As anyone who has spoken to me for 10 minutes or more knows, I have twin 5 1/2 year old niecelettes that I completely adore. They are about as different as two sisters can be, and they are both amazing in their own ways. And trust me, I am not biased in the least. 😉
A friend of mine posted this video on Facebook and it immediately made me want to share it with my niecelettes. For you see, one of them is a budding geek. She loves superheroes, lego and graphic novels. Two of her favorite books are basically indices of the lego worlds of Star Wars and Harry Potter. Even though she is too young to have read or watched either, she can tell you who the good and bad characters are. She has also noticed that there are a paucity of female superheroes. And she can’t figure out why Wonder Woman is the only one who wears a “bathing suit” (her description, not mine).
She is too young to identify as a geek and she certainly has never faced any discrimination. After all, Kindergarteners are a pretty accepting set. Their worlds are their imaginations and they have yet to be told otherwise. My niecelette has no idea that she has fallen in love with what is traditionally a boy’s world. All she knows is that it makes her happy.
I truly hope that my niecelette is never picked on for her geeky tastes. I hope she grows up proud in secure in who she is and the things she loves. She actually has a fairly decent chance of pulling it off. her school-readiness assessments show that she has incredible social skills and exceptionally high emotional intelligence for a child her age. She may grow up to be that kid that everyone just likes because she is such a nice person.
But, there is a dark side to her emotional intelligence. It comes with a great deal of empathy. She is a very sensitive child who becomes anxious when she feels discord in the air. If her future classmates do single her out, she will feel it incredibly deeply. And that thought of someone I love so much feeling that kind of pain makes me want to weep.
But if that ever happens, she should feel confident that her aunt has her back. I may not be able to stop the mean girls from being mean. But, I can be there to boost her confidence in herself. And help her understand that there are other girls like her in the world. Girls who have loved geeky things since childhood.