OMG OMG OMG. I love this so much. I love your exploration of this. I feel so much that Yael is more me than my other name. My other self is the most edited version of myself, and Yael is ALL of it.

I still have deep reservations about revealing my real name simply because of its uniqueness. It would take less than 30 seconds for someone to find my home address if they knew my real name. I’m not a “Jennifer Smith” or “Wendy Davis”… It’s not like you’d have to wade through dozens of listings to find me. I’m the ONLY one. And that scares the crap out of me, especially remembering how a coworker once stalked me using my blog and turned all that personal information about me into a weapon. (Not to mention how he physically intimidated and trapped me on several occasions.)

Anyways…I still struggle with what to do with this, but right now, I’ve landed on just being as me as possible, face and all, and not worry too much about the name.

Your perspective is amazing and beautiful and so damn empowering. I’m so, so excited to see this emerging for you. ❤