Hi, I’m Steve from Bloomington, Indiana, and I guess I found Nerdfighteria in about
2008.
Sometime in the fall a friend of mine said to me, “Hey, there are these two guys on
Youtube that make videos back and forth to each other and they kinda remind me of you,
so I think you would like them.”
And it turns out that I did.
I watched every video up until that point over the course of just a couple days and
then I was really inspired to just start making my own content and have conversations about
whatever.
I started out as a vlogger under the username fizzylimon and then I started making a lot
of friends, went to the first VidCon, and I’ve actually been to every VidCon since
then just because it’s such a great social experience for me because these are some of
the best friends that I’ve made and it’s the only chance that I get to see them.
And it’s also the reason that after I graduated from university, I went to South Korea because
one of my friends suggested that and it seemed like a good thing.
So I worked there for three years and now I am back at grad school and I’m interested
in musicology, so I started a different channel.
None of that would have happened if it weren’t for Nerdfighteria.
So I feel like that’s been a really great experience and I’m really grateful for it.
Hi, my name is Katrina Eames.
I am from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and I became a nerdfighter back in 2007 and then again in 2010.
In 2007, I was not thirteen yet, was not old enough to have a Youtube account, when this
great video was featured about a song about a book I wasn’t allowed to read called Accio
Deathly Hallows because those were books for grown up kids.
Because I didn’t have a Youtube account, I could not subscribe to the person who wrote
the song, and I never found them again...or so I thought!
In 2010, as a high schooler, I got very very into wizard rock in a way that was vaguely
concerning, but also really good because I was finally old enough to read all the books
after illegally sneaking them out of the library for years.
It was not illegal with the library, just my parents.
I did not break any actual laws.
This band, whose name I don’t mention anymore because of reasons, did a collaboration with
this guy named Hank Green and I thought it was the best thing ever.
So what I did was I went on to Youtube.com/vlogbrothers.
And there was another on there called How to Clean Your Dishwasher.
It’s about 2010 I think at this point.
And I decided, “Wow!
This is great!
I love the oatmeal, I love songs, and I really don’t know how to load a dishwasher.”
So I logically decided, “You know what?
I have free time on my hands.
I don’t need to study for high school.
I’m going to watch every video they’ve made ever.”
And I did.
And have still been successful in doing that on the one channel that is their main thing.
It’s been about seven years since I became a Nerdfighter properly in knowing how to continue
to watch their things.
The community has an integral in shaping who I am as a person.
Someone who values research, perhaps sometimes too much, who values empathy and kindness
and compassion and who works for justice in many different areas of my life.
And it has become a place where I have found community and friendship to the point where
a lonely homeschooler decided to go to college, start a Youtube channel, and then travel to
a different state by herself at one point to meet people on the internet, which her
parents said to never ever do.
But these people have become some of my best friends, my greatest inspirations and really
the reason that I am happy to be a person on this planet, in this universe, of the multi-verse.
It’s been a really great time being here with everyone and getting to be a part of
this community.