The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [53]
She favors indie music because she identifies with it. “It’s really good music that was disregarded by the mainstream. I guess I kind of relate to the bands, feeling left out by my peers,” she says. “What’s fantastic about the indie or DIY subculture is that people are doing it without the help of major record companies or a traditional art school education. These people have different ideas that have the power to change art, music, and fashion forever.”
When I check in with Suzanne again after high school graduation, I learn that her artwork led to a pre-college summer job as a wardrobe assistant on an independent film. When the wardrobe head quit, Suzanne replaced her—at age eighteen.
Laney, The Creepy Girl
When someone calls Laney weird, she is thankful for the validation “that I’m not a copy of the popular people,” she says. She doesn’t mean to walk around the hallways with a death glare; she’s usually just deep in thought as she observes her surroundings.
Laney not only enjoys doing the things for which other kids call her creepy; she also revels in the originality. She high-fives strangers, talks to her hamster in funny accents, runs barefoot in the snow, drinks her milk with food coloring, and reads the dictionary. A teacher who has taught Laney for two years describes her as someone who “stands out in a good way because she breaks the typical eighth-grade girl mold.” She is a spirited eccentric who is happy, smart, and comfortable with herself, with no qualms about daring to be different.
Allie, The Freak
It’s exhilarating for Allie to do her own thing; she is content to befriend the people who like her for herself and to ignore the ones who don’t. She guesses that the reason people call her a freak is that they can’t categorize her accurately. She says, “Do you remember how little kids put a circle inside a circle shape and the box inside the box shape? It’s like that. [I’m not the circle or the box.] I’m a platypus.”
Allie’s clothes reflect this carefree attitude. She decorated her purse with pins from a Fanime convention. She likes picking out items to wear from her dad’s closet—ties, buttoned shirts, suit jackets, a Nirvana shirt—because “they smell like him and are interesting,” she says. She can’t raid her mother’s wardrobe. She died when Allie was three.
Allie likes being different. She enjoys Warhammer 40K because it’s fascinating and collaborative. Undaunted by the jeers, she continues to wear the bunny hat about twice a month. And she has no concerns about trying to sort out her identity as she maneuvers through high school, because she already knows who she is.
Flor, The Mexican Slacker
The students who call Flor a slacker don’t know what they’re talking about. Flor turns in assignments at the last minute because her family can’t afford a computer. She does her best to finish her work on time, often giving up lunch hours to complete and print out papers at school. She’s trying hard to get a scholarship so that she will be able to attend college. She wants to study math and neurology.
Flor dropped out of school as a freshman to take care of her little brother while her parents were two thousand miles away for two months. She never plays sports because she has a congenital heart defect that requires a pacemaker. Yet she remains strong and positive. “I enjoy being unique at school. At the end of the day, I have the few people who were able to step out of their comfort zones to realize that I’m not crazy, or an airhead, or a slacker, or a stereotype Mexican. I’m just me.”
BLUE, HAWAII | THE GAMER
At a teacher conference requested by Blue’s mother, the teachers tried to explain to her that the Fs on Blue’s progress report were not formal grades, but merely indicators that he hadn’t caught up