Profile

I am a 28-year old technical writer living in Brooklyn. I grew up being very active Tumblr and was primarily involved in harry potter, avatar, and anime fandom spaces. I wrote fanfiction on fanfiction.net and AO3. Though I found a lot of enjoyment in this "secret" hobby of mine, it also became a source of deep shame and insecurity. I felt that it set me apart from my less online, more "normal" real-life peers. My grades also suffered from my addiction to it. Ultimately, I decided to delete it the moment I turned 21, concluding that it was too juvenile now that I was a full adult.

Meanwhile, in the tangible world, I received an undergraduate degree in creative writing. I wanted to write "real" adult fiction, not "silly" fanfiction; I saw it as a way for me to grow up and prove myself to the world. However, after graduating and losing the close-knit community of a college campus, I struggled to maintain my spark and fell out of my writing habit. I became consumed with work, dating, and generally just being in my early twenties and exploring other things. I became a lot more extraverted, though it often felt like a mask I was wearing in order to feel more socially accepted. My internet usage transformed to primarily phone usage as I gravitated towards Twitter and Instagram. I struggled to adjust to the culture of both apps, finding myself becoming more cynical, superficial, and obsessed with presenting a certain "image" to the world. I felt they exacerbated my insecurities. Though a lot of people use them in a creative sense, I personally don't find either of them adequate for my expressive needs.

After moving to New York in a bid to rediscover a creative community, I found that many writers around me were using Substack as a long-form content platform. I considered creating one myself, but found it to be too culturally similar to Instagram in the way it prioritized monetization and publicity. I realized then that part of what felt so freeing about Tumblr was the anonymity of it, and the personalization of it. I also realized that writing on a desktop rather than a phone is more conducive to long-form content, which is why I struggled so much with the aforementioned mobile apps.

That's when I discovered Dreamwidth from a close friend who was still active on Tumblr and involved deeply in fandom spaces. Reading through its guiding principles, I feel very aligned with its values regarding privacy, freedom, respect, and lack of advertising or monetization.

I'm excited to get started with blogging again on a platform that feels safe. My journey was long and hard and consumed the entirety of my twenties. I want to write about film, books, food, writing, and anything else that strikes my fancy. Please feel free to reach out if you'd like to be in community with me here :)