it.

In fact, she continued, it was people like me who were responsible for nerds being cool these days.

Now I don't know whether she's right, but until I see evidence to the contrary, I'm choosing to accept her hypothesis.

That means I've gone from nerdy kid to "way cool," and it only took me fifty years!