It was recently suggested we shouldn’t call nerds nerds.
Which is ironic. Because we are nerds. Our friends are nerds. Some of the people we look up to most are nerds.
To us, being a nerd is a superpower. We use our nerd-fu to help others be a little more nerd too.
At school, our founder was called a nerd. It was meant as an insult. But today those same people turn to nerds like him for help. Because they’re not nerdy enough.
Today it’s something that makes us proud. It’s literally the licence plate on his car.
That shift didn’t happen by accident. It happened because he found his people. A community where the thing that made him an outsider became the thing that connected him.
Here’s a thing about nerds that surprises people.
Henry Cavill, Superman, the Witcher, one of the most physically imposing men in Hollywood, once admitted it took him a while to publicly confess his love for Warhammer 40,000. Now he paints miniatures, builds his own gaming PCs, and has spent years securing the rights to bring the Warhammer universe to screen not as a producer looking for IP to exploit, but as a fan who’s been in the hobby for decades.
Vin Diesel, the man who has made a career out of being the toughest person in any room, is a self-proclaimed nerd who has been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over three decades. He had his D&D character’s name tattooed on his body. He wrote the foreword to the game’s 30th anniversary book. He once taught Dame Judi Dench to play it on a film set. He said: “I kind of became who I am because I played Dungeons & Dragons.”
Neither of these men needed to say any of that. They said it anyway. Proudly.
Nerds don’t look like one thing. They never did.
We’re self-aware enough to know that finding your people takes privilege. Not everyone can walk into those rooms. For some people the barriers are financial, physical, social, or just the quiet belief that spaces like that aren’t meant for them.
We built Inclusive Bytes C.I.C. to take those rooms to the people who can’t walk into them yet.
We were told calling ourselves nerds wasn’t inclusive.
Here’s what we know. The nerd community is the most welcoming, inclusive community we have ever been part of. Gay, straight, trans, white, black, disabled, furries. It’s all the same to us. We don’t care where you’re from, who you are, or what your body does or doesn’t do. We care what you’re into. And we’ll absolutely geek out with you about it.
Inclusive Bytes exists because of nerdy kids. Kids who loved computers more than football. Kids who wanted to talk about Raspberry Pis and nobody at school cared. Kids who felt like their interests made them weird, broken, or less than.
The young people we work with didn’t have that label applied to them. They claimed it. They wear it. They build their identity around it.
Nobody tells sporty kids their identity needs reviewing. Nobody asks musical kids to reconsider their label.
But tell someone you’re a nerd and suddenly adults get uncomfortable.
That discomfort isn’t about the young people. It’s about us. And it’s precisely the attitude that pushed those kids to the margins in the first place.
We often find ourselves talking to a young person, asking what they’re into. They stumble through their answer. Pokémon. Gaming. Raspberry Pis. A bit embarrassed. Waiting for the reaction.
When we say “ah, so you’re a nerd. Like us.” They beam.
That moment. That’s why we exist.
Later this year we’re taking a bunch of nerds to EMF Camp. Quite possibly the nerdiest time and space in the UK. Four days of nerds being nerds, sharing their nerdery with other nerds. For some of our young people it will be the first time in their lives they’ve been in a place where being exactly who they are is not just accepted but celebrated.
Help us help them. https://lnkd.in/e9zTuT8i
Be more nerd.