At this point in 2026, the “you need to nerd out” TikTok trend has come and gone, leaving room for other personal trends to rise to the top. However, even though it’s been months since that video idea was over, the message has still been stuck to me like glue.
Watching everyone post their little collages of what excites them, conventional or not, sent me back to a place in my brain that I hadn’t tapped into in a long time; my fangirl side.
Of course, you can take the girl away from the fans, but you can’t take the fan out of the girl. There are still interests in my life that still bring me joy, albeit in a more “socially acceptable” way, like obsessively listening to certain bands or following the same YouTubers as I did when I was 11.
However, as of late, I’ve made it my mission to become re-invested in certain hobbies and obsessions in a similar way that I used to as a middle schooler… sans the bad haircut and blue braces.
My reasoning, you might ask? I miss the pure, unbridled joy of being so excited about something that it makes your heart want to burst.
Two different worlds
When I was a kid, I used to think that there were two versions of me: school Elisabeth, the one who worked extra hard on her Social Studies assignments and mostly kept to myself, and online Elisabeth, the one who would spend hours after school on Tumblr and Pinterest liking anything that catered to my niche video game preferences at the time.
School Elisabeth was a little ashamed of online Elisabeth, in hindsight, evidenced by me getting incredibly nervous when anyone in my class would bring up a gaming YouTuber I watched, or even an obscure TV show I was into. For some reason, it felt wrong to admit that I liked things that didn’t align with what the other kids in my class liked, like soccer or Glee.
Now, as an adult with a better grasp on my sense of self, I no longer shoulder that fear of being made fun of for the things that I enjoy. I think being in such a welcoming environment at the University of Ottawa has helped, but I also shed my anxiety toward people thinking my interests are weird; in reality, everyone has their own little niche things that get them excited about life.
why more people should be “nerds”
I’m incredibly supportive of everyone having at least one hobby or interest that makes them happy, no matter how outlandish it may be. Video games, book series, films, art history, cars… even the study of different bugs.
Interests that are “nerdy” in nature (i.e, ones that aren’t typically described as mainstream), or even liking normal things in a nerdy way, are crucial to keeping people engaged and curious about life, as they promote a deeper level of attachment and give the blessing of building a collaborative community with others who also like the same things. Social media has become an excellent avenue for sharing art, ideas, theories or even making new friends with people across the whole world, who all came together in support of a specific topic.
On the other hand, having things that you feel intensely passionate about can create a metaphorical safe haven from the tortures of daily life. I use this habit on occassion, when the happenings of my life seem a bit too much to bear with; my guilty pleasure is reading up on detailed fan theories about Cyberpunk: Edgerunners or daydreaming about what kind of superhero I would be in Invincible.
In my opinion, the biggest advantage of letting yourself get totally invested in a given topic gives you an outlet to feel like a little kid again. The excitement and passionate I get to feel when my current fixations (The Pitt has taken over my brain at the moment!) whip me into a verbal frenzy is a rush that I will never get tired of. Better yet, getting to hear my friends nerd out over their respective interests always makes me happy too.
being a nerd in the “real world”
On a practical note, being overly invested in things has taught me a lot about things that I didn’t know were helpful until I became a real adult!
For instance, being able to separate myself from my work and school by indulging in things that genuinely make me happy has been a real life-saver. If I didn’t feel dead inside from missing the newest episodes of my shows or opting out of my nightly Pinterest scroll, I would definitely by filling that time with mindless doomscrolling, or worse; doing nothing.
My deep curiosity for my interests has also began to manifest itself in my researching skills for school, especially for projects that require a lot of thematic analysis and drawing my own thoughts from things. In the Communications program, seeing assignments that require you to pick apart different figments of media are far from uncommon, yet they still get me just as giddy every time. Nobody writes as fast as I do when it’s about a film or book I haven’t stopped thinking about for years.
final thoughts
See? Being a nerd is a total win-win!
Whether you’re obsessing over the same medical drama as the rest of the world, or fiendishly researching the histories of different car models, one fact remains the same; maintaining the childlike investment in things that make you happy is a trait that will never go out of style.
Having things that you feel nerdy about is a great catalyst for self-fulfilment, but can also lead to the blossoming of the most beautiful social connections.