When I was younger, I didn't like my name. I thought it was so boring. It only takes 2 letters to form my name. It wasn't cool to me at all. It's not very exotic. I didn't know of anyone famous who had my name. Not fun for me at all.

But now I like it. It's classic. It's international. When combined with my middle & last name, it's beautiful. Took me a little less than 20 years to figure this out. But now I have and it makes me happy.

I'm still very amused when I remember people telling me how to pronounce it. Growing up, all my friends automatically pronounced it like it was spelled Ana (Aw-nuh). I tolerated it for a long time. It followed me to high school. I used to say "I don't care" when people asked me what I preferred. But then it really pissed me off that people weren't saying it right. I remember my friends getting in an argument one day and Natalie being the only one who was like "NO! It's ANNA!" I told them she was right and for some reason I remember them saying no you're wrong. I'm just glad that no one in New York calls me Ana. And I'm still bitter towards whoever started the Ana thing.