I was the girl who asked this question at denver comic con 2013. I was 9 years old when I asked it. I asked it because that year at school I got bullied and felt bad because she made it seem like a bad thing. I am doing great now and is still alive. :)

I'm looking back on this and I remembered that I wanted to ask a question, but I was to scared to do it. My family told me I should and one year later, 8,000,000 people know me by a simple question I asked. People don't know who I was or what I was going through. Every time I think of going up there and asking that ONE question, I remember this one lady who looked back at me, and gave me a smile and a "Ok" sign. I will never forget the day when I was nine years old and asked a question about being a nerd.

"Nerd" is shorthand for "person who likes learning and knowing things." If that's wrong, I don't want to be right.

Treats her like an intelligent person, not talking down to a child. He spent all the time he needed to make her feel better about being her, and why bullies are the way they are. Bullies are always worse off than the people they pick on.

Incredible response from Wil Wheatons for anyone that get's picked on or bullied.

As a teacher, I address this issue far too frequently. Mr. Wheaton, I was so blown away by your answer. I was especially wowed by the fact that you were giving an instantaneous response in front of thousands of people. Yet, your answer was honest, caring, and inspiring. You changed that little girl's life. Tomorrow, I will show this video to my students.

I'm 53 and I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes at that response. As someone who was bullied by all of the male role models in my life - dad and two older brothers - this question stung. And Mr Wheaton's answer was absolutely perfect.

The kid who bullied me more relentlessly than anyone in school hit me up years later on Facebook and apologized. Turns out he was having terrible troubles (he missed our graduation because he was in rehab) and he lashed out so he wouldn’t have to face them. We are now good friends.

Most celebs would've stopped talking after making a point that garnered a round of applause. You could tell Will really wanted to help this fellow nerd by giving an in-depth analysis of bullying and how to overcome it. Spot on advice. Good job, Will!

Chokes me up everytime I watch this. Thanks Wil for being such a nice guy

The thought, care, empathy, and compassion that went into Will's answer is incredible. Only someone who's been through something similar themselves can give an answer like that.

This is why we love Wil. Not his exact words, but his attitude. Love the thing you love. Don't be ashamed of who you are. Remember others have hidden struggles.

I'm 55 years old and I'm sitting here crying. This was the best, most heart felt answer he could have given. I tell in love a little with Wil Wheaton today.

This warms my heart. He put his soul into this response. I could feel him reliving and re-walking through all of the pain he had to go through to relate to her question as well as he did and be as inspiring and healthy to support her through it in the best he could in that moment. What an amazing response!

I love how he acknowledged her feelings and never once talked down to her or patronized her - what an amazing human.

Will Wheaton seems like he could be a psychologist. That was some transformative therapy right there.

As a father who raised three really amazing Nerds (while watching ST:TNG together as a family) I just want to say I'm proud of you Wil. You are a good man.

Love the way he acknowledges her pain first at being made fun of. Too often adults downplay the hurt a child feels when they tell us about it.

Wesley Crusher just bombed into my recommended 8 years later. Crushing it

Years ago, when my daughter was dealing with bullies in school, I told her to do this: Find one thing about that person that you honestly admire, and tell them that you admire that quality of theirs - it has to be honest, not idle flattery. Ask them for their help or advice in an area that they excel in, and then see what happens. Within one year, she had transformed the former bullies into allies, and become one of the most popular kids in school .. but more than that, she passed on the technique to those former bullies, and they began to change the way they interacted with everyone else around them. It works because people want to befriend those that feed their self esteem, and people WANT to feel like their contributions to a group are appreciated.

You can tell that man is a father. That response is wonderful. There is so much care in his voice.

This needs to keep trending - as long as there are brave little kids who need reassurance and empathy as shown here.

I love that he took the time to talk her through this. She's in the comments talking about how it helped her. So happy to see this on here.

I have ALWAYS loved Wil but dude you just skyrocketed my respect to another level. Played this interview for my 11 year old daughter who has been called a nerd and hearing this response from you, knowing you played Wesley Crusher, one of her favorite characters, just put the biggest smile on her face!!!!! Thank you

*Wil Wheaton* is awesome. This is such a great response to a question from a little girl on how to deal with being called a "nerd." A mild form of bullying, for sure. But bullying nonetheless.

Here's the way I've always seen it: being told you're a nerd is just essentially being told you're passionate about something. Whether it's collecting action figures, video games, comic books - it's just another way of saying that you spend your free time doing things you enjoy, and in what way is that an insult? Everyone's a nerd in some way - even Jocks are pretty much 'sport nerds'. Whenever I used to be called a nerd, I would respond with 'of course I am, why aren't you?', and to this day they've never had a comeback for it. If you're NOT a nerd, you're missing out.

That girl's life was changed by kindness, honesty, optimism and hope.

As a nerd turned into a nerdy adult, it gets so much better. We’re now in a world (at least my world is this way) where it is welcome to like what is considered nerdy. Anime, roleplaying games, sci-fi, video games, complex board games are all widely available and accepted by a general audience. The key is to surround yourself with friends who support your passions or even enjoys them with you.

Seriously how does Wil never stop being awesome? Every time I see a video of him at cons or in interviews he's just so incredibly inspiring, it's really amazing,

At this stage in my life, I consider "nerd" a term of endearment

This reminds me of middle school: there was a girl who use to pick on me all the time-- she was just awful to me and I never knew the reason why. Well, on Valentine's Day, I brought my entire class a little bag of candy and I think a little card-- I even had one for her because, despite the way she treated me, it was never in my nature to exclude anyone. I'll never forget the look on her face when I handed her the candy, or even what happened afterward: she just looked at me as if she couldn't understand why I did that or why I was being so thoughtful to her- I guess it made her see that I really wasn't a bad person. ::shrugs:: I really don't know, but she just looked stunned and then she thanked me. I said, "You're welcome. " Not too long after that, she walks up to me and a friend sitting by ourselves on the bleachers and asks if she could join us, and I said "Sure!" We became friends from then on, and she never picked on me again. To this day, it's still my proudest moment, and I'm 32 years old now. 😢😊 I really do love how thoughtful Wil was with this question, and how it seemed to help so many! Thank you, Wil! ❤

I save this video to my 'Health' playlist, because it resonates with me. Wil is an amazing person and has been through hell and back. The man gets it. He gets us. He's a treasure.

This is so touching. I have dealt with being called a nerd and being judged for it my entire life and I still wake up every day, wear a new Star Wars shirt and enjoy being a nerd because its what I love about me. I am so glad that Will gave this answer. It's so heartwarming in so many ways.

Always thought ***** was pretty cool, but this response elevated him to "amazing" status. What a brilliant, insightful, special sentiment. Very special.

If I hadn’t known better I would have thought he had this answer prewritten. You can tell this was something that deeply resonated with him. What a great response.

This man just broke my heart and put it back together again.

I watched this video last year but forgot how special this is... And I want to make sure I can remember to reshare it the next time kids and I talk about bullies. I always get chills with Will's last sentence.

Another kid comes up: What about being a brony? Will: Well then you're just fucked.

One of the best and most insightful responses to an age old question!! What a class act of a person

I didn’t know too much about Will but I absolutely adore this response. He put so much love into this life lesson for this little girl who was hurting. Beautiful man.

Yeah Will Wheaton sums it up perfectly. I found later in life that the same bullies that give you shit like that generally don't like themeselves and the sad thing is they can't change as easy as other people, so they genuinely deserve pity, -if you can look past them making you feel bad when you were small and vunerable

My love and admiration of this man just spiked and that is almost hard to believe considering how much I respected him before. Wil Wheaton is definitely one of the good ones.

Truth. How others treat you is a reflection of THEM. Even when they treat you well. ❤️

The wisdom, empathy, and kindness in this beautiful answer are overwhelming.

I wasn't expecting to buy a one way ticket to tear town on the feel train, but here I am. God dammit, this is awesome. I wish I had someone or something to tell me this when I was growing up.

transcribed this video for a deaf friend of mine: Child: When you were a kid, were you called a 'nerd' and, if so, how did you deal with it? Will Wheaton: When I was a little boy I was called a nerd all the time because I didn't like sports, I loved to read, I liked Math & Science, I thought school was really cool...and, um...it hurt, a lot because it's never okay when a person makes fun of you for something, like, you didn't choose. You know, we don't choose to be nerds. We can't help it that we like these things and we shouldn't apologize for liking these things (audience applauds). I wish I could tell you there's a really easy way to just...not care, but the truth is, it hurts…but here's the thing that you might be able to understand...as a matter of fact, I'm confident you'll be able to understand, because you asked this question: when a person makes fun of you, when a person's cruel to you, it has nothing to do with you. It's not about what you said, it's not about what you did, it's not about what you love...it's about them feeling bad about themselves. They feel sad. They don't get positive attention from their parents. They don't feel smart as you. They don't understand the things that you understand. Maybe one of their parents is really pushing them to be a cheerleader or a baseball player or an engineer or something that they just don't want to do...so they take that out on you, because they can't go and be mean to the person that's actually hurting them. So, when a person's cruel to you like that, I know that it's hard, but honestly, the kind and best reaction is to--to pity them...and don't let them make you feel bad because you love a thing. Maybe find out what they love, and talk about it...how they love it. I bet you'll find out that a person who loves...tetherball loves tetherball exactly the way that you love Dr. Who...but you just love different things. And I will tell you this: it absolutely gets better as you get older (audience applauds)…and (pauses as audience wildly applauds) I know it's really hard when you're in school and you're surrounded by the same 400 people a day that pick on you and make you feel bad about yourself...but there's 50,000 people here this weekend who went through the exact same thing...and we're all doing really well (audience hoots, laughs, cheers). Don't you ever let a person make you feel bad because you love something they decided is only for nerds. If you're loving it, then it's for you. Thanks for your question.

Somewhere there's a conference of tetherball fans with a kid asking how to bully people

Wil is such a great father and great person!

I'm a nerd, but I'm damn proud to be a nerd and wouldn't have it any other way.

Well done Wil! I was called a nerd and geek (and "the brain") my whole life. I was teased for it in elementary school. Now that computers have become mainstream being called a Nerd or Geek is a badge of honour. And, much like you Wil, I married the woman of my dreams. She proudly wears a t-shirt that says "I Heart my Geek" (Heart being the picture of a heart not the word - and I wear "I Heart my redhead!") I am definitely a Wheatonite!

This whole response was perfect. One of the best things about this is Wil doesn't trivialize the real hurt that verbal abuse causes.

“Let me give you some counsel, bastard. Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strenght. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you." - Tyrion Lannister Rephrase: Let me give you some counsel, NERD. Never be ashamed of what you are. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.

63 people didn't get love from their parents.

Wil is so fucking adorable omg

First. Will, you're a beautiful person. Second, everyone who bullied me in school is now either working shitty jobs, in jail or dead. A few made it. I'm married to the love of my life, I have three great kids, a two car garage, I've never been unemployed and have a ton of friends who understand me. Its not who can hit the hardest, little one. Its who can get back up and succeed anyway. Bullies suck because they play the short game. Play the long game. KNOW you're worthy, and good things will come by your own hand. I was picked on for being a nerd. Now im a published author of a D&D product (Out of the Box Encounters). Who's laughing now?

Even though it’s still hurtful to be teased and excluded on any level, nerd culture has become so much more mainstream over the past few decades. For 80’s kids being labeled a nerd was basically the worst thing ever. As an adult nerd now its so heartening to live in this golden age. Kids will find something else to be shifty about, no doubt. Don’t ever let someone put you down for the things you love.

The little girl I used to be who was picked on for the way she looked and how much she loved pop music wants to say Thank You +WilWheaton. #TearsOfJoy

When I clicked on this I thought to myself, "Please don't just say 'One day they're going to be working for you'". This is a much better and more thoughtful answer.

I'm really, really happy you went up and asked that question. A bunch of people have really needed to hear and be helped by Wil's answer. You being brave enough to ask it made that happen. Thanks

Why would anyone dislike this video?? Great words from a proud fellow nerd. What a fantastic response from a good kind man.

I have never been much of a Star Trek fan, but I think we can all respect Wil Wheaton being a great role model for this little girl.

Truer words never spoken. Although I must say I find it kind of odd that "nerd" is still a go-to insult for bullies in this day and age, considering how heavily nerd culture is celebrated. The mainstream media doesn't mock us nearly as badly as they did from the '50s all the way up till the '90s, so I just feel it's a little funny that someone can be called a nerd these days and NOT generate a response of "Why, thank you! :D"

Wil Wheaten, you are an incredible human being and a rock star in my world. Keep being you. You're helping so many like this little girl.

What a remarkable speech. So much honesty and compassion. Wow!!! ❤❤❤

An absolutely perfect response. Props to you, Wil.

Best ever advice to our young nerds when they get bullied. Yeah +WilWheaton , you still rock.

Too bad he let himself get bullied in the nova squad. Kidding aside he’s a great mentor and that’s a great response.

What a great answer and so loving and kind. What a great person and friend he must be. To have been in Hollywood for this long and to have seen the things he has seen and probably been through with the pressure to be what others around you want you to be to sell yourself, he has come out to be a wonderful man. Great to see this young man from his days on Star Trek the Next Generation grow into such a kind young man. Love it Will.

This is why I love Wil! He is so perfect the way he is and an inspiration to so many people!

The whole answer was beautiful and perfect, but I want to say I like one particular thing he says that probably too many people DON'T say when trying to give advice on this subject: "Don't apologize for liking the things that you like."

This was such a great response! I'm so happy the girl was brave enough to ask that question and I hope she's a proud and unashamed geek nowadays! People will always be jealous if you are passionate about something. I really liked how Will made this such a good response for a child. One thing I'd like to add/ enphasize is that as you leave school and get older, you choose the people you want to hang out with and being different will be something that's appreciated - talking from my own experience!

I actually teared up watching this. I had experiences like this too. And I'm doing great now!

When I grow up, I want to be Wil Wheaton.

Damn that brought a tear to my eye.

Told from a place of deep understanding and life experience. Wil's character was often used as a deus ex machina in the show...the wunderkind who had all the answers that saved everyone. In real life, in this moment, Wil the man had the perfect answer, and he may have just saved that little girl from years of self-doubt and frankly years more of therapy. Bravo Wil. Bravo.

That was GREAT!! Bravo Will for that thoughtful and compassionate answer and Brava young lady for asking a question that so, so many other people can identify with!!

You have no idea how much this helped me.

Looooooooooove him all over again!!! Wil Wheaton is THE reason I starting watching ST TNG, which changed my life for the better. True story.

Wish I’d had any amount of validation like this when my classmates were picking on me, body shaming me, beating me up. All I got was “ignore them”. Really happy for that little girl.

Standing ovation: well said, Mr. Wheaton. And how incredibly kind to teach this young lady how to deal with hurtful bullies!

She might not have been talking about herself, merely asking Wheaton if he was called a nerd.

What great advice Will Wheaton gave that little girl. He's the type of role model this world needs, what a classy guy.

Bully: "nerd!" Child me: "Thank you!" Bully: "What? No, I didn't mean..." Me: *Smug smile* Be proud to be a nerd! As a teacher of mine once said, later, wear your uniqueness as your armour, and then no one can use it against you. Or this is perhaps a more mature response.

Such a shining light. You've been my hero for over 30yrs, Mr Will

If there's one thing that I can tell those who are still in school, it's that you shouldn't be afraid to be yourself and venture on a lifelong journey into the things that YOU like just because other people pick on you. It's important to be happy because not only do you feel better about yourself, you also do better in life. You'll get better grades and you'll perform better in speeches and theatrical plays.

Thank you so much for being such a decent and kind person, Wil. You bring a smile to my face when I really need one. Much love to you.

I had never seen this before, and it popped up in my feed today. I love Wil Wheaton even more now.

You’re a champ, Will. God Bless you for your powerful and honest testimony.

Wesley.... please never shut up.

I imagine we would all love to go back in time and say this same thing to our younger selves.

For an off-the-cuff response that is about as perfect a reply as you could wish for.

Well said. "You be You". We need to accept people for who they are and embrace their interests even if we don't share them.

Oh hell yeah it gets better as you get older! I was called a geek and a nerd in school and worse. I'm now sitting at my desk in work and I'm painting pirates and pirate ships for a game... :D Enjoy your passions and intrests and never give them up they will really reward you later in life.

And then the girl said "Thanks, nerd"

Not only "it gets better as you get older," the older you get ... the better it gets. I hated my life in my 30's (even though I had it pretty good; life is always tough). I turn 70 this year and my life has never been better. I am so glad I stuck it out.

If someone calls you a nerd, you say “damn right…” Then, you go and live your great life.

Nerd is the biggest compliment anyone can give me.

This is fantastic. I remember being made fun of when I was a kid. Honestly, I stood up to them and won most of them as friends because I wasn't afraid of them. THIS response from Wil Wheaton is just marvelous.

Will is a boss and every time I've ever seen him, he is a tremendous person for sure, and the courage to stand up and ask this question in a room full of eyes gazing upon you is inspiring.

What a fantastic response!! Absolutely outstanding :) I would give anything to hang out with Will Wheaton for just one day! LOL