(CNN) -- Liz Lee is not your typical MTV reality show star. As friend Jake Fogelnest puts it, "While (the "Jersey Shore" cast) is out fist-pumping, Liz is in her dorm room watching Netflix." Lee's show, "My Life as Liz," chronicled the self-described nerd's senior year of high school in Texas during its first season last year. Its second season, centering around Lee's time in college in New York, premiered February 8 at 11 p.m. ET, with an 89% increase in viewership from the series premiere, according to MTV. "The executives at MTV are really smart. The fact that a show like that is on now is amazing and great," said Fogelnest, who hosted his own show on MTV as a teenager (from his bedroom, no less), "Squirt TV," in the mid-1990s. "My Life as Liz" is "the one thing where someone's not pregnant or drunk; it's what real people are like."
@highlight
MTV's "My Life as Liz," about a self-described nerd, has taken off on Twitter
@highlight
Unique to this MTV show is controversy on Liz Lee's "nerd cred"
@highlight
MTV's popular series "Daria," which started in 1997, is an inspiration for Lee
@highlight
MTV's embrace of nerd culture reflects culture as a whole
The show has quickly amassed a big following on @placeholder -- not just the hundreds of thousands who follow Lee and her co-stars, but in Twitter feeds like "@thelizalliance."