She spent four years worshiping the idea of the university as a sanctuary for smart people. Now, she watches media that validates her suspicion: that academia is just a bureaucracy, that professors are flawed, and that true intelligence happens in the margins (i.e., the fandom spaces). This meta-narrative is a crucial part of her healing process.

In the early 2000s and 2010s, entertainment content often depicted nerdy women post-grad as either overqualified underachievers or socially awkward geniuses. Shows like gave us Bernadette and Amy, who, despite having PhDs and successful careers, often had their post-uni lives defined by their proximity to male nerds.

Should we focus this feature more on , or