Tiara Talk: Are You Out?

This post probably isn't about what you think but I think the question still fits.

When I first started blogging I didn't tell very many people from my "real life" about it. Maybe three. MAYBE.

It was my "private" endeavor. I wanted to see if I could do it. I wanted to see how I would be received. I didn't want to tell the world, at least my little world, about it then be a huge flop.

I didn't want everyone to see me fail.

And there was something else...something I still can't quite put my finger on. Not quite embarrassment or shame. My shyness getting in the way again? Maybe. Basically, at least as basic as I can make it, I didn't want to come out as a nerd/geek. At least any more than I already was known.

A hundred or so followers later I got brave. I wasn't failing at this. People were in fact listening to me. I got comments. I made friends in the blogging community. I was getting a little less shy every day. I was reaching out. So I went public.

Kind of.

I linked Typing Tiara up to my own personal Facebook page, listing it as my "job". [At this point in time Typing Tiara had its own page as well.] I advertised a bit on my page, I did posts about it, I mentioned blogging. A few people were interested. I was proud.

I also got a really bad dose of negativity from someone ( a supposed family friend), I won't name names, that basically told me this was a waste of my time. As she said, there was a time to read and a time to get off my butt and contribute because living was not free. That why people were out there struggling to put food on the table, to get jobs, to do this and to do that I was being selfish. I was being a child. I needed to get a real job [I had been trying, the job market's tough!] and stop wasting my time with books. I was reading too much. 

I think you guys get the picture. Needless to say I clammed right back up, after promptly removing that person from my list of friends. 

My Aunt [my mother's sister] and one of my biggest supporters in my reading and writing since I was a kid got me a pretty awesome present for Christmas last year. A lovely tote bag with Typing Tiara's logo on it. Right now its hanging on my wall. I haven't taken it out yet. I smile at it every time I see it but I haven't taken it to school though I really wanted to. 

I guess I'm afraid of people passing judgement. Of there being more people like the one on Facebook. And I know there will be, I'm not that naive. I also know I'll have support. One of my professors knows about Typing Tiara, even mentioned it in my Creative Writing Workshop last semester. But since that one event, with that one vindictive person, I've been hesitant to be out and open about Typing Tiara with my little world. I don't share nearly as much on my own Facebook page and I pretty much never mention Typing Tiara in conversation.

What about you guys? Are you out? Does your "real" world know about your blog? Do you raise your blogger flag high or keep it as a strictly online pursuit? If you are out about being a blogger and proud, how do you do it? How do you handle the nay-sayers?