It would be ridiculous if we told people, "you're not passionate enough to belong in:"

- Tennis
- Cooking
- Painting
- anything else

Yet, #academia continually tells people, "you're not passionate enough to belong in SCIENCE." 1/

#AcademicTwitter #phdchat @AcademicChatter

Using an arbitrary metric like "passion" gatekeeps incredible potential researchers out of science, and cloaks #academia's systemic inequality.

"You're not passionate" can be an excuse for:

- #MentalHealth stigma
- Racism, sexism, ablelism
- and more

2/

#AcademicMentalHealth

I want to reiterate - "passion" is arbitrary. To be passionate in science, you do NOT have to:

- Look a certain way
- Work long hours with no breaks
- Think about science 24/7
- Give up other interests

3/

#AcademicTwitter #phdchat #phdlife #AcademicMentalHealth @PhD_Balance

Science benefits from diverse minds. We need to EMPOWER everyone to engage with science rather than construct arbitrary molds of what scientists "should look like."

If you're curious about a research question, then you ARE a scientist. Period. 4/4

#AcademicTwitter