About Us
Our Purpose:
Diversely Geek Platforms:
- Provide healing fandom based programming that focuses on guiding fans to engage in healthy fandom activities and hobbies as vehicles for establishing positive self-identity, self-image, self-confidence, self-value, self-acceptance, on their self-care and mental wellness journeys.
Our Mission
Diversely Geek’s mission is to:
- Promote positivity, diversity, acceptance, and unity with an emphasis on inclusiveness, to connect fandom communities and foster artistic interchange through activities highlighting the positive message of our fandom passions.
Our History
DG started as a thought seven years ago in Orlando, Florida under the name You’re Just as Sane as I Am* (YJASAIM). This quote originates from one of our favorite and a profound line from the movie Order of the Phoenix. Luna’s use of the line, in the circumstance, explains perfectly, that sanity is relative to self-awareness and self-trust. In the movie, Harry is dealing with dissociation, unease, anxiety, depression, leveled at him by life and Voldemort. He was struggling and in pain. Humanity experiences these turmoils, and the fandom universe more so. YJASAIM expressed a firm belief that positivity, embracing diversity, and living accepting will lead to self and communal and ultimately universal unity.
The founders of YJASAIM, are a local Orlando family who love Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, Avatar: Last Airbender, RWBY, Timeless and so many more. While attending the opening ceremonies of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando, they met with many tried and true Harry Potter fans, forming an online group, You’re Just as Sane as I Am (YJASAIM). Building on their passion as Harry Potter fans, they began hosting online meetups and chats. By November 2011, YJASAIM had become an official social media group made up of fans from across the world, who “gathered” at various fan events. The group grew over the years, and their activities expanded to include organizing local events, the most well-known being #OccupyDiagon.
#OccupyDiagon began as a pitch of insanity, where members of YJASAIM decided to wait at the entrances of Diagon Alley and Kings Cross hoping to be among the first to walk through the portal of the wizarding world. This quest lasted 30 days, receiving fan and media coverage at a global level. YJASAIM updated the fandom on the happenings and news, met creative team members, film talent, and shared stories with HP fans. It was amazing fun, and hard work! The success and joy experienced prompted YJASAIM founders to globalize social media presence.
YJASAIM began local and online outreach, fan meet-ups, and open discussions about issues of depression, anxiety, body image, finding the hidden meaning of nerdom and being geek was often intimately tied to a loss of self and loss of identity. We started to explore and ask:
- Why do so many fans hide their inner geek?
- Why are we so afraid to express this passion for sci-fi, magic, fantasy or art, design...?
- What creates the fear of being labeled a geek or nerd?
In our understanding and experiences, expressing the joy of being geek invokes healing, wellness, confidence, personal growth, and role and character development. Why allow this socio-cultural segregation and discrimination to continue? Why should people be judged for embracing the joy of fandom, when instead we should celebrate their ingenuity, skill, and talents?
These questions and the amazing fans we met over the period of a year prompted YJASAIM to defy these discriminations and promote the positive message of fandom.
We chose a platform that was founded in holistic principles and our personal philosophies, “Embrace Your Inner Geek.” and “Promoting the Positive Message of Fandom.” Eventually, as we grew and reached an audience beyond the HP universe, we chose to re-brand, and adopt a name and platforms that would promote inclusiveness across fandoms; Diversely Geek.