You started hosting Singled Out when you were a mere twenty-four years old. You even co-wrote a Singled Out-themed advice book. What kind of advice were you qualified to give at that age? How would your advice differ now?
Well, one of the reasons that I love being a part of nerd culture — Comic-Con and cosplay and all that — is that the sexiest thing about someone is the confidence that comes with being okay with you who are, and this is a culture that encourages people to be comfortable with who they are and what they're into. I think nerds in general have a problem with being trapped in their heads all the time and having a hyperactive inner monologue, so being part of a culture that encourages confidence is always a good thing.

What's your best confidence-building advice?
Stand up straight. If you stand up straight, you will instantly feel better about yourself, and you will project a better image to the world, one that says you don't feel like you have to be hunched over and closed off. But I really believe that the best dating advice is just, know who you are and what you want. Very few people are willing to come in and pick up the reins for you, like, "Oh, yeah, this is what you need to do..." Who wants to do that?  

You've said that there are probably just as many nerd girls as nerd guys out there, but it seems like we only ever see the "hot nerd chick" — the Olivia Munns or Aisha Tylers. As the mainstreaming of nerds continues, do you think that's going to change?
Well, it definitely has. When I was growing up, being a nerd was almost its own quest, you know? But now, it's so interwoven into our culture that the lines about what it means to be a nerd are totally blurred. People who look like all types of people are into "nerd culture." You can't really pin people down as easily as you could when I was growing up, because it was just a small cluster of us in the computer lab. So it might seem that those beautiful women are getting held up as nerds, but really, it's just that the culture has become so much more accessible that those beautiful women are now involved in it.

There was a Cracked article a while back where the writer went after porn star April O'Neil for appearing at Comic-Con and trying to appeal to "nerd culture." Given that nerd culture kind of dominates pop culture in general at this point, is it fair for nerds to be territorial?
It was dumb of him to do that, because basically, if any group of people should be accepting of others, it should be us. And I know April personally, and I know that it's not an act. This whole idea of nerd-on-nerd violence is fucking bullshit. I'm not surprised there are a lot of porn-star nerds. Nerdy people are big into the sex. And also the porn. I mean, we have Blu-ray as a format because of porn. 

Have you ever caught yourself calling "bullshit" on someone's nerd claims?
Yeah, I mean, listen: sometimes if I see a fashion model go on a talk show and say, "Yeah, I'm just a big nerd," I think, "No, don't think that just because you're too attractive for people to feel comfortable around, that makes you a nerd." But then I also think, who am I to know? 

But it's part of a larger issue: now that nerd culture has become a little more mainstream, a lot of big media companies are trying to understand it, to capitalize on it and exploit it. And that means that we have to represent the culture faithfully, because otherwise, we're up against them doing their version of it, which is usually very derisive and very forced. Ultimately, I think that what that means as a community is that we we should be trying to band together to create more authentic things instead of trying to exclude. We should be trying to strengthen the community instead of trying to kick people out.