When it came to the birth of Danica Greene, it was anything but a fairytale. Her mother was in labor for over 14 hours and all she wanted to do was push the goddamn baby out so she could eat some real food. It didn’t help that she was in Canada, the home of her husband, and her home for a little less than a year. Her mother was from New York originally, a socialite who had everything going for her when she fell in love with a nerdy Canadian. They had met, fell in love, and when Daniel needed to move back to Canada shortly after they married in New York. When they did, Felicia found out she was pregnant with their first daughter and experiencing painstaking labor. When she finally arrived in the world, she was cooing and behaving like any baby would and her father, being the nerd that he was, wanted to combine his and his wife’s name to name their daughter. They would call her Dani as she grew.

At ten months old, Dani had found a way to escape her crib. She would break out in the middle of the night and terrorize her parents until they read her a book to put her back to sleep, only to wake up a couple hours later with the same request. Her first word, in fact, was book. It was something that her father was extremely proud of and she was a book worm from a young age. She was also full of so much energy, putting on performances as a toddler to anyone that would watch her. Felicia would take her back to New York frequently to visit family. Dani loved seeing family and being able to put on her little shows for everyone. Being the center of attention just seemed natural to her and it was the best thing in the world for her.

The center of attention thing? It wouldn’t last. When Dani was entering first grade, her mother announced that she was pregnant again and it shattered her world. This was a girl who had been the light of her parent’s life for so many years and she didn’t want a little brother or a little sister ruining that for her. When it was announced that she was going to have a little sister, Dani threw many fits and pouted that she didn’t want the child and that her parents should take it back. After sitting down with her family one day, he explained that having a little sister wouldn’t be bad and she would still be his little girl. It calmed her down a little bit and when her sister arrived, she was happy that she had her own living little doll to play with and provide attention to. This also included telling her parents everything the baby needed the second she would scream and cry.

The Greene family as now complete, with two daughters, Daniel having a good job, and Felicia taking care of the home. Felicia missed New York and her family, though, and when Dani was fourteen, they decided to move back to New York, where Daniel could get a job as a computer engineer in the city easily, and they uprooted the girls to a new school and they would need a new set of friends. It was hard being a teenage girl who needed a whole new set of friends and Dani didn’t adjust well to it at first. She had her life and she wasn’t willing to give it up easily. Even though Dani was more than a good student, her grades suffered, and her dad needed to pull her aside again for a little peptalk. It helped her a little but she was still feeling a little down about the move. It didn’t take long for her to make some new friends and to get involved in some new activities.

When it came time for college, Dani wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. There were a lot of options on the table and she just wanted to take a year off and figure it out, maybe see the world. Her father, however, wanted her to go to college and suggested that she try her hand at computer science and, if she hated it, she could change majors. She never wanted to let her father down and she decided that she would just go for it. She settled on Boston College, since it would be a change of pace, and she was excited to explore a new city while being in school.

College was amazing and, even though it wasn’t necessarily what Dani wanted to do, she was using it as an opportunity to learn about herself in the process. To make extra money, she decided to become a nanny part-time for a young family who needed help taking care of their daughter. Dani became very close to them and their child and, after graduation she helped to take care of their daughter until she reached first grade. It was a bittersweet moment because she needed to find a new job. The thought of leaving Boston was never up for debate. She had fallen in love with the city and she decided to float around and do some temp office work until she could find something to settle down on. Her parents were thrilled she even made it through college and sent her an allowance twice a month to help supplement her bills.

Dani finally settled on a job as a personal assistant, even though she isn’t sure that she’ll do it forever. She’s started her own podcast at this point, talking about nerdy things such as comic books, movies, video games and how women are depicted in all of them. She would describe herself as a feminist and she’s all about empowerment and lifting people up. She also volunteers at a local animal shelter when she finds the time, usually on the weekends to walk the dogs and cuddle with some kitties. Her life is pretty awesome now and she’ll figure out the rest at some point.