I’m kind of a pop culture nerd and I don’t mind saying so. Popular culture is a fascinating vehicle for examining the philosophical and moral concepts of society en masse. Mass production, mass communication, mass consumption, fan culture – I dig it because people show what’s important to them in a broader sense through how they consume and respond to pop culture. Also I dig it because I like to quote Star Wars a lot.

I saw Felicia Day speak at Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Adelaide in 2012. At the time, I was only familiar with her work from Joss Whedon’s Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog and Buffy and I had a vague notion of her creating a web series that was super popular but that I hadn’t seen. How little I knew. I remember the session being funny and inspiring and I became an instant Felicia fan as she talked through the highs, lows and overall success of The Guild and the [at the time] very recent launch of Geek and Sundry with youtube. Holy cow, this chick was an online mogul and could do all these things and still be hilarious and personable with her fans? What champ. Being somewhat in awe of her ongoing new media career since then, I was super excited when I found out her memoir You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) was being released this month.

Following her unconventional home-schooled childhood, her college days studying an unusual mix of maths and violin, and her move to LA to commence her acting career, underpinned throughout by her early adoption of and addiction to all things internet, the book is ceaselessly funny and frank, and feels like sitting down for a good long chat.

Oh, and just quietly, Felicia Day herself casually liked my Instagram photo of her book so, like… YAY!

Yeah. I fangirled. HARD.

Never Weird is less a ‘this is how I became an internet pioneer’ success story and more a love letter to difference, showing that breaking the mould and chasing your own model of creative happiness is what personal success is really about. So let your freak flag fly and all that, because Felicia is proof there is a terrific freedom in just being you.

‘Til next time,