How I learned to be my authentic self online

[NelsonG]

This post is part of Me, online, Mashable's ongoing series digging into online identities.

---

I have anxiety, and write about this anxietyFrequently. Which sometimes gives me anxiety. It’s all very meta. 

Let me back up.

I’ve been a professional blogger - and author, and show host — for over a decade. It started in 2009, when I became friends with a woman who was more or less the Paris Hilton of the Internet (I promise this reference felt far more culturally relevant way back then). You know, famous for “nothing” but also kind of legitimately famous for pioneering a new way to make a living, albeit an odd and divisive one. The woman asked me to join her blogging “business,” which at the time was a total Wild West venture, companies only having just started to recognize the value of digital integrations. Overnight, I went from being a mostly-private person to someone whose every decision, from the blazer I wore to the fact that I decided to procreate (imagine!), was unpacked in excruciating – and often unflattering – detail. Read more...

More about Mental Health, Identity, Social Good, Web Culture, and Health

View the full article