For a very long time, I've been pretty tired of being Ih-ihs. It was an old "word" I made up when I was a kid, which eventually lost its meaning and become a weird inside joke that would take me over an hour to explain, I think.

With it finally out of the way, I'm happy with this change. Over time I'll probably continue to polish it all, or maybe even change it again later on, but obviously I'm not too focused on that right now.

And here's the biggest thing to come out of this, I have a persona now! Meet Iz. Myself, I guess lol.

While I was attempting to draw a full body image, I realized I still need to get a lot better at that sort of thing to feel more comfortable with presenting it. I may end up making a 3D model or something of the character in the future!

Iz's design was mostly inspired by two characters.

1. Nessie, from the 2011 Disney short film "The Ballad of Nessie". Wolf made me watch this short a while ago and I loved it so much to the point where it started the main idea for the character.

2. Ice Gator, a very obscure character from Walt Disney World's Blizzard Beach water park. I've always loved him and found him sneezing in his little house in the lazy river to be very relatable to this day, to my misfortune.

But what exactly is Iz?

I don't know, and that's the fun part! I LOVE making fictional (and often familiar looking) creatures, so I wanted to make that be a part of the character. They have no idea what they are as much as I have no idea who I am sometimes!

I considered a darker, creepier character, but I realized while I do love spooky things and Halloween, I am not really a scary person. Then again, I have never asked anyone if I am. People have told me I do look like trouble (probably jokingly but idk). I'm honestly pretty awkward and stupid though, so making Iz a big silly dumb thing was 100% what I wanted to do and I love it that way.

The name Iz isn't short for Izabelle or anything, the name came from the "Ihs" in my old username, which people tended to call me, and I liked it! I also went with it because it was similar but in a way that is far more understandable!

So, if you really want to, you can assume I'm huddled away in some dark cave underneath a forest, swearing and trying to understand technology or something.

Just, maybe don't go looking for me down there?

Anyway, again, I'm really happy with making this change. It's a lot more "me", which is such a nice feeling for myself! I don't feel like a mysterious company icon floating around comment sections anymore or whatever lmao.

Oh and I DO want to mention that I'm probably not going to change my @ for a long while. I've seen some seriously dumb things happen to people because of that, but also people who are more familiar with my old username will still know it's me.

Yayyy I'm freeeeeeeeeee.