Sam van Zweden

You might’ve noticed that I’ve decided to move away from the ‘Little Girl with a Big Pen’ moniker and toward my own name. Over the last month or so, I’ve changed my Facebook page, my Twitter handle, and now my domain and blog name.

When I started this blog in September of 2009, I felt unsure of myself. The ‘little girl’ description seemed to encompass my need to grow up, and the blog was a documentation of my coming-of-age, in a way. It was also a little reverent – maybe I was small (in stature), and maybe I was a ‘girl’ (a group whose voices aren’t ordinarily highly valued), but I had things to say and an outlet to do so. A soapbox of my own making.

For six years, Little Girl with a Big Pen helped me meet people. It helped me experiment and share what I was excited about. All good things in my writing life can be traced back to the blog. Over those six years, I’ve also built a following full of good, generous people, who’ve supported my writing and ideas. These people (you!) have spoken back to what I was doing, and those connections are priceless. From a branding viewpoint alone, a change in blog name is perhaps not the wisest of moves.

For a while, though, I’ve been feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the blog’s name and the role it played. I’m no longer a little girl (Britney gets it), and I feel in many ways like the size of the pen I’m weilding is a bit more proportionate to my own size. That’s not to say that I know exactly what I’m doing, but I do feel like I’ve found some direction. I know where I’d like to be going, and while I don’t know how to get there, I’m learning to embrace doubt and the learning process.

To that end, the blog still performs the same function – it’s a rose by another name. It’s still a place for me to experiment and share what I’m excited about. And it’s still an important document of growth – I’m keeping everything from Little Girl with a Big Pen here. Perhaps the difference now is just that I’m ready to back myself more. And I can back myself using my own name.

What I’m writing now has changed a lot from what I was writing six years ago. I’m now aiming to build a name outside of my blog, publishing essays and criticism. This involves publishing under my own name, and in places that aren’t my blog. I still hugely value the opportunity to publicly create this collage of what matters to me, and to hone my craft through self-publication online. It’s important to me to keep putting things out into the world in this format, and to have conversations with you about those things. I don’t expect much to change.

Let’s just call it a graduation of sorts.

– SvZ