Marina Orlova "Intelligence is Sexy"
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Marina Orlova (born 10 December 1980) is a Russian philologist, etymologist, and author who has become an Internet celebrity, hosting one of the most popular channels on YouTube, HotForWords, and a corresponding website.
She also hosts a bi-weekly radio show on Maxim Radio on Sirius Satellite Radio.
Early life:
Orlova was born in Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod) Russian SFSR, Soviet Union in 1980.
In an interview she claimed to work at a shop for a year before applying to an international recruitment program, she was then sent to a small town near San Francisco and worked as a nanny for a working family with two children.
Career:
She attempted become a model, she went to two photoshoots but didn't succeed because she was told 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) was too short for a model.
Hot for words website:
The theme of Orlova's website and YouTube videos, which begin with the tagline "Intelligence is Sexy", is tracing the origins of English words.
Some of her entries focus on common everyday words such as irony and OK, while others address lengthy and rarely used tongue-twisters such as floccinaucinihilipilification, and antidisestablishmentarianism.
Some entries also address idioms, including "let the cat out of the bag", "dressed to the nines" and "three sheets to the wind" or new words like the verb "to google".
As a Moscow Times editorial observes, Orlova's success is not solely attributed to her pedagogical value.
Marina exploits her blonde-bombshell looks to the maximum.
She appears in her two-minute clips scantily clad, pouting and making doe eyes.
This is surely the main factor in her success.
However, while the number of scantily clad girls on the Internet is limitless, not all of them put so much intellectual effort into their success.
The channel became active in 2007, and Orlova has since been voted "World's #1 Sexiest Geek" in Wired Magazine's "Sexy Geek of the Year Contest" contest.
G4 TV has similarly listed Orlova among its "Hot Women of the Net" on several occasions.
Cosmopolitan Magazine has identified her as the "most subscribed to YouTube guru".
Orlova appeared on the cover of the November 2009 issue of Mutineer Magazine, applying her trademark word explanations to common beverage words.
Orlova has appeared on a number of Fox shows including on The O'Reilly Factor, and was profiled on "The Medium", an Internet feature of The New York Times Magazine.
In June of 2008, Orlova and radio personality Danny Bonaduce signed endorsement deals with "coComment".
She has two degrees in philology and taught English and world literature to high school students in Moscow before moving to the United States to pursue further education.
Personal life:
Orlova rents an apartment in Beverly Hills, USA.
She has said that her work takes up all of her time, and that she sometimes sits at the computer 12 - 14 hours at a time, and has little time left for socializing.
She is currently unmarried.