About J

Hello! I'm J. This is my blog.

I'm a wordsmith girl geek. I'm a chocoholic foodie. I'm an obsessive compulsive bookworm, toy nerd, lipstick fiend, and rock freak. I'm a relentless documentalist. I'm a Filipina.

I'm a new wife, married to a wonderful, geeky, cute husband. I write and edit for a living. I blog for fun.

I have always found myself stereotyped -- boxed into little squares that the world could understand. I'm a woman, I'm soft-spoken, and I wear glasses. I can't possibly be into rock music, or be able to tell the names of computer innards, or collect action figures, but at the same time, I can't know fashion or love makeup, right? Wrong. The words girly and geeky are words that aren't often seen together, but those two words are exactly who I am. 

I'm geeky. I've been into computers ever since I was a kid. I remember trading an important piano recital to enroll in a computer class in third grade and had to defend that decision to my parents because computers were strange, newfangled devices at the time. I eventually went on to contribute to Computerworld and Stuff magazines, organize and judge the Philippine Web Awards, and write the Editor's Letter of PC World Philippines. I wrote for the website Mobile88, and helped create a website called TechRockstar.

I'm geeky. I met my husband back in 1999. We were classmates in the same major at UST. He joined the Labyrinth, a creative writing guild, because of me. On our first date of sorts, we watched a movie because our guild assigned us to. We chose Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. He got me into games like Resident Evil and Diablo and taught me how to play Magic: The Gathering. He gave me books and toys and chocolate instead of flowers, and we married 13 years later.

I'm geeky. I've always liked toys and books and nerdy movies and TV shows. I started a Nancy Drew club when I was in 5th grade, complete with magnifying lenses and detective kits. I have the Weiss-Hickman DragonLance books. One of my pastimes is watching Chris Pirillo's YouTube channel. At my first job as PC World staff writer, I was lucky enough to find people who were into Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, that sort of thing. Lightsaber fights often broke out in the corridors and action figures were all over our cubes. Until now, I consider that the best time in a workplace that I ever had. 

I'm girly. I loved it when my mom commissioned dressmakers to make my clothes when I was a kid. Going to Rustan's then was a special event. I painted my nails in alternating pink and blue colors in high school. I set aside a part of my high school allowance to buy Avon and Johnson & Johnson makeup. I bought magazines like Teen and YM every month in college, and shopped for clothes almost every week.  

I'm girly. In the 90s, I was thrilled to pieces when my dad bought me Guess jeans with the triangle label on the back pocket, which I wore low-waisted, of course. I wore my oversize Giordano t-shirts, ultra-long maxi dresses, and clunky combat boots with pride. I had my awkward phase, with frizzy, wavy, muffin-shaped hair and bad fashion choices like high-waisted shorts, but my love for clothes and makeup was always there. 

I'm girly. When I grew up, I eventually found my own style. I now know what I want in terms of clothes, makeup, accessories, and beauty products. Getting Vogue's September issue is a non-negotiable. Sex and the City is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. My favorite chick lit author is Marian Keyes. I don't have a lot of pink in my wardrobe but I don't hate it. I have an obscene amount of lipstick and lip balms. I wore Vivienne Westwood x Melissa heart shoes at my wedding. I also helped create a website called SodaBottle, where I immersed myself in fashion, beauty, and entertainment for a few years. I became the editorial director of a host of sites, a lot of which were fashion-centric, and I got to revel in everything girly. I'm still experimenting, constantly tweaking my style and finding new girly things to like.

In the midst of it all, I soundtrip to rock music, devour books like crazy, embark on travel adventures when I can, try to work out and be fit, and celebrate food every single day. 

I actually don't hate being stereotyped, because it just means I encourage people to get to know me better, to look beneath the obvious and read between the lines. I rarely get offended when people say things like: 

"You're a rocker? But you look so nice and quiet and mahinhin!" 

"You collect toys? What for?"

"Girls usually aren't into tech!"

"You go to the gym?! You do yoga?! You kickbox?!"

"You're into fashion? But you're so nerdy!" 

I like surprising them and letting them know that there's always more to a person than what's on the surface. Meghan of Pigmented Graffiti left the most perfect comment about this blog's mix of girly and geeky in one of my posts. She said, "While I'm not a star-wars fan, I LOVE the fact that you're a nerd hidden inside a beautiful body. I'm a bit of a nerd myself -- though you out nerd me :P It's rare these days, but it reminds everyone that us beauty bloggers are real people. Love it!"  

The thing is, there are countless girls like me. Just watch this video by the Geek Girls & The Doubleclicks about crushing geek girl stereotypes called Nothing to Prove, shared by my friend Jaja who is a geek girl herself. Check out Kristina Horner (ITalkToSnakes) and The Amazing Race's Meghan Camarena (Strawburry17) on YouTube, who both make girly and geeky super fun. 

I'm complicated, I'm not just one thing, and I'm okay with that.