#blog12daysxmas 5 Becoming shewgirl

I’ve often wondered how some people decide on the handle that they use for their online presence. I’d forgotten how mine came to be but reflecting on my first online foray brought it all back. Shewgirl, which always gets autocorrected to “Showgirl”.

In 2007 the State Library of Victoria offered a Web 2 program for all public library staff in Victoria. It was run by Yarra Plenty Regional Library on behalf of the State Library and hundreds of public library staff took part. The purpose of this was to have staff learn through play and familiarise themselves with the various Web 2 tools that were available at the time, such as photo sharing sites, blogs and wikis. YPRL staff assessed every participant’s progress and anonymity was encouraged to reduce apprehension.

I wanted to keep mine anonymous however still representative of myself in some way but came up blank with ideas. I couldn’t think of anything clever with my first name, surname or initials. I thought of things I liked (Bookgirl – taken; Pengirl – blah; Stationeryaddict – hmmm too long) then came up with Shoegirl. I was quite excited by this one but…it was taken. I was really put out that someone got to Shoegirl before me! Somehow I thought to adapt the spelling and so Shewgirl was born!

What’s the story behind your handle?