Felicia Day explains her sort-of celebrity right up front in the intro to her new memoir, “You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost),” on shelves today. “You’re either extremely excited to read this book (inner dialogue: “OMG, FELICIA DAY WROTE A BOOK!”),” she writes, “Or extremely confused (inner dialogue: “Who is this chick again?”).”
You might remember Day as the cute, nerdy girl who showed up as a potential Slayer in the last season of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and had recurring roles in shows like “Eureka” and “Supernatural.” More significantly, she also wrote, directed and starred in her own web series, “The Guild,” which became hugely popular almost before web series were a thing. From that and the boost she got from a starring role in Joss Whedon’s “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog,” she founded the popular YouTube channel and multimedia company Geek and Sundry, where she produces hundreds of indie geek videos a year about video games, science fiction, romance books and whatever else interests her for an audience of over 12 million fans. You may have no idea who she is. Online, she’s a geek goddess.
She calls it “situationally recognizable,” because it sounds better than “web-famous.”
Her onscreen persona is that of a quirky, slightly anxious, somewhat obsessive woman who’s wildly enthusiastic about everything. Turns out that’s a bit of a pose; in real life she’s even more quirky and anxious, and in “You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost),” Day explains how she got that way.
From her home-schooled early education in the deep south (“for hippy reasons, not God reasons”) which can best be described as “you’re on your own,” to her utter lack of socialization for 10 years before discovering online gaming and chatrooms, to starting college at 16 without a high school diploma and getting degrees in math and violin, to her move to Los Angeles and her attempts to become what Hollywood wanted her to be, Day pushed through it all with nerve and charm and humor and a boatload of nervous anxiety before embracing her inner (and outer) weirdo to become a major force in online entertainment.
I admit I was a little disappointed in what wasn’t in there. There are no Hollywood stories. There is virtually nothing said about her time on “Buffy” and even less on her other shows. She talks in great detail about making “The Guild” and describes in hilarious detail all the hassles from shooting a web series in your own house on a non-existent budget with unpaid actors and cobbled-together props, but while she has plenty of anecdotes about the production process she doesn’t include any stories about antics on the set or any of the other actors. Her only mention of “Dr. Horrible” is to talk about accidentally Twittering in front of a crowd of thousands on a ComicCon panel afterward. Want to know about her sex life? No luck. There are no behind-the-scenes tidbits or wacky Wil Wheaton stories and in fact, except for a brief Richard Branson mention in the beginning, no name-dropping at all. All of that (except the sex part) is online already, in her videos and interviews and panels and tweets and her fans know it all. Day has been living in the open online for years now, and when things happen to her she makes them into entertainment.
What she does describe, over and over again, are the things that shaped her. Her bizarre early life. Her discovery that there were other people who loved the same things she did, as much as she did. Her first real-life encounter with the friends she made online, and her first kiss. Her obsessive drive to get a 4.0 college average in things she would never need again. The months of serious, 7-days-a-week, 18-hours-a-day addiction to the online game World of Warcraft that nearly broke her before she got out from under it and used that experience to write “The Guild.” Her encounter with GamerGate followers who posted her address online. And over and over again, she talks about the anxieties and depression that held her down, even after she became successful.
In a funny, quirky way, of course.
“You’re Never Weird” is a light, delightful book that reads exactly how you’d think a book written by Felicia Day would read, with constant asides and apologies and photoshopped pictures of herself and all. I recommend the audiobook, which makes the book seem even more like a long story Day is telling you about her life while you’re both sitting outside an indie coffee shop.
Or, more likely, on a couch while munching chips and playing video games.
“You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost),” by Felicia Day. Touchstone, 272 pages. Hardcover $16.47. Ebook $13.99. Audiobook $18.37.