It's Hip to Be Square....Riiiight.

"Because, 10 year olds of the world, you shouldn't believe what your teachers tell you about the beauty and specialness and uniqueness of you. Or, believe it, little snowflake, but know that it won't make a bit of difference until after puberty. It's Newton's lost law; anything that makes you unique later will get your chocolate milk stolen and your eye blackened as a kid." Sloane Crosley, I Was Told There'd Be Cake.

The woman tells the truth, I tell you. She tells the truth.

On some blog or in some review journal, I saw a book out for teens called Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd. It's basically a collection of stories about being a nerd (Full disclosure: I have not read this book yet). I also saw some comment a couple of weeks ago in Entertainment Weekly (I read it at the Laundromat) that it's cool to be a nerd. I remember being nerdy as a teenager (actually, at the time I would have preferred to call myself "weird" and did, on a regular basis -- Never would I have called myself a nerd - weird connotes "I chose to be this way", and is slightly artsy, Nerd is a label that no one picks for themselves, and if they do, it's totally in an ironic way, and usually (well) after high school). Let me tell you, it wasn't cool. I didn't call myself "weird" (nerd) because I was cool. Because part of being cool means never having to say you're cool. You just are.

It's been (gasp) 21 years since I graduated from high school, but I'd hazard a guess that it's still not cool to be a nerd when you're a kid. It may be cool for adults to wear "nerd chic" now in the 2010's, but let me repeat: kids still want to be cool. Glee (as much as I've loved the few episodes I've seen) is a TV show. In real life, everyone still wants to be the beautiful, popular ones. Dare I say that even among adults, it's the confidence that's really cool, that everyone aspires to. The cool nerd costume just doesn't fly without it. Admit to yourself, there aren't long lines waiting to be friends with the super shy recluse, with the uncomfortably awkward. And that's too bad. But it is true. I just can't stand hearing people who probably have always really been a little cool appropriating nerddom. 'Cause when it gets right down to it, are you going to make space in your latte circle for someone who doesn't fit the quirky cool nerd criteria? I doubt it. Okay. Getting off my bitter box now.