So you think you’re all set up on Twitter. You scrounged up a great icon photo where your hair looks good and you don’t look that drunk. You blocked most of your exes. You’re following @barackobama and @pizzahut. But you’re not done yet.
No matter who you are, you could benefit from a healthy dose of geeks on your Twitter feed. A geek is a versatile resource: they’ll entertain and educate you with an infinite stream of self-deprecating humor and absolutely random nerd-knowledge. Recycle their jokes and you’ll look funnier. Remember their factoids and you’ll look smarter. Geeks are here to help!
And because we’re in the business of ladies, may we suggest 41 lady-geeks to get you going? If women are underrepresented in the geek world, the amassed Twitter nerd-quotient we’re dealing with here should score some major nerdcred.
Main Entry: nerd·cred
Pronunciation: \ˈnərd-kred\
Function: noun
1 : analogous to street cred; displays a positive correlation with knowledge of the periodic table of elements, episodes of Star Trek: Voyager
So no matter what type of geekery might strike your fancy, I guarantee there’s a Tweetress on this list for you.
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I’ll just start with the most obvious, The Geek Queen Herself:
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Felicia Day [@feliciaday]: “Actress, New Media Geek, Gamer, Misanthrope. I like to keep my Tweets real and not waste people’s time.” She’s the writer and star of ‘The Guild,’ she was in Joss Whedon’s ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,’ and she’s had spots in other, lesser-known webseries as well as bit spots in other Whedon projects. She plays geeks, she is a geek. Huzzah.
And there are plenty of other
Whedon-ladies to follow on Twitter:
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Alyson Hannigan [@alydenisof] (Willow from ‘Buffy‘, obvs) tweets mostly about ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and her one-year-old Satyana, but she interacts quite a bit with other geeks/Whedonites.
Emma Caulfield [@emmacaulfield] may not be everyone’s favorite reformed vengeance demon anymore, but you can still get your fill of her wit via her webcomic, Contropussy. Can’t say I’ve really seen her tweet anything Buffy/Whedon related, sadly, but she will tell you about signings and other appearances so you can get the scoop in person.
Amber Benson [@amber_benson] is another ‘Buffy’ alum (poor Tara!) who has moved onto directing/producing, and she also writes science fiction and comics. She tweets a lot about her book signings, and other things like charity work and appearances.
Julie Benz [@juliebenz], the despicable vamp Darla from ‘Buffy’ and ‘Angel’ (and also the recently deceased wife of Dexter and lover of a Desperate Housewife) tweets about new projects and random, geeky, silly things:
Maurissa Tancharoen [@motancharoen] is a “writer of written stuff, thesp in things you’ve never seen, the asian whedon.” You may have actually seen her as one of the Captain Hammer stalkers in Dr. Horrible, or one of the backup dancers in the Do You Want To Date My Avatar video from ‘The Guild.’
There are also ample non-Whedon
Lady-Geeks on Twitter, I promise!
Here’s some political nerds:
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Ana Marie Cox [@anamariecox] is the best Maddow guest/political tweeter ever. She posts a lot of #puppyporn, silly twitpics from inside serious political happenings, and bedhead shots of her #alternativelifestylehaircut (even though she is straight.) Plus she knows/wears Threadless!
Rachel Maddow [@maddow] doesn’t need further explanation, does she? She is adorkable. And gay. And smart. And funny. And she can make a mean cocktail. I would follow her anywhere, not just on the interwebs. Even though she isn’t actually running against Scott Brown, I’m going to vote for her. And I don’t even live in Massachusetts. It’s just how we do things in Chicago.
Sarah Haskins [@sarah_haskins]: “Sarah is a lady from Chicago. She likes jokes, reading and food. She writes and performs for infoMania on Current TV.” Although I think she needs to update her bio just a bit because she’s sadly no longer doing her infoMania show Target Women; she remains a fount of feminist information and general nerdery.
Enough with the political, I bet you want to know where the
funny/gamer/tech/comic-loving lady-geeks are on twitter, amirite?
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Granted that’s a really big ‘category’ of ladies all lumped together, but so many of them are more than one kind of geek, what’s a girl to do? You’re going to want to follow them all anyway.
Veronica Belmont [@veronica]: “Host of Tekzilla on Revision3.com and Qore on the PlayStation Network.” If you follow both her and Felicia Day, you can follow along with their technology/gaming related conversations.
Bonnie Burton [@bonniegrrl]: “Author, sci-fi/horror geek, Editor/Writer at Starwars.com – Lucasfilm, see also @Starwars.“ Bonnie often writes for Geek magazine and collects her web nerdery on her website and twitter.
Justine Izarik [@ijustine]: “I am the internet! Apple fan, Youtuber, technology lover and avid twitter! Be my friend!“ Justine does a lot of Q&A and geek-themed videos on her YouTube channel. Right now all of her videos and tweets seem to be about the iPad.
Mindy Kaling [@mindykaling] is best known for her role on ‘The Office” (which she also often writes and produces), but she also has a spin-off webseries called ‘Subtle Sexuality.’ And in general she is just a comedian who is also kind of a geek.
Elizabeth Banks [@elizabethbanks] is amazing because her Twitter location is ‘pineapple at the bottom of the sea’ and she got super excited about being retweeted by @NASA. That’s about as geeky as you can get. Except for being in a movie about making a Star-Wars-themed porno.
Michele Boyd [@micheleboyd] plays Stupid Tall Hot Girl Riley, the scary neighbor with sapphic tendancies from ‘The Guild’, and she is a real-life gamer geek. Felicia Day knows how to pick ’em.
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Hold on Olivia Wilde has a Twitter? This is almost as amazing when I realised that Jillian Michaels has a Twitter after my constant tweets about wanting her to beat me up for eating taco fries. WIN!
i need to know what taco fries are right now
Seriously, what are taco fries? I need these in my life.
Omg you guys don’t know taco fries? They are the reason I go out on a Saturday night, well apart from all the gays.
I just realised that taco fries are one of those non photogenic foods.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3121/2324916390_f3e2465afc.jpg
But yeah they are amazing! Cheese, mince, taco-ness…okay I’m bad at this come to Ireland and I’ll treat ya k?
Oh my god…those look much more amazing than I imagined.
omg so many buffy flashbacks. i love it.
I’ve heard of most of these people! I feel like I have my finger on the pulse.
Perhaps we are the same kind of geek? ;)
I recommend @maureenjohnson
That’s Maureen Johnson as in the YA author, not the Rent character. (She wrote the book Bermudez Triangle which has lesbians) She interacts with her followers a lot and posts tweets like this:
“Unrelated, has there been a Star Wars parody with chickens called The Empire Strikes Bock? If not, why not?”
Oh and this is her bio: There’s a fine line between good eye contact, and the piercing stare of a psychopath. Maureen is on the wrong side of it. – a fan
(If you already follow her and have skype you should let me know because you should totally join the gay recruitment headquarters)
@maureenjohnson is one of my favorite people.
Julie Benz’s tweet cracked me up….mostly because I do that too.
Thank you!!! I’m honored to be on that list with so many of my favorite geeky gals of Twitter!
You’re more than welcome!
@GailSimone ! She had a run on Wonder Woman, is currently writing Secret Six and the new Birds of Prey. She’s fantastically snarky and generally awesome and hilarious.
@CorrinaLawson is a writer and tweets about comics and generally geeky things.
I was about to be really sad that you missed Danielle Corsetto and Erika Moen, but you snuck ’em in at the bottom :) Excellent list– certainly gave me a few more fellow lady-geeks to follow!
I’m sneaky- it’s true!
Oooo! You need to also check out actress Rileah Vanderbilt’s twitter @rileah! Michele Boyd’s character “Riley” on The Guild is based on her! She also plays Buffy in the webseries Ultradome and is amazing with a lightsaber in the web video Saber on youtube!
Tweet: “I’m the FPS Yin to @thegamerchick’s RPG Yang”
God I love geeky chicks:) Great list!
what about @meaghano ? the self-descirbed “double x chromosome at tumblr.”
i MEAN:
“When text-to-voice started going on @ashleygates computer she was reading that Stephen Hawking article abt aliens & we were sure it was him.”
i like to think i’m a twitgeek, but my best recent tweet is just
“HOW can someone with less than 500 facebook friends come up as a mutual friend for every lezbieb i click on”
:/
@JaneEspenson should definitely be on this list. She’s written for Buffy, Firefly, BSG, and is currently working on Caprica. She’s great.
This is a great list!! I’m gonna broaden my Twitter horizons today!
Good list! I do reccomend @maureenjohnson and @janeespenson, both geeks,writers and wonderful tweeters
this is so great. i appreciate this and i appreciate you elizabeth.
No, I appreciate *you* :)
I second Jane Espenson and also recommend new eurEka ep Amy Berg (@bergopolis). She has frequent Twitter conversations with various geek items (@wilw, @grantimahara… you name them) and is just fun to read her tweets
I want to hug this list.
@Rubi_ (with the underscore), a writer at Massively.com and an avid MMO player.
Another great geek gal is Whitney Matheson, who writes a pop culture blog for USA Today, “Pop Candy”.
Follow her @popcandy.
She’s funny, smart, and is incredibly well-versed in one of the geekiest of past-times: comic books!
so I’m flattered to be listed but two things. One, I’m not doing a scyfy movie with Felicia Day called Red, though I keep hearing I am which is weird. Two, why am I the only geek you listed without a twitter photo and sample tweet? What did I do? ahaha..keep up the good work. peace.
I’m sorry about the Red thing. I read it somewhere and then when I went to look back to confirm it I couldn’t find the source- I’ll fix that asap! You aren’t the *only* one without a sample tweet… there are two of you ;) Thanks for reading/commenting!
How fucking awesome is this comment?
Wow, are you the real Emma Caulfield? If so, can I just say I loved you in Buffy, you were soo funny!
I really need to get a twitter account.
I smell a comment award for this in the future.
@kellyoxford is hilarious. I’m not sure she’s a geek, but everyone should follow her anyways!
@ginatrapani will tell you more about google than you ever needed to know and is currently doing awesome things in the non-profit/government world (http://smarterware.org/5187/thinktank-is-now-at-expert-labs). She was also the founding editor of Lifehacker, and occasionally offers tweets like:
“guilty pleasure: dropping the “my wife” bomb on unsuspecting straight people, mid-conversation.”
@zephoria is a brilliant researcher at Microsoft Research New England who studies digital culture (addressing things like racial divides between facebook and myspace and the troubles with bullying on Formspring). She has also hosted an Ani Difranco lyrics site for more than a decade, which is irrelevant but wonderful.
If you’re my kind of tweetgeek, and you seem to be :D, I strongly recommend @mariancall. She’s an indie singer-song writer who’s an amazing geek. She did an entire cd with songs based on Firefly or BSG, fangirls over NPR, chats with fans constantly and is just incredibly adorkable (I’m very glad someone else uses that term!). Plus she’s about to embark on a self-run driven tour of all 50 sates, so I’m sure her tweets are about to get really interesting!
“Haha! Just found a first draft of the only fanmail I’ve ever written, a thank you letter to @nathanfillion. It amuses me now. 11:53 PM Apr 27th via web “
Excellent, I’ll check her out! I know he isn’t a #ladygeek, but do you follow/listen to Jonathan Coulton?
I have a twitter account that I don’t use, but I unofficially follow people sometimes* and I appreciate a lot of the women on this list very much, especially the ‘political nerds’. And Ariel Schrag. I probably appreciate most of them and just don’t know it yet.
Also, I declare @ConanOBrien an honorary #ladygeek:
“I just ran into Ellen DeGeneres on the Warner Bros lot and we played ping pong. I think she’s really into me.”
“Just got the new iPad. This amazing device has already revolutionized the way I use a calculator.”
I guess I just wanted to share that first one ’cause it really amused me. But, he has also mentioned Gaga and had/has some sort of ‘feud’ with Bieber so… there you go.
* Fact: social networking terms are intended to make me/you/everyone we know feel severely creepy/unstable… rightly so, I say. ))((.
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@ericamoen should be in GIANT FLASHING LETTERS and not last on the list with no little blurb. She is so amazing oh my god