Nerdfighteria (/ˌnɜːrdfaɪˈtɛriə/ NURD-fy-TERR-ee-ə) is a mainly online-based community subculture that originated on YouTube in 2007, when the VlogBrothers (John and Hank Green) rose to prominence in the YouTube community. As their popularity grew, so did coverage on Nerdfighteria, whose followers are individually known as Nerdfighters.[3] The term was coined when John saw a copy of the arcade game Aero Fighters and misread the title as Nerd Fighters.[4]
Hank Green describes it as "a community that sprung up around our videos, and basically we just get together and try to do awesome things and have a good time and fight against world suck". He defines "world suck" as "the amount of suck in the world".[5] The Greens established The Foundation to Decrease World Suck, in order to raise funds and launch projects that would help a variety of causes. Nerdfighters believe in fighting world suck, promoting education, freedom of speech and the use of the intellect in modern society.[6] Nerdfighters and the Green brothers have collaborated on many projects such as the charitable drive, Project for Awesome which launched in 2007, and VidCon, the convention focusing on topics surrounding the world of digital media.[7][8] Nerdfighters have been documented by websites such as The Hollywood Reporter, and The Wall Street Journal, with a following estimated to be in the millions.[9][10]
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