Spock: Teenage Outcast

In 1968, a teen magazine called FaVE, which received many letters addressed to various celebrities, published a letter addressed to Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame. The unnamed young girl said she felt like an outcast, as she was biracial and felt rejected by both whites and blacks. She ended it with "I guess I'll never have any friends." Leonard Nimoy replied in the next issue, speaking of Mr. Spock's experience as a child of a Vulcan father and a human mother. A small excerpt:

"Spock learned he could save himself from letting prejudice get him down. He could do this by really understanding himself  and knowing his own value as a person. He found he was equal to anyone who might try to put him down -equal in his own unique way.

"You can do this, too, if you realize the difference between popularity and true greatness. It has been said that 'popularity' is merely the crumbs of greatness.

"When you think of people who are truly great and have improved the world, you can see that they are people who have realized that they didn't need popularity because they knew they had something special to offer the world, no matter how small that offering seemed. And they offered it and it was accepted with peace and love. It's all in having the patience to find what you yourself have to offer the world that's really uniquely yours.

The reply covers two pages, which you can read in scans of the magazine at My Star Trek Scrapbook. Link  -via Buzzfeed


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What a wonderful thing Nimoy did.

It would be interesting to know the rest of this story... if the letter had any positive effect on this person's life? And I wonder if they had any more communication beyond this?

Paging Mr. Spock....
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