Word Wednesday: Felicia Day, Written Kitten and Other Assorted Geekery

So today's Word Wednesday is going a little off topic to start with, but I promise you, there is point to this introduction. There will also be words, and it is Wednesday, so all my bases appear to be covered. Hooray! 

There has been so much talk lately about positive role models for young women, and with all the Kardashians and Snookis (Snookie?) that seem to be forcing their way into our social peripheral vision, not to mention the amount of reality television swamping every channel in favour of well written, scripted comedy or drama, the options seem few and far between. But do not despair, impressionable youth! There are so many fantastic women in the world, you just have to know where to look! And it's not on E! news or Jersey Shore.

As far as super awesome women go, Felicia Day is probably on the top of my list.

She is so many things; beautiful, talented, super smart and extremely driven, but my most favourite thing about her is that she's unabashedly herself. She's a massive geek! So much so that she's created a web series about a fantasy role playing game community and a whole YouTube channel dedicated to assorted nerd things. You might have heard of Geek and Sundry; if you haven't, check it out now! It's the best; there are shows about video games, science fiction and fantasy books, general geek and pop culture fare, and a show called Table Top, which is hosted by Wil Wheton and is all about these awesome role play type board games! They're also going to be hosting Season 6 of The Guild soon, which I am super excited about.

I can only imagine what it would have been like if I'd had someone like her to look up to whilst growing up, especially in my early teens. The side of me that loves video games, fantasy novels, movies and tv, went from being an enormous part of my personality as a kid, to something that I tried not to draw too much attention to, because let’s face it, when you're a fourteen year old girl in highschool, all you really want is to fit in.
Thankfully a few years into highschool, I found some wonderful friends who embraced and even shared some of my geeky tendencies, but I think if I'd known of such an inspiring writer/actress/gamer/woman, or be exposed to The Guild or any of the brilliant content on Geek and Sundry, I may have spent less time wondering why I had such an obsessive love of Pokemon and N64 and Lord of the Rings, and no interest in glitter makeup, boys without magical powers or elf ears, or Impulse body spray.

SO! What's this got to do with writing? Well, Felicia does a series of vlogs, or Flog's, as she likes to call them, for the Geek and Sundry Channel. Well, one of my favourite parts of the Flog is Fave Five, a segment in which Felicia shares with viewers her five favourite new internet discoveries of the week.



If you watch the episode, you'll see that one of her favourite things is a website called Written? Kitten, where for every hundred words you write, you are presented with a new picture of an adorable kitten! Seriously! Kittens for words!!! It sounds silly, but I used it last night, and managed to finish a short story I'd been putting off working on for days!

I think kittens are a perfectt way to end this blog post. All Felicia images are from fuckyeahfeliciaday.tumblr.com