Being a Nerd Doesn’t Have an Age Limit

You’re not better than someone because you don’t care about nerdy things. Sorry, it’s 2019; I don’t care that you think it is childish to like pop culture or whatever your IQ is. You not liking Star Wars doesn’t make you better than me. It makes you boring, but that’s about it. When a Twitter user made a tweet thread insinuating that you can’t be a Harry Potter fan in your 30s, Potter fans, rightfully, swiftly banded together to point out that’s absurd.

His tweet was simple:

That doesn’t make sense because, at 32 years old, you the exact age to have grown up reading the Potter series. Part of our “house pride” is just because, as we were kids, we picked what house we’d wanted to be a part of and went from there. We grew up with a book series. It has been in our lives since we were kids. We’re allowed to still like it.

Obviously, fans mocked the tweet because, come on. Why do we have to tell people they can’t like things?

I think this is a perfect example, though, of people thinking that they’re “better” for not liking something that is often seen as childish—a strange metric that actually has nothing whatsoever to do with … anything else about a person, but here we are. Fans of Harry Potter or Star Wars or even superheroes are seen as less than because we’re … what? Not talking about the environmental impact of our energy usage?

We are all multi-faceted creatures and can have many interests. What if we, in 2019, didn’t yell at people for liking something that we don’t?

(image: NBC)

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Rachel Leishman

Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.

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