Melissa Grant Writes

I’m Gen X. In other words, old.

I was after Polaroids and before cell phone cameras.

I grew up in a time when, if you wanted to see a picture, you planned it, took it, went to the *Fotomat, had it printed and then saw what you looked like.

You weren’t constantly assaulted by your ‘candid’ face.

Now you are, and I’m not a fan.

So, when I took over Living Snoqualmie, I already wasn’t a big “tell everyone every little thing about your life and show them you everywhere you go” person on social media. And running a hyper-local news blog means you are in constant close contact with the people you write about, and some of them don’t like you one bit.

Not. One. Bit.

I made a conscious decision to be VERY low-profile while covering local news. I locked down the one social media platform I use personally and asked all my friends to either not post my picture or, at the very least, not tag me.

The end result is that now, if you Google my name and the town I live in, you’ll find no pictures of me.

I write local news. I am NOT local news, and that’s just how I want it.

Professionally, I have multiple social media platforms and about 43,000 followers. It’s kind of a job in itself.

So, when Tiffiny said, “Do you have any online presence where an agent can look you up if they’re curious about you? LinkedIn, Facebook, IG, etc.? Agents want to know a little bit about what a person is like before they make contact. If your only online presence is the Living Snoqualmie news outlet, that doesn’t show the agent anything about you personally. Just something to keep in mind.”

Oh crap.

Immediate existential crisis.

I have spent the past six years NOT being visible, and now people are going to want to know me personally?

I can’t unlock my social media; I’m kind of a mouthy, feminist, politically left- err, well, I have a word I’ve recently decided to own, but I won’t use it here (too far, Melissa, too far)- person.

To do what Tiffiny told me was the right thing, I got ANOTHER email (what is that, maybe ten now?), started a new Instagram page, and finally started this blog.

So, hi, here I am. Still mouthy, but keeping my strongest opinions to myself and vaguely visible.

Nice to meet you.

*So old even Word doesn’t know what that is.

_{[Photo by Andrea Riondino on Unsplash]}