I don't talk about her as much these days, but it was once (and still is, among those who know me in person) widespread knowledge that Luna Lovegood is my favorite character ever. I fell in love with her slowly and then all at once: with her perception and her wisdom, her kindness and her joy in the people she loves; with her matter-of-fact honesty about her own loneliness, but her refusal to become someone else merely to assuage it-- her knowledge that loneliness is preferable to living a lie about who she is. I identify with that on a soul-deep level: that inability to perform, that determination that the person I appear to be is the person I am, on all levels and all platforms. Even here, where I'm shy about sharing my real name or telling details, I'm still determined that the me all of you know is the me that I really am. I've been this way since I was a child, and Luna touched me for that reason.

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