“You’re such a nerd!” This was the so-called insult my second-grade classmates hurled my way the moment I walked into the classroom wearing my first pair of glasses. In their defense, they had a lot of evidence to back up this claim. I was dubbed “gifted” by the school system in Chattanooga, Tennessee, thanks to high test scores. Later, preteen Jessica would be into drawing anime characters and playing video games. And, even today, I prefer Marvel movies and Lord of the Rings. All true nerd behavior. But why is the term so often seen as derogatory — not to mention white-adjacent?
In the past, things like video games, comics, and science labs were perceived as domains for whites only. It’s because we rarely saw brown faces in them. In truth, Black minds have been contributing to all these areas for decades, but their genius has remained hidden. For a long time as well, Black folks have felt excluded from mainstream fandoms or made to feel like their obsessions somehow made them “less Black.” But in 2023, we’ve come to a time when the title “Black nerd” is an honor. It marks membership in a community of really cool people, and I’d like to think I’m still one of them.
You’re probably asking: What do Black nerds have to do with beauty? Well, they are the folks animating the new Disney characters to tell multicultural stories. They’re the people designing Black skins for games like Sims and Minecraft, so we can show up in the digital universe looking like our true selves. They are the chemists formulating beauty products with darker skin tones in mind. All these people indirectly influence how we see ourselves — and what is considered beautiful.
The latest edition of the Melanin Edit celebrates all those people who were told they couldn’t be nerdy — and the communities they built anyway. We partnered with Olay to showcase Black people who are making moves in STEM. The brand has been on a mission to double the number of women and triple the number of women of color in STEM careers by 2030.
Vex Latex body suit and bra. Alexis Bittar earrings.
