ABOUT ME

* hi, i'm ren, and i'm 27 years old! i've been on the internet since 2002. feel free to read more about my internet history here

* i'm a nonbinary lesbian, and i use it/he pronouns. i'm also gray aromantic asexual.

* i'm vietnamese and chinese, but was born in the united states

* i'm autistic, and i'm very eager and enthusiastic when it comes to my hyperfixations. because of my interest in learning and self-education in general, i like to call myself a jack of all trades as i like to explore learning how to do a variety of skills. this kind of interest lends well to building my personal website. i may not be a master at any of them, but i'm having fun doing them and that's all that matters.

* i'm an aspiring novelist, and it's my dream to write a new york times bestseller. i've successfully won the national novel writing month challenge for seven years now, but still have yet to have a presentable draft to send queries for. i mainly like to write fiction that is either about dystopias or internet culture, and my characters often feel like separate aspects taken from myself

why make a neocities?

* i'm very burnt out by social media. i was once caught up in the need to increase engagement numbers and create content to sell myself as much as i can. i was getting sick of seeing influencers and content creators flaunt the same sterilized aesthetic on social media and thinking i'll never be at their level. i stifled my own style of work and made the fatal creative mistake of trying to just conform to what's popular and successful. one day, i decided "fuck it" and just walked away from all that effort. i realized i didn't need to compete with other people, and all i wanted was to share my work unfiltered without worrying about whether i'll make money off of it or how many followers i'll gain.

* when i first discovered neocities, i was reminded of how i used to just enjoy making websites as a kid, how i used to write pages about my pokemon roleplay OC's and the latest video game i was obsessed with. i was reminded of how i used to just share my artwork and writing without caring about whether or not they'd be seen as good to other people, or even whether they'll be seen at all by other people. i want to return to that kind of enjoyment with the internet.

* coding and web design is mainly a hobby for me. i've taken html/css classes and messed around with tumblr themes and neopets pages, and i've built a personal website back in 2019/2020 that i deleted because of how corporate-feeling it was. this website is my most ambitious passion project, and i just want to carve a little space that displays things that i love.