Been a nerd all you life, and want a new look? Here's a few basics to get you started

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by: JermaineGrenville
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Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2011 Time: 6:08 PM
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If you have been looked at as a nerd all of your life, consider yourself in good company, the annual list of the world's most rich people is filled with nerds just like yourself. Some of the most well-known people in the world, who have created and invented some of the most groundbreaking products and services in history were indeed considered to be quite the square pegs. Bill Gates, one of the world's richest men, proudly considers himself to be a nerd to this day. Mark Zuckerberg, another prominent nerd, founded a $500 billion company out of his college dorm room only six years ago. And who can forget Michael Dell or Steven Jobs, who both founded major high-tech companies from garages or dorm rooms while practically teenagers.

But of course, realizing that you're in good company in terms of being a nerd, does not necessarily ease the pain when those other nerds are so rich that they are cool anyway - and no regular fellow can come close to beating them for cool points. So you as the regular nerd (perhaps only a few years away from your first billion), have to find your own way to collect cool points. Here we will offer a few quick and easy basics to help get you started with a new look - that might even improve your interpersonal relationships, if you're lucky.

? Get rid of the pocket protector. Yes, of course, having a pocket protector to protect your pocket from the occasional leaking or exploding in him can be a good thing in practical terms, but believe me my friend, it does absolutely nothing for your outward image. The pocket protector is like kryptonite in the urban environment; any member of the opposite sex will see you coming and make an immediate move for some other part of the room, the street, the city or the world. There is no love for this nerdiest of all the nerd icons. You would be better off buying a pencil case that you can conceal in a backpack or laptop carrying case.
? If your glasses are broken, please, please, please do not use tape to put them back together. This is another faux pas made exclusively by nerds, and it screams "I'm here and I'm square so ladies beware." This is a definite no-no; what you will want to do in this case, is simply upgrade to a nice new pair of glasses - they don't have to be anything fancy, and they don't have to be tinted or bare a name brand - they just have to be nice and neat, and obviously, fit your face and your lifestyle. Sometimes, depending on your personal preferences, you may even want to look into the possibility of being fitted for contact lenses.
? One final tip is to get rid of the short-sleeved dress shirt. Unless you're a police officer on a TV show set sometime in the 70s, short-sleeved dress shirts are a definite fashion don't. And heaven forbid, a person should decide to wear one of these shirts with a tie; this just wreaks of nerdiness. In order to upgrade, in this case it is as simple as downgrading; change out of the dress shirt into a T-shirt. The T-shirt can be slightly oversized and with or without logos, artwork or expressions, but definitely make it a T-shirt. If you purchase T's made of quality materials, they will serve you well for quite some time.

In the end, the simplest form of upgrading what's considered a nerdy wardrobe is to simply get rid of some of the elements and improve upon others. The typical nerdy jeans, commonly straight legged are actually in fashion right now. Other aspects of the typical nerd dress code are also in fashion, such as spiked hair, neat watches and sneakers. With these already in place the average nerd is only a few steps from insanely cool (at least as far as his look is concerned). Some of the articles may need a little updating to a more modern style, but then who's to say; what's old is usually new eventually anyway.

About the Author

Jermain Grenville is a fashion writer and urban culture expert with over a decade of experience in the urban fashion world. Find out more at new era caps or la dodgers caps