You don't know what it's like to be someone else for a day.

To live a different life on every different website. It's not that I do it for security- I do it to see what's it's like. I do it for myself, my own curious, stupid good. Yes, that's right: I lie just for the fun of it. It does feel good; to be whomever I want to be whenever I want. I can be pretty, intelligent, popular...or the complete opposite. All just for the fun of it.

Today I am a character called Poppy. Poppy Brant. I roll those words around on my tongue to see how they fit as I type them into the 'About Me' section of this new website, a gleaming social networking site.

I am 14 and blonde, with a slight aversion to sport. Though I don't mind playing tennis, hockey and swimming. I don't like school- but then, who does! Me? I don't joke around, though I have been known to not be very smart... whatever that means! Send me a message! I'm looking for new friends.

Perfect!

Sometimes I'm someone else to keep my identity hidden from a man I used to be 'in love' with. Well, that's how it started and, whilst it was his fault for saying he had a Facebook account, it gave me no right to snoop around! But by the time I was finished with my crush, I had caught the lying bug, as you do.

 I don't eavesdrop...I pick up the little things people say and keep them warm and safe to use later. Maybe, to you, that's just a nicer way of saying 'eavesdrop'- but to me it's a way of finding that crucial information.

And when I want to start afresh? I just click 'join now'.

Oh, look. 'Poppy' has already got a post! What a popular new young thing!

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And this is the tale of how that one post changed my life. My actions then were so bleak, so self-centred. But due to that one character, a boy not unlike me, I felt compelled- no, I was compelled to change myself, inside and out. From on the internet to in my 'real-life' too. And it was in my real-life that the changes always had been so needed...

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Author guidance for This story

I wanted to see what it would be like writing from the point of view of people teachers are always telling us to be aware of: people who are not what they seem on the internet. This girl doesn't yet know her true 'identity', and so she makes up a different character every time she finds a new social network. For her, it is fun, and her life, really.

Annabelle is this girl. On day, she decides she needs a fresh personality and creates Poppy, the lovable, but slightly blonde girl. What Annabelle doesn't realise is how important Poppy will become to her in only a matter of weeks...and all because of a boy.
Meanwhile, as her 'real' life gets worse, Annabelle is caught between two fates, close to losing them both.

Nobody is what they really seem.
But for one girl, it's harder to be herself than to be the characters she gives herself. Who is she really? Stalker, liar...or just a girl needing to be loved?

updated Sep 11 '11 by SumnerzAngel