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Female celebs encompass many different types from different industries. They’re not all generic blonde bombshells who are fashionistas and obsessed with their looks. But the fact remains that the stereotypical image of a female celeb is someone who’s highly glamorous, loves going out on the town, fine dining, fast cars, spending cash, and has other similar hobbies. Many actually love those kinds of pursuits. But others want to be perceived in that manner, so they have put themselves in those situations. They play to that image, either because they feel they need to in order to fit in, or just want to recreate a different persona for themselves because they think that’s what people want to see. But over the years, quite a few celebs have started to adopt a different persona, so-called “nerdy” persona. Once upon a time, there would’ve been no way a female celeb would’ve wanted to be labelled with that nerd tag. But now, it seems as if quite a few female celebs have chosen to relocate out of tinsel town into nerd nirvana.

What is the definition of a nerd? It encompasses many different things: someone who isn’t preoccupied with adhering to social norms, an individual who’s highly studious, or someone with an obsession that most people wouldn’t deem to be conventional. There are tons of definitions.

There are many female celebs who classify themselves as being nerdy individuals. If not, we’d certainly slap that label on them. While some no one can argue with, others, it seems, pretend to be nerds. Some seriously want to be nerds, and are, and others pretend to be so for their image. For others it’s a combination of these factors. Whatever their reasons may be, these 15 female celebs have certainly earned their places in the nerd category.

ARIEL WINTER HAS KEPT HER NERDY IMAGE

Ariel Winter has been in the industry for an awfully long time. She’s only 20 but has been around on the acting scene since 2005. In recent years we’ve seen her grow up, and her star appeal and all-round popularity has increased exponentially. It’s fair to assume that a lot of people know Ariel as the nerdy teenage girl from Modern Family. She was an extreme nerd on that show, and in a way, made that whole image cool. Although the starlet is very different to that persona in real life, there are a few similarities. One feels that Ariel has adopted certain characteristics from her TV character in order to uphold aspects of her nerdy image. She’s very smart, at times dresses like a nerd, and considers herself to be different from the norm, an unconventional celeb in the way she looks and dresses. She’s also called herself a nerd in interviews, divulging that she does nerdy things like blast out music and sing along to cheesy tunes. Upon first impressions, you certainly wouldn’t think of Ariel as a nerd, but delve into it a little more, and you’ll realize that she does possess some nerdy characteristics, but she may be overstating them.

KIM KARDASHIAN CLAIMS TO LOVE ANIME

You’d think someone as beautiful and as popular as Kim Kardashian would stick to the look that made her famous. The brunette bombshell has a famous look, but sometimes she likes to change it up a little. We’ve seen Kim experiment with different looks and essentially pretend to be someone she’s not over the years on her reality TV show. She’s changed accents, has put on wigs, and has adopted different personas. Kourtney’s kids actually got a little freaked out by their aunty Kim! That in itself is a tad nerdy. She’s done the blonde look, has gone green, and has rocked a short-haired wig. But Kim recently took her level of nerdiness to a whole new level. She revealed that she’s an anime nut and is totally obsessed with the character Zero Two. She even changed her hairdo to match that of her favorite character. Anime apparently inspired her pink locks, but many find it hard to believe that she really is a nerd.

DREW BARRYMORE LOVES D&D

Once upon a time, if you regularly played fantasy role playing games, you were considered very uncool. Now, things are different. Although you’re still considered a nerd if you play such games, it’s also considered to be rather cool. At one point in time, taking up the dice and playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons was the in thing to do. And not just geeky teens were playing it either. Some pretty big celebs are self-confessed D&D lovers, are prominent members of the D&D community. They don’t care about letting people know it either. Vin Diesel for example, loves those games and is considered to be a massive nerd – he certainly doesn’t look like your stereotypical nerd, but he’s nerdy all the same. The same holds true for Drew Barrymore. She professes to regularly taking up the die for a bit of role playing action. In that respect, she wants to be known as a bit of a nerd.

KATE BECKINSALE’S A Very INTELLIGENT WOMAN

The term “nerd” can encompass many things. It’s not a "one definition fits all" kind of word. One definition of a nerd is being highly intelligent, someone who’d rather bury their nose in a book than go out and do the usual things that people do. That’s why Kate Beckinsale’s on this list. She herself has said that she possesses nerdy qualities. This stems from her younger days. Kate studied French and Russian literature at the world-renowned Oxford University. When she wasn’t studying French and Russian, she also mastered German. She’s said that she preferred to have her nose buried in Russian texts rather than frolic about and engage in the stereotypical antics of young people. She also wrote poems and short stories before pursuing acting, starring in movies such as The Underworld films, which for those of you who aren’t aware, are essentially about vampires and werewolves. Kate wants people to think she’s a beautiful nerd, and is a nerd in a lot of ways.

FELICIA DAY IS SELF-PROFESSED QUEEN OF THE NERDS

Felica Day might not be the biggest A-lister in tinsel town. But she’s certainly acquired a massive fan following over the years. People follow her work in Hollywood, but a great number of people also know Felicia due to her other ventures. Firstly, and this is in no way a diss, Felicia looks like a bit of a nerdy character. That’s the look she’s going for, she’s made her own. She also engages in what many people would deem to be nerdy activities. She regularly attends different Comic-Con conventions, is into gaming, video games and has launched a YouTube channel, Geek & Sundry. She has also written articles on geeks and nerds and the evolution of nerd culture. One gets the impression that she revels in people perceiving her to be a nerd. She is a nerd, there’s no doubt about it, but Felicia definitely plays to that and pretends to be a bigger nerd than she is.

JESSICA ALBA HASN’T GROWN OUT OF THE NERD CULTURE

Yes, Jessica Alba can be considered to be a nerd. If anything was proof enough that nerds can be cool, Jessica Alba is it. She’s considered to be among the best looking women – not just in Hollywood, but in the world. She’s certainly come a long way from her school days. Back when she was younger, kids avoided her. By her own admission, she wasn’t pretty, just really awkward. She didn’t fit in, and one of the reasons for that was because she was an ultra-nerd. How things have changed. Well, that’s what most people think. Jessica still considers herself to be a goofball. But she also pretends to be a nerd, because she doesn’t want to make people sit up and take notice solely because of her looks. Jessica also pretends to be a nerd to attract nerds. Sure, she’s married now, but once upon a time she was really into the nerdy looking guys, not the Hollywood hunks you’d expect Jessica to be with.

EUGENIE BOUCHARD IS ANOTHER SELF-DESCRIBED NERD

Don’t worry if you’re getting more and more shocked as you progress through this article. You won’t be the only one. Eugenie Bouchard is regarded to be the golden girl of tennis. Those who’ve seen some of her pics would be hard-pressed to disagree with the claim that she is the world's most beautiful athlete. Her name is derived from that of a British princess. Genie might look like royalty, but it’s fair to say that what she gets up to greatly differs from the activities of her royal namesake. Genie describes herself as a pretty big nerd. We wouldn’t think so, but that’s her own perception of herself, making us think that she too is doing a bit of pretending in order to fit in with another audience and gain even more popularity. Either that, or she is just a nerd. She loves The Big Bang Theory because she can relate to the characters, is obsessed with Sheldon Cooper, and is actually pretty good buddies with Jim Parsons. She is a math geek, loves computer games, and has an epic collection of teddy bears. That’s pretty nerdy by anyone’s standards.

OLIVIA MUNN HAD TO PRETEND TO BE A NERD

Although Olivia Munn is a pretty big name in the celeb world, let’s face it, she’s not the most prominent A-lister out there. But over the years she has started to enjoy a tremendous amount of popularity and appeals to a wide and varied fanbase. When Olivia started out in TV, not many people would’ve expected that down the line, she’d adopt nerd culture. But nowadays Oliva’s a pretty big nerd, or at least she pretends to be. She had to get acquainted with nerd culture when she took over hosting duties of Attack of the Show! which is a show about movies, digital media, and video games. By her own admission she didn’t know that much about those topics, but she did her homework and had to pretend to be a well-versed expert. Olivia’s also shown that she loves dressing up in sci-fi/superhero character costumes, which ranks pretty highly on the nerd criteria checklist.

BAYWATCH STAR ALEXANDRA DADDARIO HAS NERDY QUALITIES

Alexandra Daddario is one of the most popular stars in Hollywood at the moment. The 31-year-old has been about for some time but has recently enjoyed a string of successes that have propelled her to fame. Being cast in Baywatch meant people saw a whole new side to Alexandra, and what a sight it was. But Alexandra wasn’t always like that. Growing up, during her teenage years, she’s said that she was seriously nerdy. She didn’t date, simply because she couldn’t get dates due to her nerdy qualities. She pretends to still have a touch of nerdiness in her, because she doesn’t just want to be known for one thing. She wants to attract the right partner and sees just being herself as the way to go.

MARGOT ROBBIE PRETENDED TO BE A HARRY POTTER NERD

Growing up, a lot of people were obsessed with the world of Harry Potter. Those books were the most popular, best-selling books of all time, and plenty of people lived, breathed, and immersed themselves into the Potter books and the life of witchcraft and wizardry. Margot Robbie was one of those people. You wouldn’t have expected Margot to be on this list. She’s one of the most beautiful people on the planet right now. Well, nerds can be gorgeous too. The reason why so many people love Margot, aside from the fact that she’s stunning, is that she’s very relaxed, comfortable in her own skin, and a very down-to-earth person. During an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Margot was happy to reveal that she was once a massive Harry Potter nerd. She loved Harry Potter, but pretended to be even more of a nerd, taking that look and the whole persona to the next level. She did things like get glasses, even though she had 20/20 vision, just to complete the look.

MILA KUNIS IS SHAMELESSLY GEEKY

Mila Kunis was once seriously nerdy. But she still pretends to be so, mainly for her image. Being nerdy means you appeal to a different group of people, and just being as beautiful as Mila is, you become a pretty intriguing character. Mila Kunis is a marketing man’s dream woman, but one feels she knows how to market herself too. What makes Mila Kunis so nerdy? Well, we’ve seen her geek out over a number of things over the years, including Star Trek. But the thing that hits all the right notes on the nerd criteria is her video game addiction. Yes, Mila Kunis is obsessed with gaming, and once had a serious addiction. She loved other games too, especially World of Warcraft. She blames her ex-boyfriend, Macaulay Culkin, for getting her into such games and bringing out her nerdy side. Her gaming addiction became such a problem, she actually had to quit cold turkey. Her nerdiness was starting to dominate her life and she wanted to put a stop to it.

TAYLOR SWIFT DOESN’T CARE WHAT PEOPLE THINK

All you Taylor Swift fans out there probably anticipated that she was going to feature on this list. We all know that she’s pretended to be a nerd. She dressed up as a nerdy individual in her music video for "You Belong With Me," and who can forget Tay Swizzle’s alter-ego on Jimmy Fallon’s show? That’s a look people weren’t got to forget in a hurry. She took the stereotypical nerd look to a whole other level on that show, and many feel she pulled off that look superbly. So, we know that she pretends to be a nerd. But she also has some nerdiness engrained within her. For example, Taylor is obsessed with cats, she used to build popsicle stick castle and has now graduated to needlepoints, she’s a keen baker, loves onesies, and is a history buff. All things considered, Taylor ranks pretty highly on the nerd chart. However, she definitely uses it to seem relatable to her fans.

MEGAN FOX IS THE SELF-PROCLAIMED BIGGEST NERD AROUND

You know that when celebs talk openly about being such huge nerds, they’re doing so for their image. Sure, they might be nerds, but by talking themselves up in such a manner, it makes us believe that they want people to perceive them as bigger nerds than they actually are. Having said that, most people wouldn't deny that Megan Fox is a pretty big nerd. She’s shown her nerdy qualities time and time again, and revels in telling people just how big a nerd she actually is. First of all, we know she pretends to be a nerd because of some of the characters she’s played on screen, such as her roles in Jonah Hex and the Transformers. She makes appearances at Comic-Con, absolutely loves comic books, and wears Star Trek attire. At times she’s said she’s the biggest nerd around. But she pretends to be a bigger nerd than she is. She’s said as much: “I'm not a hardcore nerd. Unfortunately, I would like to be, but I just don't have the knowledge."

KALEY CUOCO IS THE NERD GODESS

Due to her on-screen portrayal of Penny in The Big Bang Theory, Kaley Cuoco has earned her place in nerd nirvana. Nerds around the globe must have placed her there themselves. She’s certainly one of the biggest nerd celebrity crushes in the industry, and that’s something that’s stuck with Kaley for years and years, ever since the show’s inception. We know that she pretends to be a nerd because of Penny. There have been instances when Penny dresses up like a nerd in order to fit in with the science geeks or to try and entice Leonard, not that that he needed any enticing. That’s her pretending to be a nerd. But let’s get off nerd nirvana for a second and come back to planet Earth. Kaley does have some nerdy qualities, the main one being that she’s a hardcore gamer. Her in-depth knowledge about certain games has surprised many people, but beyond that, she doesn't seem to really be much of a nerd.

NATALIE PORTMAN SAID SHE WOULD RATHER BE SMART THAN BE A MOVIE STAR

One of the many definitions of a nerd is someone who doesn’t bow down to social conventions. Sure, to them what they’re doing seems normal, but to others, they’re oddballs. That’s certainly not a bad thing. Natalie Portman is someone who doesn’t really care what people think about her. She always had a plan in mind, and didn’t let anything, even the prospect of fame, sway her from her goals and the path she’d chosen to take. She was very much into her education, once famously saying, “I’d rather be smart than be a movie star.” She didn’t care if it would stall her career. Natalie wanted to get a degree and that she did. She’s got a degree in psychology from Harvard, has published two research papers in scientific journals, has been a guest lecturer at Columbia University, and is proficient in six languages. Natalie’s someone who has beauty as well as brains. Due to her achievements in academia, a lot of people would say that she’s a nerd. Others would say that she’s just a highly intelligent woman.