An intro to my homeland.

(Courtesy of the Ning)

I'd like to take this time to tell my (very few) readers the story of a true community – one that was born and sustained through media – Nerdfighteria. Nerdfighteria is the community that came out of the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers. Vlogbrother is run by brothers Hank Green, runner of ecogeek.org, and John Green, Young adult author. This project was started in 2007 when the brothers decided to embark on a project where they would not communicate to each other through texual means (such as text messaging, emails, etc.) and communicate mainly through videos. After 2007, they decided to continue making videos, while decreasing world-suck and never forgetting to be awesome... I'll allow them to explain.


I found myself becoming a part of this community just over three years ago, when I stumbled upon one of their videos while browsing YouTube. Nerdfighters are not just a group of passive fans, we come together at sites like http://nerdfighters.ning.com/ to colaborate and significantly decrease world-suck. We nerdfighters are all about being silly and embracing our inner child:


But that's not all we're about. We're also a group of deep-thinkers:


And detectives:


If you're still wondering about just how we decrease “world-suck,” John and Hank created the Project for Awesome, where nerdfighters take over YouTube with videos promoting charities they're passionate about, and even get together to put on a live show.


I have never been able to declare anyone my hero, it seemed like too much to put on a single person. But in retrospect, it is not easy for me to say that John, Hank, and my fellow nerdfighters, are my heroes. This community has changed me in many ways. I've has the Vlogbrothers as a constant in my life for three years, through some tough times. Also, I was never much of a reader until I became a nerdfighter and decided to read one of John's books – it was not long before I had read all four. Nerdfighteria has also allowed me to remember to be awesome even when it's not easy, and provided me with a long-term media experience unlike any other.

Best Wishes,
Jesse Adubato
DFTBA.