I've always thought that almost every photo we take is, in its own way, a self portrait. It reveals something about who we are - an interest, a friend, our family, something we find beautiful or intriguing or interesting, something that makes us who we uniquely are. Sometimes those photos are more revealing than anything that might be traditionally called a self portrait, no matter how much of our face or body - or both - it shows.
So .. who am I?

I am ... Nancy Drew. I remember the first time my aunt (my favorite aunt) let me sit in her room, on her bed, and handed me the first book of the Nancy Drew series, The Secret of the Old Clock. I was nine. She brought it down from on top of a built-in cupboard/bookcase. The book was old even then, the dust jacket fragile, the pages browning at the edges and carrying that old book scent. "You can read it in here. When you're done with that one, I'll get you the next. Don't climb up there and try to get them yourself." Right. I climbed up onto the shelves as soon as she left the room, touching each volume and looking at the artwork.
Nancy Drew - smart, curious, unstoppable, courageous. She drove a "blue roadster". I had no clue what a roadster was, but damn, I wanted one - and it had to be blue. She helped people and solved crimes that fell into her lap. I began to watch my neighbors, waiting for one of them to do something suspicious. Mrs. Winkle, next door, told my grandmother to make me stop hiding in her bushes with my notebook. It made her nervous, she said. That, of course, made me think Mrs. Winkle had something to hide.
Some girls wanted to be Barbie. Nancy was way more interesting, I thought. I collect the books now; their condition less important than the memories they bring back. And my first car - it was blue and it did take me on some fine adventures.
I am .. at least a little bit .. Nancy Drew.