What Makes Me A Sexy Nerd

Ever been told you were too hot too be so weird? Me either, but I thought it would be a good lead in. Let's start from the beginning. I was the kid that hardly ever went outside to play with the other kids on the street, I read the dictionary for fun, and was often made fun of for speaking proper English, being too tall, wearing red plastic framed glasses, etc. Just fill in the blank. I was the kid that assigned myself summer reading when there was none, and was very familiar with the local book mobile schedule. I often pondered things that no one really cared to find the answers to. The question of, "What makes a sunset?" struck my curiosity so hard I once did a science project based around finding the answer. 

Sure the term "Sexy Nerd" is "oxymoronic" in nature, but as people have progressed and diversified so have nerds. I'm not sure if its through some crazy Darwinistic gender twisting, selective breeding, or what but there are people who exist that are hot and very very smart. I know, I happen to be one of them. So back to my story. I started out as a complete nerd. I thought school was fun and all that good stuff. And then something happened...I went through puberty. Puberty was good to me. I traded my flat ass for a cute tush, and my hips slightly widened as my waist slimmed. By that time, I had grown into my looks and my eyes,  nose, and mouth formed a striking arrangement on my face. By the age of twelve I started to explore modeling.

I slightly slacked on the studies for a newly found social life.  By the time I got to high school I took up a few honors classes, still continued my self assigned summer reading, and had risen in the ranks of popular/bitchy girls. I had taken up track and was pretty good at it, I was nominated on to Homecoming Court, I even explored pageantry and before I knew it my smarts became my own personal secret. No one knew I was smart. No one knew that I graduated high school with an "A" average after vowing not to crack another book for study purposes. No one knew that I was accepted to one of the most prominent private universities in New Orleans, UNTIL...my guidance counselor posted it up on display for the world to see. And then...The Great Shock.

I was questioned by my peers. How did you get into "that" university? The comments made were absolutely ridiculous ranging from "I had no idea you were smart enough to get in" to other similarly ridiculous and asinine comments (seemingly only made by my white peers). My emotions ranged from anger to more anger. How dare they question my intellectual aptitude. I was the girl who read "Twelve Years A Slave" at the age of eleven (long before it became popularized by the movie), I was the girl who attended my sister's African Studies classes and became obsessed with Zora Neale Hurston. I was the girl who could breakdown any Shakespearean play into iambic pentameter. How dare they, right?

I got over it, attended college, and graduated a year early. I had a job waiting on me in my field once I graduated

and it was virtual. The dating game picked up and so did the modeling, and the more encounters I had with the opposite sex, the more shocked reactions I received from men. They all had no idea I was actually smart. It was as if I was supposed to be an airhead by default because no one was that fortunate (to have looks and brains). I became revered like some sort of heroine. I became selective of who I revealed myself to. I learned how to present a superficial front to blend in with the masses. AND THEN just recently, while texting a friend (who's a guy) it happened...the last straw. He playfully called me a geek. Which is fine, but I prefer to be a nerd. It was then that I realized I could not help nor hide how I have been and will be perceived, but what I can do is embrace my truth.

This blog is dedicated to all of the sexy nerds around the world. The beautiful people who do not dumb themselves down to fit in. To those who view possessing intellect as a secret society belonging to only those who get our nerdy jokes and watch nerdy TV shows. Intellect is sexy people! Keep calm and nerd on.


The Sexy Nerd

Photo Compliments of Sterling Photography