Credit: Microsoft Online Clipart Gallery

Last week, I gave a presentation and one of the participants asked about how to find like-minded people in our own community. It’s a comment that I’ve been thinking about a lot over the last few days.

Between public social media and collaborative networks in my workplace, I’ve been able to locate my tribe. Strong, smart, nerdy women who share a similar passion about the Interwebs, technology, user experience, information architecture, business analysis and all the other things that I geek out on at work. We don’t see eye to eye on everything but we are a very supportive sounding board for one another, and some of them are my closest advisors when it comes to work. In fact, I’ve even dedicated an Ada Lovelace Day post to them, as a thank you for all that they have shared with me and taught me.

For that, I consider myself very fortunate. But it hasn’t always been that way for me.

Before I was active online, I was a one-woman show in a number of male-dominated work settings. In one company, HR, administration, communications and marketing were entirely staffed of women, while I was the lone female in our R&D shop, sitting “with the boys” in an entirely different building. It was very lonely (especially when they would head to the strip club for lunch). So, yes, I understand how hard it can be to find — let alone build — a support system or network of like-minded femme nerds who work in science and tech.

Now, the next time you find yourself feeling a little isolated, and needing some girl geek encouragement, check out this amazing list of 75 Ted Talks: each and every one delivered by a girl geek working in science and technology. Topics are wide-ranging (as are video lengths) but there’s bound to be something for everyone.

Or, you know, you could always just hop on over to the Twitters and ping me. I’ve been there. We can support each other. Maybe I can even introduce you to my tribe. 🙂