-22855 Mulholland Hwy. Calabasas, CA 91302-

Calabasas Courier Online

-22855 Mulholland Hwy. Calabasas, CA 91302-

Calabasas Courier Online

-22855 Mulholland Hwy. Calabasas, CA 91302-

Calabasas Courier Online

The Secret Life of Linda Berry

The+Secret+Life+of+Linda+Berry

It was meant as a joke. I was kidding around with my brothers, and I randomly blurted, “Hi, my name is Linda Berry.” Yes, this joke was so terrible that it doesn’t even sound like it was supposed to be a joke, but lack of laughs aside, this is how “Linda Berry” came to fruition. Acknowledging my comedic failure, I posted on Twitter that “I just accidentally called myself “Linda Berry,” which led to me being addressed as such the subsequent day in art history. And the next day in basketball. And the following month by myself and many others in basically every aspect of my life. However, a year AL (after Linda), I still receive one question daily: why embrace the name “Linda Berry,” as my alter ego? I’ve never had a legitimate answer to this because I’ve never taken the time to consider why myself, but I’ve decided that in the spirit of Halloween, (because I am going as Linda Berry) I will uncover the enigmatic roots of my notorious second name.

I had come out as a lesbian to one of my best friends the night that Linda Berry came to be, and the amount of nervousness I had accumulated while anticipating telling her, someone I knew was pro gay, frightened me. If I couldn’t tell her this confidently, how was I supposed to deal with the anxiety that comes with everyone knowing? Perhaps giving myself an alter ego was my subconscious way of creating a vehicle to very subtly publicly associate myself with my sexual orientation. Consider that the initials of Linda Berry are the two most prominent letters in the word “lesbian.” The first letter of Linda is the second letter in Ellie, and the first three letters of Berry correlate with the first three of Berke. Additionally, Linda Berry is very similar to the name Linda Perry, the name of a lesbian songwriter who wrote Christina Aguilera’s song “Beautiful”. Not only is this my favorite song, but it’s also probably the most prominent anthem promoting self-love and acceptance.

Whether or not this was all simply a coincidence, my self-invented conspiracy has truly helped me realize that marching to my own drum is not something I should be ashamed of, but something that I should embrace. We don’t choose our birth names or sexual orientations, but luckily for me, we can choose our alter egos.

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