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"There's something great about the first screen name you ever had. For many of us who started using the Internet in the 1990s, logging on wasn't something we imagined would be tied to our professional lives. Things were simpler then; our user IDs for emailing and instant messaging often reflected something more innocent about ourselves. A favorite band or book. An activity we practiced or a sports team we cheered for. Our birthdays or other significant dates often featured prominently in these early digital nicknames.\nBefore the days of Linkedin and professional branding online, we were allowed to express ourselves differently with our online identities. Because we love weird cultural ephemera from the early days of the web, we took an informal survey in the office of people's early screen names. The results did not disappoint, so we've taken the liberty of illustrating some of the more eclectic ones. But we're not stopping there. We want to hear yours. Here are some of our favorites so far:\nSuccessfulFarming\n\nEditorial Intern Eric Larson started using \"SuccessfulFarming\" in 6th grade. \"I was struggling to come up with a name when I created the account, and I had recently bought this old trucker hat at a thrift store that said 'Successful Farming,' so I chose that name,\" he says. \"I'm still not sure why I chose that screen name or why I bought the hat. I don't know anything about farming, let alone how to do it successfully.\" \nBlackRaven756\"I had just discovered Edgar Allan Poe. Not joking,\" says Features Writer Matt Petronzio. Matt is now getting an MFA in poetry. \nNakedSushiNightWatercooler Editor Annie Colbert writes: \"One of my first email addresses was 'NakedSushiNight'. It was inspired by an online purity test (remember those?!) that asked the question 'Have you ever eaten sushi off a naked body?'\"\nicewhirl\"I wanted 'iceprincess' but it was taken,\" writes Associate Business Editor Lauren Indvik. \"I had a mousepad with a figure skater on it that read 'twirly, whirly girl' and borrowed it from that.\"\nNow that you've seen some of ours, we want to hear yours. Send us your early screen name, email address, or online identifier and we'll take some of our favorites and have them illustrated. Feel free to give us a bit of context - we love a good story.\nTell us your screen name that you want to have illustrated by either leaving a comment below or tweeting @MashableHQ with the hashtag #MyFirstScreenName. \nWe look forward to hearing your submissions!\nIllustrations by Kierstein Essenpreis."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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