Hi, I'm Kay, and this is me. The real, uncensored version of who I am, and who I want to be.

Before I start, I want to say that I know there's going to be some people that are unhappy with my decision of this. Maybe not. But if you are, it doesn't matter to me honestly. This is my choice, not yours. Thanks for listening.

Let me tell the story from the beginning. It all started in December of 2017 when I joined wattpad, going as Serpenti_ for my namesake. That was my username, too: @serpenti_. That was short lived, though - I quickly changed it to @strangerthings017 and still called myself Serpenti_ for a while. Then, when I wrote the series on a character named Seventeen, I used that as my namesake. I related to that character in some ways, though literally the biggest bucket of cringe on my profile right now, and I wanted to have something unique as my outlet. I called myself Seventeen, and I was content with that.

A while later, I changed my username again. @atypicalbandgeek is what that was, and is what all of you know my as now. Shortly after that, my good friend Tigris came up with the nickname Teenie, and it stuck with me. I changed my display name to that, and it has been that ever since.

That was my voice. I was hiding behind a screen name, something entirely made up, something that I thought represented me and who I was. Who I wanted to be. Who I tried to be.

But maybe that isn't me. Over the past few weeks, I've been weighing a huge decision, and I've finally decided to make something happen.

So this is what's happening.

Let me start over. Let me tell you who I am and what my voice is, right now and here on out for what it's forever going to be.

Hello. I am Kay, and this is me.

This is my voice, my actual voice. Not some made up name that I can hide behind. Not a fictional character that I try to form myself into. Me. And only me.

This is who I am, and who I want to be.

Now, this might not affect you very much. It's affecting me, though, because it's a big leap for me to take on this profile. This is who I am, you know? The whole me, not a nickname that you find on my profile to associate me with.

I'm going to do some explaining now. The whole reason that I did this was to put myself out there. I want people to know that it's me when they find my profile, not something I'm hiding behind. I want them to know that a person, not just an entity, and I have a story.

"Kay" isn't my whole name. It's a nickname that I am often called, something that I like very much. I think it reflects who I am well, so that's what I am going with. I will say, though, that the first two letters of "Kay" are in my name. No guesses, please - I'll answer no to any of you who guess what my actual name could be.

I know what I'm doing here, trust me. I remember back in elementary, when the tech teachers were teaching us about internet safety. They told us not to share our real name with strangers. But who can stalk you with a nickname? There's at least 7 people that share my name in my school, though spelled differently, so there has to be at least 1000 in the world. And this isn't something that's going to lead to me throwing everything I am at everyone - I'm only doing this small thing. This small thing, yet this big thing.

I am not going to share much else about me personally, or rather, anything along the lines of where I live, who my real friends are, a face reveal, or what my full name is. I think this is enough for now, or maybe forever. Unless I publish. Then it's okay.

Haha.

So, to wrap this up, this is me. This is my voice, this is who I want to be. (That rhymed haha!) If you have a problem, I'm sorry. This is what I'm doing and what I believe will carry me forward in the rest of my days.

Thank you all for listening through this very long chapter of my random book, and just know that even if it may be insignificant for you, it's big for me. Thanks.

- kay!

p.s., yay! We made it to 100 parts in this random book!!! Celebration!!!! Woohoo!!

Off to 200 we go...