I'm starting a new section of the blog called "Dear Billie" (how creative am I?), which is where you can ask me a question and I might answer it publicly. I'm starting it off by asking myself a question and answering it, so that you get what it's all about if you haven't encountered this sort of column/post before. The beauty of it is that the readers don't have to know your true identity unless I sell it or anything.

Dear Billie,

I don't really know what to say so I'm just gonna say a lot.
I've always been ahead of the trends. Other people are copying me and that's the thing, they aren't giving me credit.
Like, I don't want to be rude or anything, but I was in to the Beatles before every other Tom, Dick or Harry. And they never tell their friends that they first heard about them from me. Also, I liked the Beatles before they got on to iTunes.
I have always been into vintage stuff and the sixties and I have always known who Adolf Hitler was and about Ralph Lauren.
Maybe people don't always know that I know things, like, is it because I have not been walking around in one of those t-shirts with the big polo symbol?

People don't appreciate what I appreciate. Seriously guys, you have a lot to thank Ralph Lauren for.
Sometimes I have a great idea and don't do it or I have a great idea and do it and get "dissed" by the public. And then five years later (seriously), everyone's doing it, even the popular people. 
Is it just me or...oh my god! I'm getting all chocking up over this. Oh my god! I just remembered how when I was little, kids copied the way I tied by shoelaces with bunny ears. And then they all denied it being first done by me.
Please tell me what's wrong. In the past twelve months alone, people have copied these things about me:

1. Wearing Doc Martens with a floral dress;
2. Taking photos with soft lighting. I was using Vaseline or thing cloth on the lens, but people are using this online programme...?;
3. Dip-dying. When I first did it, everyone thought it was called tie-dying;
4. Liking their mother's old clothes. Dude, and they all hated their mothers before!;
5. Reblogging on Tumblr. Seriously! I was the first to reblog!!!!!!!

And now people are calling things "Indie". But I feel they don't actually "get" Indie stuff. It's as though suddenly everything I liked has now got a label because it just so happens that my taste is "Indie". Only it wasn't called that back then, it was just me.

xoxo Your Only Fan, Australian teen, 2011

Dear You're only a fan so after I reply, don't reply.

Sometimes the world just isn't ready for things. Perhaps similar to your case, Mahayana Buddhists believe that during the Buddha's life, people were not ready for the deeper truths of the Mahayana Doctrine. Just remember, if you're ready but they aren't, it's okay. This is called wisdom. I think it's hard to be the right guy at the right time. But hey, look, it'll all come together. Jesus lead a difficult life but this was part of a bigger plan which we can now see. And we, the ones who nailed him to the cross, can now love and appreciate him.
I think there are several paths you can choose from for success.

1. Be assertive about your style. This will be positive if people already like you because you will become known and admired for your style and you will become famous. I don't think Plan One will really work if people don't already like you because they will not want to look like you and you will never be given credit. (I'm guessing people already like you if they follow your style);
2. You stop being Indie. I don't think people in Australia are into steampunk nor "popular music/culture", so that's always an option;
3. Do as my Year Eight Latin teacher told those who finished their work quickly and accurately, which is to sit back and feel/look smug.

Whatever. You go girl! Whatever you do, show the world your taste and creativity - don't confine it to your Moleskine Notebook! I think people on the Internet will get you, like they got Tavi Gevinson. Maybe you should get a blog like me.

Sincerely,

Billie

P.S. When I first described Indie style to mum, she was like what the hell, Doc Martens with a floral dress is a "classic look". ("What the hell" is the look I got off her face, not what she really thought/said).

P.S.S I think you should watch this episode of Lizzie McGuire where Gordo's retro style is ripped off by everyone at school 

I Heart My Hair

Chapter #6 of Stuff Indie People Like by Joanna the Friend. It has a bit of a personal backstory - our cool Year Nine Religion and Philosophy teacher telling us about how she notices girls in particular getting a new haircut when they go through a big change in their life. That was related to the lesson because we were watching a seventies movie about this guy who gets into a cult and consequently gets a new hairstyle.

The last time I changed my hairstyle was at the end of my time in Singapore for my return to Australia. I didn't manage to get a new haircut for starting at my new school. However, in the couple of weeks before school, my hair had grown out quite a lot and was looking like The Rachel. [What does that mean? That I wasn't into new beginnings/newness anymore; that instead I was going through a time of growth?]

Which reminds me about how I love watching the changing hairstyles on the TV show Friends. Starting at the beginning: Joey moves in and Chandlers gets rid of his beard (okay, that one doesn't really count because we don't know about that until a flashback occurring later). Rachel leaves Barry and her old life at the altar and goes to New York where she then undergoes radical change - so does her hairstyle after the first couple of episodes!!

Enter Title Here and that Legendary Book

I've had a really intense day spent baking things. My mum just asked me what the subject matter of this post is, as she walked past. Then she spoke on my behalf by saying that I am just going to crap on. And then she told me in an expressive voice (for the one millionth time) that I am so wordy.

Anyway, nearly a year ago in the swimming change room on the last week of school, my friend Joanna, whose name I now pronounce with the type of j that sounds like y, gave me a rad book. She had filled in fifteen entries "in the style" of Stuff White People Like, and the book was called Stuff Indie People Like.


They were written in a MOLSKINE notebook.

The funny thing is, at the time when I tried to make this blog, I couldn't register the name on blogspot. Why? She had. (But then she deleted the blog and after some time, I took it.) Anyway, I told Joanna I would write some nice things about her. So I shall tell you that she had a semi-brief stint as a blogger herself. makeandbelieve-elke.blogspot.com was successful, though because it's been sleeping for a while, I'll call it semi-successful. There's an example of someone who actually practices a picture and a line saying a thousand words!

Here is an extract from the book, which, being something both handwritten and scanned, is just what we (me and my blog) need. [the artist of the book and Billie retain copyright]