#tifios

[legok9]

Oh, I laughed when I saw the trailer for Five Feet Apart (2019). Yet another “sick teen romance” movie riding the coattails of The Fault in Our Stars.

Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse play two young patients with cystic fibrosis, who try to have a relationship despite always being forced to stay a certain distance (6ft) away from each other. 

Well looks like this movie got the last laugh...

[road2nf]

I realized that I was not alone

In 2013, shortly after completing “The Fault in Our Stars,” through an intricate web of playing YouTube recommendations, I happened upon one of Hank’s joke videos. Enthused, I decided to check out the rest of the channel; after that, my life changed. My seventh grader self - previously bullied for my love of literature and for being an individual thinker - couldn’t believe it. I found a community of like-minded people. I realized that I was not alone. With nerdfighteria’s placement of a positive connotation on the word “nerd,” I learned to pride myself on who I was and embrace my nerdniness. Then, I went to the Cobb Dolphin Mall to go to the Miami stop of the TFIOS tour. There, I met people who I could actually relate to. My outlook of the world brightened. Though once extremely self conscious and unsure of myself, with the help of nerdfighteria I had become a (slightly less self conscious) confident being who finally fully accepts herself and is proud to call herself a nerd. Thanks NF - I am eternally grateful.

-Emily

via @nerdilynerdy

[theskepticallibrarian]

Teen Nerdfighter Study

Currently enrolling teens for the next phase of research. If you know of teen Nerdfighters who might want to participate, would you please share the study with them? Hi! I am a graduate student studying how teen Nerdfighters gather information online. If you are between the ages of 13 and 17, would be interested in participating in a study? The study would begin with an interview (about an hour long). Next you would complete on online diary (for one month) about how you use the Nerdfighter community. Finally, we would do one more interview (again about an hour). In thanks for your participation, you would receive a small gift card at the end of the study. Thanks and DFTBA! Questions? Email me at awaugh [at] umd.edu or check the study website: http://amanda2315.wix.com/teensandinfo. You may also contact my advisor, Dr. Mega Subramaniam at mmsubram [at] umd.edu. 

[road2nf]

how TFIOS helped me cope with death

the first time i read a novel by john green, i was 14 years old, and my aunt had just suddenly and unexpectedly died. she was 46.

i read the book about two weeks after she died, on the porch of my uncle’s apartment in tennessee. i knew beforehand the fate of augustus (thanks to the internet), and i remember vividly wondering to myself why i was reading a book that was mainly about death when i myself was still struggling to accept the fact that my own aunt had died. i didn’t cry when augustus died, but i cried later that night on the phone to a friend. 

at augustus’s funeral, when hazel put the cigarettes in his coffin, it felt to me like that was the moment that she really accepted his death as reality, but she was crying still. it wasn’t something that i knew how to do, in my mind, crying and grieving were linked with negativity. crying could not be cathartic, tears couldn’t be followed by smiles. except hazel’s were. on the phone with my friend, it hit me then that i wasn’t okay, but that that was okay. that crying about it was okay.

i found john and hank’s channel not long after that. the kind of calm, intellectual content they made sort of just meshed with me and it was exactly what i needed. i remember sitting on a hotel bed and watching as much of their content as i could, absorbing it all and letting it sink in. my aunt was dead, yes, but there were still amazing things in the world, and it was then that i saw it.

in april of 2015, i went to one of hank’s concerts. i made a friend in less than ten minutes, someone i still talk to every now and then, and my mum somehow managed to give something i’d written to hank; he talked about it on stage, complimented it, and even though the thing in question makes me cringe today, that memory is still one of my favorites. i remember jumping up and down and clutching the arms of the friend i’d made barely half an hour before, almost unable to breathe, as hank pointed in my direction, grinning, and said: “oh she’s right there!“ 

it was kind of an accident that i ended up in the nerdfighter community; i certainly hadn’t intended to join yet another fandom, but the sort of people who john and hank attract are somehow always the sort of people i want to surround me day to day; positive and encouraging and ready with pictures of cute puppies when anyone needs it. nerdfighteria is a community that is always there to give each other a reason to smile, and that is a reason to smile in of itself.

via moony

[road2nf]

Nerdfighteria Story

I won’t lie, at 39 I feel like an ancient Nerdfighter. I remember last summer getting a hand on a free copy of The Fault In Our Stars from a lady at my therapist’s office who was getting rid of some books and I read it. I also loved it.

I knew of the Nerdfighter community for years but I always felt I was too old for it. I remember once saying I was in my 30s and reading The Fault in Our Stars and asking people not to judge me. Then someone was like, “Why would we judge you? John Green is around your age.” I Googled it and sure enough, he is only seven months older than me. So I then went off to find other Nerdfighters. Didn’t find that many offline but that’s mostly because I’m an introvert of sorts but I did find a bunch online and yep, I found some that were over the age of 35.

And truth is I don’t feel ashamed that I am an older Nerdfighter anymore. I volunteer at a local hospital and I remember one day I was in the cafeteria reading The Fault In Our Stars and a nurse in her 40s came up to me and said, “That book made me cry so much.” She even told me about how her husband and kids bought her all this TFIOS related memorabilia for Christmas one year.

Also, recently I was reading Looking For Alaska in my doctor’s office and one of the medical assistants was like, “I loved that book!” And I knew she wasn’t a 20-something. So yeah, being an older Nerdfighter isn’t too bad.

I found Nerdfighters who are in my generation, who know what it’s like to be disabled or chronically ill (I have CRPS: Type I), who live in my area, and even Nerdfighters who are Christian like me and they actually have very intelligent conversations on religion and Christian life which is great because in 2015, I converted to Baptist and I felt so very lost in the faith because my knowledge of the Bible was lacking. These people actually helped me learn more and made me feel like there is nothing wrong with being a Christian Nerdfighter (some conservative Christians made me feel like it was worshiping a false idol).

I have found that I can watch funny YouTube clips and have a diverse music selection without anyone thinking I am weird. I can admit to watching things like old epsoides of Studio 60 and other smart TV shows and no one thinks that’s out of the ordinary. I don’t have to act like the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan is relevant or be judged because I don’t find certain shows to be funny or exciting because this is a group that encourages intelligence and being awesome. Okay, I can’t argue there.

I don’t really blend in that well and I don’t find a lot of places to fit in. I fit in here and the best part? I don’t have to change who I am. So I guess being closer to 40 and being a Nerdfighter is actually a good thing. DFTBA!

via @mystic-perrian-nerdfighter

[road2nf]

Peanut Butter Face

I, like many nerdfighters, discovered John and Hank separately before discovering Nerdfighteria. In sixth grade, my friend gave me a copy of TFIOS for my birthday, and around the same time, I watched Tumblr: The Musical. Hank was hilarious and the book was amazing. I fell down a Youtube rabbit hole watching Hank videos on the Vlogbrothers channel. Somehow, (I forget exactly how) I discovered that the man who made me cry and showed me that some infinities are bigger than other infinities was also the man with Sharpie and peanut butter on his face in the thumbnail.

What a small world.

- Therese-Mae

[gingerbreadpenguin]

But like, in TFiOS Van Houten listens to Afasi and Filthys song "Bomfalleralla" and well...eh...that song is ehhh.. Filthy. And I can't tell if that is an injoke from John Green (Van Houten seeing it as philosophical and about love and fear when the "nonsense" includes lines like "a clit like a cock on steroids." ) Or whether John Green sees it like Van Houten does. Or whether he knows that the song is, well, like it is, but still thinks that feelings are more important than words when it comes to hiphop. It is a really good song though.

[katiek731-blog]

Great video on the meaning of one of Amsterdam's top attractions! To see more influences of movies on tourism, check out my post on the Red Rose Taven and “the grey stuff”.