Editor’s note: For Pride Month, The Root and Jezebel are teaming up once again for JezeRoot, with content by writers of color around everyday life for LGBTQ individuals.

In 2002 I hopped a Greyhound bus from my Iowa State college campus to get back home to Illinois for my first anime convention. I had no idea what to expect, but more important, I had no idea what to wear! I was going to a place where being a geek was highly encouraged—and I couldn’t contain my joy (retroactive…

I’m one of those people who visibly twitch at those supposedly clever online posts about how technology is killing our ability to socialize. You know, “We live in a society, dang nabbit, and you kids with your darn tootin’ Facebooks and Tweeters have forgotten how to hold proper conversations.”

Editor’s note: There are spoilers here.

It’s been a while since I was so excited for a movie that I saw it twice in its opening week. While waiting to prepurchase tickets for Black Panther, I developed an unhealthy obsession with Fandango, and my wallet wept when the Funko POP! figures were released. I was excited to go to Wakanda, y’all, and Wakanda did…

I was 6 years old when my mama educated me in the ways of saving princesses by touching flowers and shooting fireballs at turtles. Four years later, a kid in my class revealed a juicy bit of gossip: There were adult cartoons that aired way past our bedtimes.

I’m a cosplayer. A black geek. A black, queer, cosplaying geek in a plus-size body.