Fandom, geekery, and self-confidence

I've been thinking recently about my various forms of nerdery, and why I feel so strongly about passing it on to my daughters. For the record, I'm a fan of Doctor Who, Star Wars, and various Marvel comics. Not so much with Star Trek or DC, except for Wonder Woman. I loooooove Wonder Woman (naturally).

I've been encouraging the girls' interest in these things. Right now they both really like Star Wars and the Super Hero Squad. My older daughter is also getting in to Transformers, and is watching a show called Rescue Bots. They also both like Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (blech!).

My husband has asked me a couple of times why I'm encouraging the girls so strongly to get into this kind of nerdery. Not that he minds, mind you - he likes these things too! But he's more of the mind to let them discover things on their own and develop their own interests, instead of nudging them in one direction or another.

As I thought about that question, I thought of the women I know who self-identify as geeky. And you know, they're pretty cool people. They have their interests, and they own them... celebrate them, even, with things like cosplay and conventions and fan art... regardless of what anyone else might think. And to be honest, my geeky guy friends are the same way. These people are happy with their interests and who they are.

And if my girls can grow up with that kind of self-confidence, then that is a really cool way to be.