TSWGO and TFiOS Trailer

A week of acronyms and initialisms! I'm going to talk about two things this week, both broadly related to Nerdfighteria (and if you're a nerdfighter, chances are you know what the title of this post actually means!)

Firstly, the book by the late Esther Earl, a committed nerdfighter who died of thyroid cancer in 2010 aged 16, came out this week. It's called "This Star Won't Go Out: The Life and Words of Esther Grace Earl", and is a collection of entries from her journals, as well as letters, emails, drawings and anecdotes, collated by her parents and introduced by the author John Green, with whom she had a close friendship. The phrase "This Star Won't Go Out" was thought up by one of Esther's friends in the months before she died as a sort of protest against the idea that death erases a person - "Esther" means "star", and so it fundamentally means that even after her death, Esther will continue to live in the memories of those whose lives she touched - and her commitment to Nerdfighteria makes that an awful lot of lives.




This Star Won't Go Out is also the name of a charitable organisation set up by Esther's family, after her death, to provide financial aid for families who have children with terminal illnesses. This shows just how much Esther was an influence on the lives of others, even if they (and she) never knew. Esther Day is a yearly event on 3rd August, since 2010, that celebrates Esther's birthday in a way she wanted. Started by the Vlogbrothers, John and Hank Green, Esther Day is a day for people to tell their friends and family that they love them, even if it's hard. To quote John Green, Rest In Awesome, Esther.


Secondly, the trailer for The Fault in Our Stars also came out this week, and has just passed EIGHT
MILLION VIEWS on YouTube. For those of you who don't know, The Fault in Our Stars is a book written by John Green about a teenager, Hazel, who has thyroid cancer, like Esther (although the character of Hazel is entirely fictional, and this is NOT Esther's story). It's been a resounding success, having 61 consecutive weeks on the Young Adult New York Times bestseller list at the time of writing, and it has been made into a film, due for release in June of this year. It features Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort as the protagonists Hazel and Gus, and is a fantastic story of love, fear, happiness and life in general.

~ Tess