Too Shy
April 19, 2016 § 1 Comment
Joanah writes,
I recently saw this girl at my school and I noticed that she was wearing an NBC Hannibal T-shirt and so I wanted to hang out with her, but I was too shy to go over and speak to her. I’m uncomfortable around people and I’m afraid that I’ll do something weird. (It’s honestly a miracle that I have any ‘friends’ at all.) I wanted to say,”I eat the rude,” (it’s a quote from the show) but I just couldn’t get up the courage to speak, even when I was so close by her. Please help me make fangirl friends! (Also, I love your book! :3)
Joanah, I suffer from this disease. I instantly think someone I want to be friends with is infinitely cooler than I am. It doesn’t matter if they’re standing right in front of me or are a teenager on Tumblr. The voice in my head tells me I’m not cool enough to even hope to get this mysterious unicorn to like me.
Objectively, I know that I am awesome. But I get temporary amnesia when I admire someone new. I’m in high school again, feeling stuck in the jungle hierarchy that emerges every year. But doing something weird is exactly what the best people do. They surprise us, and we lift up our heads from our smartphones and smile.
How do you make fangirl friends in real life? You be the bolder person. You walk up that girl like a mother effing goddess and quote a TV show with gusto. Because you’re not doing this alone. You’re carrying every brave character who ever inspired you. Every brilliant line scripted by a writer. You have an arsenal of tricks at your disposal.
If you want to be really bold, just announce to someone that you’ve decided you want to be friends with them. Try using the person’s name in a sentence. Humans are like dogs in the sense that we feel all fuzzy inside and our tails wag when someone uses ours in a positive way.
99 times out of a 100 other fangirls are always searching for more folks to text their reactions to a TV episode. So what’s the worst that could happen? You stumble onto that one meanie who’s too narrow-minded to realize that she’s just hit the jackpot with you. Too bad for her. Mentally swallow her whole and spit her out. EAT THE RUDE, Joanah.
Boldness isn’t a spell you can cast over your brain. It’s a muscle you have to exercise every day. It’s hitting the mental gym, bobbing and weaving around the negative voices that will try to keep you pinned down with those scary “What Ifs.” But you are enough. You are worth noticing. So start telling people.
Kathleen
Fangirl Therapy 
good work
keep it up:)