Tanya is back from her blogging break! This week’s Blogging Insights is an interesting one, it asks the question:

How important is your Gravatar to your blogging persona?

My gravatar is important to me because not only it’s something to represent my blog but I want my audience to know that they are reading the words of a female writer and the writer is someone who’s overcoming challenges. Also, I feel strangely motivated to read someone’s post if I can get a general sense of what he/she looks like though most of time, I can absolutely someone’s gender from their words.

When I started blogging, I didn’t want to use my name. I wanted to stay anonymous because not only identity theft is very real but because I was afraid someone from my real life, perhaps one of my mom’s friends would read this blog and would blab to my mom about all the things I write about her and her family. I still have this fear but I can’t seem to get anyone to read my blog in my real life, so I guess I’m okay for now.

I did try to come up with a name though but who would’ve thought making up a name would be so hard?

My aunt took the picture of my current gravatar during a hike in 2021. I didn’t want to show my face to the camera, so I chose to turn away and look at the mountain instead. I think she did a good job. I don’t often have my portrait taken because I don’t think I have a face for the camera.

For a time before choosing my current gravatar, I wanted to go with this picture as my gravatar.

This is the profile picture for my Fitbit account after guys kept flirting with me since my previous profile picture was a picture of me. Then a thought popped into my mind, would people take me seriously if I used this picture to represent my blog?

Lately, I’ve been contemplating whether I should update my gravatar. My hair has grown a lot since that picture has taken and even though my physical appearance has stayed mostly the same, the photo somehow feels aged. At the same time, I don’t have any recent photos of myself. Maybe I’ll wait…