Title: Geek Girls Unite
Authors: Leslie Simon
Publisher: It Books
Release Date: October 4, 2011
If you’re prone to sleep on sidewalks at Twilight premieres, spend weekends falling in love with the written word, swear on a vinyl collection like it’s the Bible, or think LOL is an understatement, and you have a vagina, then Leslie Simon’s Geek Girls Unite is a necessity for your life. Simon has tackled Emo culture, taken a literary road trip through the rock scene, and is now focusing on the different realms of geekdom as told through the eyes of humans who happen to be anatomically female.
Being a geek herself, and judging from her honest writing style, it was no wonder Geek Girls Unite was an enjoyable read. Keep in mind this is coming from a girl who is still working a Goosebumps book from Christmas 2008. Yes, they still sell them. Back to what I was getting at, Simon writes in a way that enables you to hear her personality, one riddled with sarcasm and awkwardness that allows her audience to consider her just another one of their BFFs. It doesn’t hurt that this time around she took it to the streets to get input as well.
In this case the streets are the webs of the Internet. She created a society out of her work — a society called Geek Girl Guild, insignia and all. The guild answered surveys and commented on various geek topics and the results, along with Simon’s wit, was Geek Girls Unite.
Each chapter takes on a different type of geek girl. They range from the comical, to the literary, to the fangirl and even randoms like athletic and tech savvy females got their moment to shine in black and white. Each also all started out with a short quiz to see if you were indeed that type of geek. No worries, no grade was given! And in case tests aren’t your style, the rest of each section was enough to allow you to find your soul sisters: historical women of the field, current leading ladies, frenemies, and even a little geekHarmony to spice it up.
Through each section I found myself marking tidbits to look up later, it’s definitely one of those books polluted with post-its in the end. Who knew women have been at the forefront so long in the geek world? Women like Jenny Hart who makes sewing look hip, to J.K. Rowling who made a generation want to read (and butt load of cash), and so many other fantastical women who all deserve your Google search.
James Brown claimed “This is a man’s world.” While I don’t think he was referring to geektastic things like Joss Whedon fan clubs or Annie Hall themed birthday parties, he was wrong. Geek Girls Unite is a coffee table must in the home of any girl who has ever felt the need to have Daria marathons, thinks Coachella is the only place she’ll ever find love, or parades around quoting her Tina Fey handbook. Lastly, the most touching part was in the end when Simon shares her geek origin story. I’d tell you what it was, but spoiler alert — I hate spoiling the endings! So pick up a copy of Geek Girls Unite, if not for yourself then for that girl in your life who is, well, a geek.
