About Me: Hello!

The first day of the year, and I’ve got a little news for you. I’ve been putting off updating my ‘About Me’ section of the blog because since moving to Shanghai, I’ve felt so many changes, and I was waiting to see where those changes shifted in real life and online. And you know what? I’ve outgrown myself as Veronica Darling here… and (yay!) for the first time online, from now on I’m going to update my blog as Amelia… my real name in real life!. Because there’s no real difference these days between online and real life, but there was when I started writing online in 2001.

And so HEY, my name is Amelia and it's lovely to meet you again here! I know it might be a bit of a surprise to some of you and might take a little while to get used to seeing the change, but for as I’ve grown so much in the 8 years of writing in this space, I’m sure you have to. A lot of you are real life friends, and a lot of you I’ve met through this blog! So it’ll make real life catch ups & emails a little less confusing from now on!

So why have I had a super hero sewing blogger name all this time? (hee hee)

When I first started writing online (in 2001 - ahem!), it was while I went to university and I wrote all the time with different pen names, mostly for academic writing & research. We loved our weblogs and one that I contributed to was recognised as a successful collaborative project in academic circles. An award winning digital writing project. Haha! But my electronic writing and academia work created a little fear of putting my real self out there. My Writing Voice was (and still is!) a bit weird and self aware, so starting blogs with different names did help me write more freely.

So why Veronica Darling? When I started writing this blog in 2007, as a crafty adventures diary, I'd been working for the ABC for a while as a radio producer. And if you’re not Australian… the ABC is a government funded media organisation and is best known for being a valuable & trusted news body… and mostly because it’s completely unbiased in it’s approach to content. In my first job in radio, any perceived conflict of interests had to be noted in my yearly assessment…it was all a bit serious! I had to declare my community theatre involvement and that was sometimes discussed as a conflict. So in my first job with the ABC I didn’t want to have any external conflict of interests as I worked on building my career, myself, my radio world and at the same time writing about sewing & being crafty here, it felt better to write as Veronica Darling instead of my own name. Nowadays, things are a bit different online, but I also don’t work for the government anymore! I’m not even in Australia! So I can’t see any conflict of interest anymore! HA!

2016, the year of Amelia @ Veronica Darling? Where to from here?

Of course, I’ve been thinking about how I’ll be ‘called’ online here… mostly because more and more I’m meeting people in real life and on the email and social media chit chat, and it’s become a little confusing getting called Veronica here in Shanghai when it is a pseudonym and not my real name. "Amelia @ Veronica Darling"… maybe "Amelia / Veronica Darling"? Whatever, it’s a personal change… but I won’t change all my usernames or anything too drastic, this will still be Veronica Darling’s blog space.

Little big news I guess, but not really! My life here in Shanghai has become really interesting and lots more new people are reading my blog, and as I’m meeting so many people now through the blog too, I thought it’s probably the right time to update myself and to reflect myself a little clearly… and so, HELLO! I feel shiny & new!

Wishing you a happy new year festival and all the best for your 2016!

xoxo