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Many of the web-based food shows are not on YouTube, some take the form of a blog. Baking Mischief is a blog that first launched on December 1, 2015 and has many nerd-themed recipes that branch out beyond dessert-type foods.

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Nerdy Recipes Archives - Baking Mischief

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Christmas, Easter, Easy Weeknight Meals, Holiday Recipes, Main Courses, Nerdy Recipes, Recipes, Side Dishes, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Vegetarian

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Another one of the Icing Artists' videos that cover nerd-themed baked goods is her kids cakes compilation. Children's media is also often considered to be nerdy today.

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AMAZING KIDS CAKES Compilation | Shopkins Minnie Peppa

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10 Nerdy CAKES in under 10 MINUTES Compilation!

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10 Nerdy CAKES in under 10 MINUTES Compilation!

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One of the Icing Artists' videos that cover nerd-themed baked goods is her 10 nerdy cakes compilation. Each cake is based on a popular character, much like the Nerdy Nummies format.

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10 Nerdy CAKES in under 10 MINUTES Compilation!

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The Icing Artist is one of the many channels on YouTube that was heavily inspired by Rosanna Pansino and Nerdy Nummies. Her channel first launched on September 11, 2013 and currently sits at 2.8 million subscribers.

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"the icing artist" "cake decorating" videos tutorials "how to" diy lesson recipe easy simple ideas food "birthday cake" cupcake "kids cakes" "dress cake" icing fondant

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Laurie Shannon "The Icing Artist" teaches the easy way to make WOW-worthy desserts with just a few simple tools and ingredients. Even the non-bakers will fall in love with the captivating and satisfying way Laurie makes her amazing creations. Constantly reinventing cakes and playing off (and poking fun at!)

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The Star Wars franchise is one of the most iconic franchises when it comes to nerd culture for over four decades. Girls liking Star Wars was more discouraged when the franchise first started, and Nerdy Nummies shows how girls can like Star Wars just as much as boys can.

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Pansino communicates the interests shown in the show and book by making these interests more desirable and "attractive" to younger girls. Her personality also attracts girls to her series.

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Each chapter in the book opens with a picture of Pansino in a silly outfit and posing in a way that is considered "girly". This is another example of how "nerdy" interests have been made to appeal to young girls in recent years, especially through Nerdy Nummies.

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The cookbook is divided into six chapters: Math & Science, Space, Fantasy & Sci-Fi, Gaming, Tech & Web, and Geeky Treats. Originally, these categories were not appealing to girls and were considered to be "weird" interests by younger girls. Series such as Nerdy Nummies can make these types of interests more appealing to girls and has influenced how these things became more appealing to girls.

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A lot of the cookbooks are based on scientific items, which are considered "nerdy". The colors of the book shows how science can appeal to younger girls.

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Many of the recipes in the Nerdy Nummies cookbook are remastered versions of recipes in the Nerdy Nummies series. One of them includes the Star Trek cake (shown below).

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Prior to the surge in nerd culture, more "girly" interests such as Disney movies were not considered to be that of a "nerdy" type of interest. With nerd culture becoming broader this decade, Disney has been considered under the nerd culture category.

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The Nerdy Nummies series has made an impact on bother nerd culture and gender, and how more women are being involved in nerdy interest thanks to Pansino's series.

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BY JULIA CHRISTENSEN

Part 1: Examining Gender in Rosanna Pansino's The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook

Introduction

What do the Loch Ness Monster, moon phases, flash drives, and hashtags have in common? According to YouTube personality and host of the online baking show Nerdy Nummies, Rosanna Pansino, they all fall under the terms "nerdy" or "geeky." In 2011, Pansino began a series of baking tutorials that culminated into The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook, published in late 2015. Pansino's recipes and fun, bubbly attitude embody an interesting dichotomy between exploring geek culture, which carries a masculine connotation, and embracing her femininity. While this cookbook branches beyond stereotypical gender biases that separate women from advanced academia like math and science, several aspects of Nerdy Nummies actually reinforce and regress the sexist ideologies Pansino initially appears to transgress. These qualities include the simplified presentation of Pansino's recipes, the utilization of her femininity within patriarchal norms, and her determination to experience geek culture through the typically-female realm of baking, thus re-establishing her as only capable of expressing herself through the stereotypically subordinate, female role of being in the kitchen.

The Distinct Simplification and Feminization of Nerdy Nummies' Visual Aesthetic and Recipes

To begin, this cookbook's physical presentation embodies certain undertones that conform to gender expectations, thus contradicting Pansino's claim to cross gender boundaries. Nerdy Nummies' aesthetic is bright and attractive: rounded font, pastel color palette, and illustrative food photography present Rosanna's recipes (in her cookbook and YouTube videos) as rather simple and childish. This easy-to-read quality makes the cookbook accessible to younger audiences, but simultaneously "dumbs down" the advanced scientific phenomena that inspire each dessert. The content's complexity is completely void for the sake of appearance: each recipe features a colorful header, large type, easy-to-follow instructions, and a short explanatory paragraph (Figure 1). These passages occasionally incorporate facts- for example, the Chemistry Lab Cake recipe notes that "gluten networks form as you mix the batter, while carbon dioxide escaping from baking soda helps the cake rise as it heats"-but each one closes with a joke or a pun-for example, the Atom Cookie blurb finishes with "Just remember: Never trust an atom...they make up everything!"[i]. This implies that baking and decorating is the most important factor, and scientific technicalities are irrelevant or joke-worthy. Is the "geeky" content even significant, or just a convenient outlet to create a variety of colorful treats? Pansino's commitment to her cookbook's thematic elements seems to outweigh her focus on the content, thus bringing into question her investment in the "geek culture" she claims to immerse herself in. Her focus on the cookbook's visual aesthetic, more so than the complexity and intricacy of the scientific information, puts her back into the inferior female expectation that she is ironically trying to branch out from. Nerdy Nummies aims to join math, science, and baking into a comprehensive and intellectual event. Ironically, the overall presentation's undertones actually uphold the gendered bias that women can only express themselves within the domestic, kitchen sphere, and solely respond to easy, carefully crafted guidance.

Pansino claims that both the geeky theme and resulting treats are "sure to please the geek in all of us": she aims to satisfy both a mental and physical craving, so one may learn new things while enjoying an easy, comprehensible activity[ii]. In her analysis on gender and American cooking, Jessamyn Neuhaus discusses the way that 20 th century domestic ideology enforced that to be feminine is to satisfy others: women should first and foremost "cater to the needs and wants of their husbands, and, in short...embody femininity"[iii]. It is interesting to note that Pansino is clearly skilled in the kitchen, yet chooses to only include sweet, sugary, dessert-like foods that often hold a motherly, feminine association. The very category of food she chooses to explore in a "geeky" context happens to be the most traditionally domestic - this point will be discussed further upon unpacking the significance of the geek culture focus. In drawing these pieces together, concerning Nerdy Nummies' presentation and recipe choice, Pansino actually redefines herself as not a powerful female cook, but one whose understanding of advanced concepts cannot escape the domestic realm in which she is most comfortable.

The Utilization of Pansino's Physicality and Femininity Within A Patriarchal Framework

In addition to her writing style and content, Pansino's presentation of her self in Nerdy Nummies conforms to patriarchal ideologies, contrasting the post-feminist read in which her womanhood signifies power and rebellion, and unintentionally reinscribing her cookbook as regressive rather than transgressive. The stereotypically girly theme in this cookbook's layout, language, and colors reinforces her femininity, which is used as a tool to attract readers and introduce every chapter. The cookbook's introductory chapters feature three full-page portraits of Pansino looking doll-like in a low-cut shirt, short skirt, and baker's hat: she poses with a rolling pin and laughs dramatically while "eating" a large slice of cake. This immediately establishes the "woman in the kitchen" stereotype - the kitchen must be all she knows and where she is happiest! Nerdy Nummies is divided into six color-coded sections: Math & Science, Space, Fantasy & Sci-Fi, Gaming, Tech & Web, and Geeky Treats. At the start of each, Pansino displays a photograph of herself dressed up in a silly outfit with full makeup that emphasizes her attractive body and young, smiling face.

The Space chapter (right) sees her covered in sparkles, jewelry, and a short galaxy-purple dress; in the Geeky Treats chapter (below), her hair is in little buns, she wears a form-fitting shirt and mini skirt, and carries a notebook and pencil to complete a look reminiscent of an innocent school girl. Pansino makes sure her readers do not forget her feminine persona (in spite of her quirky, nerdy personality!): including the book's cover, this cookbook features ten full-page photographs of her dolled up in different outfits, highlighting her flawless makeup and hair, curvy feminine physique, and innocent smile. She self-identifies as a geek, which typically holds negative, socially awkward connotations, yet consistently emphasizes her beauty and charm. This offers a double standard: it seems she pretends to look geeky but knows her attractiveness puts her above real socially inept people. In this way, she remains separate from (and superior to) geekdom.

Nerdy Nummies' extensive portrayal of Pansino's body (another ideal that might draw readers-in addition to learning new things, this cookbook unconsciously promises thigh gaps and luscious, long hair) represents patriarchal expectations of women in the kitchen. Cooking is a messy activity, but domestic ideologies put pressure on women to always satisfy their husbands and families, which means performing the complicated tasks while remaining desirable and beautiful in the process. In her YouTube videos and cookbook's photographs, Pansino remains clean, done up, and attractive: no messes are made! She is a professional cook who stays simultaneously productive and clean, but Nerdy Nummies ' uses her face and body to introduce, communicate, and enhance mathematical and scientific concepts. Her attractive image outlines how she experiences science and math, making her femininity a key factor to her understanding, rather than an irrelevant piece of her identity. Anybody can love science, regardless of their gender, but the fact that Panino so heavily emphasizes how "girly" she is seems to suggest that she uses her looks to attract readers rather than her knowledge. Pansino's femininity is a tool used to legitimize herself in this historically male realm, rather than an empowering aspect of her identity as female lover of science.

The Rendering of Geekdom as Acceptable for Women Through Baking

Finally, Pansino's presentation and communication of geek culture is problematic in that she has to use her femininity to legitimize geek culture, thus automatically stigmatizing "nerdy" activities and putting herself back in the traditionally feminine sphere that she is trying to escape. First, the cookbook's feminization of geekiness reinforces the separated male (public) and female (private) spheres. The labels "geek" and "nerd" are gendered: both have masculine associations. Searching "geek" in Google images yields a majority of photos featuring men. Here, however, masculinity does not mean a stereotypically strong, rational, manly-man. Merriam-Webster defines a geek as "a person often of intellectual bent who is disliked"[iv] and a nerd as "an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person, especially one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits"[v]. How does Pansino turn this stigma on its head to make geekdom something desirable, fun, and quirky? She uses her feminine appearance to legitimize its negative qualities, and in doing so communicates that being female is essential to her understanding of the complexities of geek culture.

This brings to question - what is geekdom? The variety of topics in Pansino's cookbook is enormous, ranging from Periodic Table Cupcakes to Wifi Cheesecake, Star Constellation Cookies to Petrie Dish Jellies, and Flash Drive Krispie treats to Chess Cake. Pansino's comfort labeling so many things as "nerdy" diminishes the academic aspect of this cookbook: there is no uniqueness between subjects since it's all embarrassing and geeky! A certain shame underlies her discussion of geek culture, such as ridiculing herself in dress-up photos. By dedicating this book to "the geek in all of us!"[vi] Pansino treats loving video games or geology as a secret, embarrassing pastime that everybody secretly harbors but is too guilty to share. Interestingly, this correlates to how diet culture treats the fattening, sugary desserts her cookbooks features as guilt-inducing - the treats are also something special and forbidden that we get to share with Pansino. Although she means to embrace love of coding or science fiction, the ease with which she distributes the negative, "geek" label reduces these concepts' importance. As discussed previously, in feminizing geek culture, Pansino both embraces her womanhood in this historically male realm, while heavily simplifying it for her readers. Perhaps her target audience is self-identified geeks who need easy cooking instructions to remedy their negligent social skills, in an attempt at sending an "I'm one of you" message. Nerdy Nummies brings gender and geek culture together, but unfortunately yields more conflict than cohesion.

To close, it is interesting that Pansino expresses her love for nerdy concepts and advanced academia through baking, a historically feminine activity. In her essay on Campbell's Soup and traditional gender roles, Katherine Parkin notes that 20th century American culture established cooking as "a gender-specific activity...women should cook for others to express their love"[vii]. Preparing food is expression, and American women's subordinate marital role made the kitchen their only outlet for that expression. Now, in 2015, Pansino upholds this expectation: she must communicate her knowledge through a dumbed-down, feminized filter while baking. She does break historical gender norms by simultaneously embracing her femininity and investment in intellectual pursuits, but the relentless portrayal of her physical beauty and self-image produces the opposite effect. Instead of delving into the complexities of academic language in her cookbook, she only borrows pieces of the "nerd" aesthetic to augment her appearance as attractive to those within and beyond "geekdom." Rather than appearing a baking-savvy woman traversing gender expectations via her passion for math and science, Pansino promotes her incapability of adequately expressing her knowledge except via this domestic act. Pansino confines herself within the kitchen's ideologies, limiting her intellectual credibility.

Conclusion

The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook is an interesting glimpse into the intersection between gendered ideologies and geek culture in 2015. Over the past few decades, Americans have made tremendous progress in gender equality and understanding, socially and politically, however, works of literature like this one still bring into question whether historical, sexist expectations still remain (consciously or unconsciously). Underneath the initial assumption that Pansino uses her femininity as power to break stereotypes lies an immovable conformity to outdated gender roles and the necessity to use her femininity to simplify and justify geek culture. The presentation of recipes, her own physicality, and geekdom undermine the feminist notions Pansino aims for, and illuminate where gender issues are still ingrained today.

Part 2: A Close Read of Pansino's Nerdy Nummies YouTube Channel

Pansino's fame began in 2011 when she posted a video online informing YouTubers how to make a Star Mario cake. Instantly, she gathered followers, produced more and more videos, and eventually, in 2015, published the cookbook that has been analyzed above. In addition to cooking videos, she's also become a YouTube sensation who has filmed tours of her home, music videos, and videos with other famous vloggers. Here, I'd like to acknowledge the underlying regressive ideology within her online presence, in addition to her cookbook. While in her cookbook, Pansino consistently demonstrates academic prowess by focusing on treats with a math-science base, her YouTube videos are more focused on geeky franchises, and she relentlessly self-deprecates and diminishes her intellect.

Here are a selection of videos that demonstrate this unfortunate treatment of both her own legitimacy and the content that inspires her culinary creations. Each photo is a screen capture of the referenced video - click the YouTube links to watch each video! Pansino's entire Nerdy Nummies channel can be found here.

To begin, it is interesting to note that while her YouTube channel came first, many of the recipes in her cookbook do not appear online. Almost all of her YouTube videos focus on "nerdy" franchises or commercial products, like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, MarioKart, and even apps and emojis. Her cookbook is full of academic concepts that are enforced with occasional scientific supplements, such as atoms, circuits, and the concept of pi. The only video on her YouTube channel that relates to actual mathematics or science is her instructional video for Mini Raspberry Pi Bars. At 0:32 - 1:05, she explains to the audience briefly what pi means, but the focus of her description falls on her inability to remember the numbers of pi, with which she closes, "Ohhh, see I'm losing it." Why does she ridicule her own intellect? Why is there a lack of academia in her online videos, and such a heavily focus on commercial fandoms? Will that draw a bigger audience? And if so, why does her cookbook focus on more scientific concepts? In my opinion, Pansino's exclusion of academic-themed treats online might relate to the fact that they aren't as "fun" or "interesting" to make, and she doesn't have as much to say or perform about them.

In her BB8 Cake Pops video, Pansino again makes fun of herself and reminds the audience subconsciously that her skills are embarrassing. Upon referencing Star Wars - the "nerdy" franchise that has inspired this treat - she uses a baby-like voice and claims she "hasn't had enough training" when pretending to use the force to mix her batter, from 1:49 - 2:20. Not only does this diminish her professional nature, she seems to be actively trying to minimize her intelligence and create this clumsy, silly persona. She also doesn't sincerely address her passion for this franchise - she can only communicate in a joking way, for fear of seeming too "nerdy." Again, she separates herself by positioning herself as a geek, but not too geeky.

In addition to being careful not to appear "too geeky," Pansino frequently reminds her audience that she is very "girly." Pansino expands the geek culture umbrella to include everything from Wifi to Doctor Who to castles, and one of her most popular videos with over 34 million views is her My Little Pony Rainbow Cupcakes. The first minute and a half of this video features Pansino advertising her flashy My Little Pony apron ("Brony Pony Cutie Pie apron"), dancing around, pretending to ride on a horse, and singing and making small squeaky noises. As a viewer, this performance slightly detracts from her professionalism and is an almost cringe-worthy attempt at being "geeky." She is so made-up and fancy that when she makes fun of herself, plays awkward or "geeks out" over something, it feels fake and childish. Furthermore, most of these performances are accompanied with a reference to how she is "so girly" (see 5:05 of her House Tour video below when she explicitly mentions embarrassment at her femininity). As noted in my cookbook analysis, Pansino seems to use her femininity to legitimize geekdom's negative qualities.

In these videos, Pansino demonstrates her exquisite skills when baking and decorating, but consistently reminds the audience that she is joking when she describes her passion for these "geeky" subjects, or flails about in an overdone performance of femininity. She balances this interesting dichotomy of engaging in the traditionally-female activity of baking but inspired by the traditionally-male realm of advanced academia, however makes a point in each of her videos to joke about in a self-deprecating way that reduces her intellect and diminishes her passion for the topics that inspire her baking creations.

(As an extra feature, here is Pansino's first music video and original song, "Perfect Together" whose lyrics are all food-related!)

Works Cited

"geek." Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2003.

"nerd." Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2003.

Neuhaus, Jessamyn. Manly Meals and Mom's Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.

Pansino, Rosanna. The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook: Sweet Treats for the Geek in All of Us. New York, NY: Atria Books, 2015.

Parkin, Katherine. "Campbell's Soup and the Long Shelf Life of Traditional Gender Roles." In Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race, 51-67. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.

Images

Pansino, Rosanna. The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook: Sweet Treats for the Geek in All of Us. New York, NY: Atria Books, 2015.

Cover photo image can be found here.

notes

[i] Rosanna Pansino, The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook: Sweet Treats for the Geek in All of Us. ( New York, NY: Atria Books, 2015), 44, 48.

[ii] Pansino, The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook, 8.

[iii] Jessamyn Neuhaus, Manly Meals and Mom's Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 219.

[iv] "geek." Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2003.

[v] "nerd." Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2003.

[vi] Pansino, The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook, 8.

[vii] Katherine Parkin, "Campbell's Soup and the Long Shelf Life of Traditional Gender Roles." In Kitchen Culture in America: Popular Representations of Food, Gender, and Race, 51-67. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), 52.

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BY JULIA CHRISTENSEN Introduction What do the Loch Ness Monster, moon phases, flash drives, and hashtags have in common? According to YouTube personality and host of the online baking show Nerdy Nummies, Rosanna Pansino, they all fall under the terms "nerdy" or "geeky."

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These pins are a several of the recipes that were featured on the Nerdy Nummies YouTube series.

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Rosanna Pansino: The YouTube "Nerd" Baker with a Billion View (and a New Cookbook)

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Rosanna Pansino: The YouTube "Nerd" Baker with a Billion View (and a New Cookbook)

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In this interview Rosanna Pansino has with the Huffington Post, she describes her childhood and how it has impacted her series.

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Five years ago, Rosanna Pansino was just a face in the crowd in Hollywood. Now she's one of the most recognizable faces on YouTube, where 6 million people - many of whom are young girls - subscribe to her Nerdy Nummies baking channel.

Her channel has attracted more than a billion, with a B, views.

The traditional over-the-air and cable networks would kill for those kinds of Carl Sagan-like numbers.

For now, Rosanna, 31, is strictly a YouTuber, part of a small community of individuals who produce their own content for what could be termed a stealth medium.

Girls who bake, girls who display makeup, girls who talk about clothes, guys who do trick basketball shots, guys who show other guys how to play computer games...this is the entertainment wave of the future.

My 8-year-old daughter Aliya adores Rosanna's sweet, light-hearted personality and her seriousness about baking.

Together, we have watched dozens of baking and tasting competition videos with Rosan-na and her sister Molly as well as fellow YouTubers.

Rosanna has just published her first cookbook, The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook: Sweet Treats for the Geek in All of Us (Atria Books).

Rosanna took time last week for a phone interview.

Michael: With all due respect, you don't really strike me as a nerd.

Rosanna: I never called myself that, but it's what other people called me. The things I enjoyed growing up were considered nerdy at the time. I loved reading, science, video games, math and took AP Calculus in high school. I was very studious and did not party or have a very big social life outside of a few girl friends in sports. I also had braces, if this helps to paint a picture.

Michael: I see the picture. So how does a girl with that background suddenly leave Seat-tle, her family, and everything she knows to go to Hollywood?

Rosanna: I fell in love with and have always been fascinated by the entertainment indus-try. In high school I participated in drama club and theater. Although no one in my family worked in entertainment it's what I wanted to do more than anything. I decided to pursue it after college, so I moved to Los Angeles and took any oddball jobs I could find. In col-lege I worked 4 jobs at a time to make sure I graduated with no student debt and did the same thing once I got to LA.

I worked as a hand double for the show Ghost Whisperer. Not for Jennifer Love Hewitt but the boy who played her son Aiden in the show. I was a stand in, an extra on Glee for two seasons, and even a Production Assistant. I wasn't the best PA though because I used to mess up all the coffee orders.

Rosanna: While working as a union actress I had health benefits and things were going well. The only problem was I just wasn't being creatively fulfilled. While I was on set I was grateful for the experience but I didn't have any sort of outlet for creating content. So, I started creating videos online. I chose not to wait for opportunities but to create my own.

I was encouraged by my now manager Mike Lamond, who was a YouTuber as well, to start creating my own content. YouTube allowed me to be my own producer, my own editor, and my own creative director. I wasn't sure if YouTube was going to work out for me, but it reminded me of all the video production classes I took in high school. I origi-nally started with vlogging, which helped me get more comfortable in front of a camera. I used to fear being in front of a camera but now I love using them to connect with my viewers.

Michael: Your agent gave you an ultimatum and said that if you didn't drop YouTube he was going to drop you. Did you take him seriously when he said that?

Rosanna: Their office called me for an in person meeting and explained that as a compa-ny they are focusing on more traditional projects. While I wasn't making a dime on YouTube at the time my growing community felt real to me and that was something I wanted to focus on. Because of this we decided to go our separate ways.

Michael: You lived on a couch in L.A. for the next year?

Rosanna: I lived in a three-bedroom apartment with five friends and 3 cats. Working on my videos every day I was eventually able to save up enough to move into a less cramped space so I wasn't always taking up the entire kitchen with my baking creations.

Michael: Rosanna, it was your entrepreneurial nature.

Rosanna: I was talking to some entrepreneurs and they all said that at some point, to be successful, you have to take a risk on yourself. That really resonated with me.

Michael: You really work 70 hours a week?

Rosanna: Absolutely. Some weeks, it's 100 hours. I don't think that's ever going to change for me. One thing my dad instilled in me is a strong work ethic and its something I've always enjoyed. I have so many new projects I'd love to do.

Michael: What do you delegate?

Rosanna: When I first started YouTube I was a one-man production company. I would bake everything, do conceptual design, film, edit, post and promote my videos, the whole deal. Now, five years later, I have eight full-time employees. We're a very small, strong team. Family is something that's very important to me. My sister, mom, dad, and brother-in-law are all a part of the company.

Michael: And it all works out? No stresses and strains?

Rosanna: I know some families would have a hard time working together but my family are all very close. I find it's a huge benefit and asset to have people you know you can trust.

Michael: Where did the idea for the Nerdy Nummies cookbook come from?

Rosanna: Creating a cookbook is something I've always thought would be a lot of fun. Over the years I started to get hundreds and thousands of requests to do one. The requests slowly started to turn into demands, and that's when I knew the time was right. I have al-ways been a very visual learner so I wanted to make a book that not only explained how to make fun themed treats, but also showed you. Each recipe has at least 6 step-by-step photos, with a total of over 420 full color photos in the book. It's something I worked for over a year on and hope people enjoy.

Michael: You're at WME now.

Rosanna: WME is a talent agency that has believed in me for a long time. Many tradi-tional talent agencies are starting to see the potential of digital talent and have really started to support them. It's been amazing seeing them get on board with online enter-tainers.

Michael: So much of today's entertainment is on YouTube, not the networks.

Rosanna: Digital stars or digital celebrities are the newest form of entertainment. I still feel like an underdog in entertainment, because it is so new, but I love it. I'm so excited because YouTubers and digital talent who are creating amazing content are now starting to gain traction. They're starting to receive the same opportunities that more traditional talents have been receiving for years. I've never seen it as traditional entertainment vs new media, I think all forms of entertainment can learn a lot from each other.

Michael: If you were starting today would you have just gotten out of college and just started making videos or would you still have done the Hollywood thing?

Rosanna: I don't think I would have done anything different because working on those sets and absorbing all that information and how they produce content was invaluable for me. I have been able to meet so many different wonderful, creative, and talented people.

Rosanna: When I started out on YouTube I wanted to make family friendly content that I wouldn't be embarrassed to show my dad. I just followed my gut and said, "You know what, I'm just going to be my corny, bubbly self and maybe other people are out there like me." Just be yourself and work hard and the rest falls into place.

Michael: Because we love the competition videos so much, can you give my daughter Aliya a point?

Rosanna: Yes. Point for Aliya!

Rosanna Pansino, self-styled nerd (we respectfully disagree -- we find nothing nerdy about her!)

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Rosanna Pansino: The YouTube "Nerd" Baker With a Billion Views (And A New Cookbook)

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Five years ago, Rosanna Pansino was just a face in the crowd in Hollywood. Now she's one of the most recognizable faces on YouTube, where 6 million people - many of whom are young girls - subscribe to her Nerdy Nummies baking channel. Her channel has attracted more than a billion, with a B, views.

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Nerdy Nummies is a YouTube series created by Rosanna Pansino in 2011. Each episode of the series is a tutorial on how to create a nerd-themed baked good.

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"rosanna pansino" cooking food minecraft gaming "video games" nerd geek "how to" "do it yourself" beauty diy "step by step" funny easy "family friendly" "kids show" "how to cook" "how to make" "how to bake" baker baking

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Welcome to my channel! I'm Rosanna Pansino and I really enjoy creating content on YouTube! FOLLOW ME HERE: Website: http://www.RosannaPansino.com Facebook: h...