Fangirl Friday: Elise Andrews

We’ve all been there – that moment you come to after spending hours immersed in the black hole that is the internet. While some world wide web wandering can leave us a bit disoriented and regretful, sites like Elise Andrews’ I Fucking Love Science feel like super justifiable vortexes because we always leave knowing MUCH more.

IFLS is the (not so) guilty pleasure of an ever expanding audience, the passion product of Elise Andrews who started the site in 2012 for a bit of fun and procrastination from her university dissertation. She has since watched her brainchild bloom into the obsession of millions who can and do now confidently call themselves fans of science.

Her passion for science was not born in the classrooms of her childhood. In university, she discovered how little she had learned in grade school and was inspired/terrified by how close she had come to not knowing so many wonders of the universe. She wanted to share her knowledge, to make science accessible and fun, for children and adults alike. Mission accomplished.

But fame comes with a price and when her gender was revealed (though she never sought to hide it), some readers were SHOCKED, others had some shitty things to say.

As in all things, Elise Andrews rose above and she continues to devote herself and her site to the one truth that started this whole thing, that she really does fucking love science. And hopes you will do.

Photos courtesy of Wired, The Guardian, Daily Dot and CJR