Time to Nerd Out—A Love Letter to Your Deepest, Pettiest, Most Unhinged Interests

Because the little things you geek out on? That’s the real you. And I, for one, am here for it.

Welcome to the Charlotte York Is Obsessed With Her Pores Club

If you get the Sex and the City reference, congratulations, you’re among your people.

And if you don’t? Stick with me.

For the past four years, every Sunday morning, I’ve hit send on Sunday Stories—a love letter packed with essays, updates, and my signature mood boards.

Not your average Pinterest-core vision boards. Not some cut-and-paste manifestation collage. These mood boards? They’re storytelling. They train your eye. They train your brain. They teach you to see—which, in turn, teaches you how to show up.

Because what we love informs how we see ourselves, the world around us, and our place in it..

And here’s one thing I know for certain, what we love 100% informs how we see ourselves, our world, and our place in it.

Which brings me to the one list you didn’t know you needed to make: Your Geek List.

Why We Default to “I Like Pink” (And Why That’s a Crime Against Personality)

Ask someone what makes them unique, and they’ll probably say something painfully safe.

I like pink.
I’m quirky! I drink too much coffee!
I travel!

You’ll nod politely, mentally calculating the quickest way to exit the conversation.
"Oh, I think I hear my dog calling me."
Or, if you’re really patient (I see you), you’ll stick around and gently push:
"Okay… but what else?"

For most of us, myself included it’s a knee-jerk response is to say something bland, something simple, short and of course…sweet. For me the internal monologue sounds something like; They’re just being polite. They don’t actually want to know that I spent my birthday crying in the bathtub or that I have an obsession with perfectly peeling an apple in one single spiral, or that I could deliver a full-on dissertation about why Marie Antoinette (2006) was a misunderstood masterpiece.

It’s our training and most of us are raised to not be a burden to anyone else. Don’t eat too much, don’t take up too much space and certainly don’t talk about yourself too much. We’ve been trained to make our personalities palatable. Socially acceptable. Easily digestible so we will be picked and not left behind.

Because being too much? Too specific? Too unhinged about something only you are into? That’s risky.

So we shrink it down. We compress it into cute fun facts instead of letting it take up space. Instead of saying, "Actually, I’ve spent an ungodly amount of time memorizing every single aesthetic choice in Sofia Coppola’s entire filmography,"
we say, "I like movies."

Safe. Boring. A personality dampened down to a polite ripple instead of the tsunami it should be.

And if you don’t believe me? Go listen to Kasia Urbaniak on Tori Dunlap’s Financial Feminist podcast (linked here). She lays it out perfectly—how women, in particular, have been conditioned to default to the safest possible version of themselves.

But let me tell you something.

Your Weird Little Obsessions? They’re a Love Letter to Who You Are

Those late-night Wikipedia deep dives? Not a waste of time.
That hyper-specific Pinterest board for a dream trip to Copenhagen? Not silly.
That very particular way you arrange your books? Not weird.

It’s all proof of life. Your life. Your footprint. Your magic.

That specific, slightly obsessive way you see the world? That’s what makes you hard to ignore. That’s what people will remember about you.

Not that you like pink.

(Although pink is good—especially with your aura. More on that here).

So, what’s your Geek List? What’s the thing that makes your friends say, “Oh wow, you’re really into this, huh?”

Because I guarantee you—it’s more interesting than “I like pink.”

My Geek List (Or: If You’ve Been Here Long Enough, None of This Will Shock You)

And because it’s only polite for me to go first (and because I’d never ask you to do something I wouldn’t do myself), here’s mine.

I have teetering stacks of self-help books and cookbooks I never follow to the letter. Sorry, Ottolenghi. I skim, I adapt, I pretend I’ll try that 47-step recipe on a weeknight, but we both know it’s not happening.

YA fiction is my guilty pleasure. Bonus points if it’s witchy.

Home design? Obsessed. High, low, every magazine, every show—I have moved the furniture more times than I can count purely for the thrill of decorating the space anew.

Pretty things? Please. Textiles, patterns, jewelry, long, luxurious coats, and so many blankets—we have enough for a family of 12. I collect. I hoard. I love.

Beauty products? I’m the friend who buys it first. Lipstick, skincare, serums that promise “radiance” or “dew”—if it has a glowy girl marketing angle, I’m in.

Coats. I don’t want to talk about how many I own. I do want to talk about how they make an outfit.

Travel, but with a mission. I cannot be a sit-on-the-beach-and-read girlie. I need a cultural deep dive, a goal, an experience, something with teeth.

And my Away carry-on? I bought it before it was a thing, okay? And it’s packed like a Tetris champion weeks before a trip—always.

A slight Vespa and VW Bus obsession. The dream? A candy-colored vintage VW turned into a traveling photo bus. It’s going to happen. I’m manifesting.

Movies that live rent-free in my brain: Flash Gordon (IYKYK), Moonstruck, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and the entire Sofia Coppola canon. Should I share my Letterboxd?

I narrate my life in song. I make up ridiculous little tunes on the fly—entertaining, dramatic, fleeting. Improv tunes that vanish the moment they’re sung.

Cooking? No recipe is ever the same. I tweak, I experiment and I don’t write it down much to my family’s annoyance. I’ll never be able to recreate that perfect sauce again—but it was magical while it lasted.

I don’t like cocktails, but I love watching people make them. There’s something about the precision, the technique, the drama of a well-poured Negroni that gets me every time.

I want to be a really good guitar player but don’t actually want to do the work to learn. Why can’t it just sink in by osmosis while watching St. Vincent do her thing? There’s always drums….

I know the moment my son is about to text me. My hand is over the phone before it pings. I also know what someone is leaving unspoken in a conversation and will miss half of what they’re saying because the rest is so loud.

I throw my journals away when they are full. Have your little sister steal yours then send it to you 20 years later with a declaration of, I stole this. It was boring -and see how you respond.

a mood board interlude

Okay, Your Turn—Because I Shared Mine and, Well… It’s Only Fair

We’re skipping the obvious stuff. We all love rainbows, ponies, and fresh flowers. That’s cute, but let’s dig deeper. I’ll walk you through it.

Step 1: Make Your Geek List

These are the things you love so much you’d do them even if no one saw, liked, or paid you for it. (Like mine. Well, now YOU know.)

Need a nudge? Let’s get specific.

• What would you do just because you love it—even if you never got paid? (If you’d spend your free time ranking every Real Housewives franchise in meticulous detail, own it.)

• What do your loved ones tease you about loving/doing? (That “OMG, you’re so you” thing.)

• What’s your superpower that feels weirdly specific? (Knowing exactly when a celebrity couple is about to break up before TMZ does? Having a freakish ability to predict which trends will be everywhere in six months? Spill.)

• What would you do more of if you weren’t afraid to tell someone about it? (Your secret late-night deep dives into Victorian mourning rituals? Your meticulously organized collection of discontinued lipsticks?)

• If I shadowed you for a week, what quirks would I pick up on? (I once knew someone who only ate Skittles in ROYGBIV order. I still think about it.)

• What are you low-key an expert in—even if you don’t claim it? (Mine is NOT guitar playing, for obvious reasons.)

Example: This Is How You Know You’re A Nerd About Something

• You don’t just love books—you have a system for reading them. Annotations, highlighters, TBR stacks that could topple at any moment.

• You’re the friend who always knows the exact right song to play for a moment.

• You send memes with the speed and precision of a trained assassin.

• You take screenshots of gorgeous typography because fonts matter, damn it.

• You know that no nail polish color is ever truly just red—it’s “oxblood,” “cayenne,” or “deep berry.”

• You have a favorite brand of hotel pen. (And it’s a hill you will die on.)

• You have a running list of fictional homes you’d actually live in.

• You can tell exactly what perfume someone is wearing within ten seconds of meeting them. (And you have notes.)

And Because I Know You’re Curious… Here’s What You All Sent In So Far.

Yes, I did name them. Because it’s another nerdy obsession of mine. I also made mood boards for them, and yes, I’ll show you later.

People always worry that their thing is too weird, too specific, too niche but me tell you: your people are here. Trust me, it fits.

Here are some of the best geek lists that landed in my inbox after last week’s Sunday Stories:

The Aesthetic Maximalist (A love letter to everything that makes life extra.)

• Vintage Vogue issues stacked with Polaroids marking favorite pages.

• The sound of a wine cork popping (paired with moody jazz).

• Interiors in movies: The Royal Tenenbaums, A Single Man, Marie Antoinette.

• Lipstick shades named after scandalous things: Hot Gossip, Forbidden Kiss, Dangerously Red.

• Fresh-cut peonies in a vase that’s entirely too expensive but worth every penny.

The Playful Chaos Queen (Messy hair, big dreams, zero apologies.)

• Blaring Dancing Queen while getting dressed—yes, always.

• 97 tabs open at all times. It’s a system.

• Throwing a faux fur coat over pajamas for a “quick” grocery store run.

• Sending voice notes instead of texts because texting is so last season.

• Making dramatic gasps while watching movies, even when home alone.

• Popcorn for dinner—and feeling no shame.

• A deep, committed, slightly concerning obsession with a fictional character.

The Low-Key Mystic (A little woo, a little wonder, a lot of intuition.)

• Tarot pulls for the full moon, just to see what’s shifting.

• Growing rosemary by the front door for protection (and pesto).

• Seeing angel numbers and feeling like the universe just gets you.

• Wearing gold jewelry that feels like it holds past lives.

• Finding secret meanings in song lyrics, poems, and passing conversations.

• Lighting a candle and staring into it like you’re about to have a prophetic vision.

The Extremely Specific Petty Genius (For the person who knows EXACTLY what they like, thank you very much.)

• Knowing which brand of butter tastes the best (and refusing to settle).

• Picking the exact right checkout line at the grocery store every time.

• Being able to eyeball when pasta is perfectly al dente.

• Knowing the best freeway exits to take when traffic gets bad.

• Sending a perfectly worded email that gets immediate results.

• Having a least favorite font. (Comic Sans slander will always be welcome here.)

• Genuinely hating how people load their dishwashers. (Yes, I have opinions.)

So tell me—what’s yours?

Drop your geek lists below—your secrets are safe with me.

Because you know I’d never gatekeep this from you.