I’m not really worried about privacy. My real name is on the sidebar. I’m open about the fact that I work at Disney and at Chapman. If someone wanted to find me they probably could – and that doesn’t worry me much. I don’t think a bona fide stalker wouldn’t be deterred by that stuff anyway. I know from being the socially acceptable kind of stalker, the internet stalker, that more information is likely to sate than rile. I’ve never been that private of a person unless we’re talking about my deep, dark secrets; or my internal monologue. Those are not available from following me around, and they can’t be stolen. So why an alias? Well, many reasons.
First of all, my mother used to call my sister and I Caseykins and Codykins when we were growing up. Her mother had called her Kathykins. So in the way mothers morph into their own mothers, it’s a name I’ve been given as a birthright. I started to use it when I felt like I needed an alias on the internet. I no longer feel the need for anonymity, but there are other reasons to keep it.
I go by Casey E. Hamilton now that I’m married, on my official paperwork (although I answer to Case, Monkey Face, CJ, Hepsula, Cassie and Hey You). My maiden name is Casey Jean Elderkin. You see where I’m going with this? ElderKIN? I didn’t stop being me when I got married. I’m the new and improved version of the younger me, and she’s still in there. I feel like being Caseykins Hamilton is the best of both worlds; a little of married me, a little of maiden me. So if this is the internet and we all get to be who we want to be, she is it.
There is also the nostalgia of the fact that I have been Caseykins on the internet since the ‘90s. It doesn’t hold much weight, but my love of others’ history also makes me venerate my own. You can accuse me of being self idulgent if you want. I’ll agree with you, even while I can’t help it.
And that’s why Caseykins.
Casey E. Hamilton 