Belle de Jour

Belle de Jour, the up-until-yesterday anonymous ex-call girl who wrote tons of books about her experiences, has always been an idol of mine.

I read her first book when I was in high school. It sat on my shelf after that for a few years before I moved to college. As I was packing up, I sat and re-read a couple of my favorite parts. I eventually found out that it was originally a blog. I read the entire thing in just a couple of days. Belle seeped into my consciousness. She's part of the reason I first decided to sign up for one of the sites, but that's another post.

The Times wrote a great article about Belle, at least in my opinion. She outed herself, although there were certainly reasons why she did it now (ex-boyfriend, press catching on). I hope that the paps don't ruin her life. I think the best possible outcome would be that now all the mystery is over, everyone gets bored and leaves her alone.

It's very motivating to me to see someone like Belle, who has a PhD and is doing amazing work for kids with cancer. It makes me realize that so long as I don't let myself get pulled in too far, this can all be just a bit of fun, and when I want to move on I can. Certainly Belle is going to face some negative consequences, but I have no plans on becoming famous like her or to write a book. This blog is really more for myself to keep track of my thoughts than anything else.

So, best of luck to Belle/Brooke! I'm glad to finally know who she is after all these years, but I never wished for her to be forcibly exposed. I hope that her decision to come out now is for the best and that she never regrets anything!