I'm Mel/Mellow (she/they; non-binary)! I prefer to keep where I was born or how old I am anonymous, BUT I will say that I am Gen-Z born and raised in the northern east coast. :]

Little Critter

Ever since I was itty bitty (in fact, ever since I was born), I was introduced to technology straight away. This was before the time golden age video game consoles started coming out; the Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo DSi, Wii, etc. When I began to cognize things, we had an Atari, PS2, a Dell desktop computer, and a Namco Museum plug-n-play. For the majority of the early 2000s, I played the Namco Museum PNP console DAILY... I could not get myself off of that console on some days. Long story short, I was hooked onto video games day 1. This doesn't mean I ONLY gamed day and night; My parents definitely did not want me spending so much time on games!

Turns out, my entire family (including the majority of my bloodline) are extremely good at playing instruments, or anything musical in general. So my parents helped me explore this side of the world!

woah... what's all this?

Since my parents used to have a band, they had a lot of equipment to play around with. My father handed me a guitar and I started to strum absolutely Nothing out of it, but it was that moment where I realized that things could make sound. I discovered a medium of art!!! I attended guitar lessons but... I wasn't getting much out of them, nor did I enjoy the guitar as an instrument. Eventually, I started to dabble with the drums........... I got very into playing the drums almost instantly.

We'll return to the drum story, but something that is VERY essential to why I am who I am today is based on the music that was played in my home. CDs of AC/DC, Electric Light Orchestra, Metallica; MANY many many CDs, cassettes. Most of the CDs/cassettes were of various Polish bands since we're a Polish family. My siblings would listen to bands like Linkin Park, Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold, etc. So a large majority of my childhood consisted of Polish music, rock/experimental bands, and... EDM........ hooooooooo shit.

Of course I had many songs from those CDs that I loved a lot, especially ELOs music from the "Out of the Blue" album. I'm not too sure what the first EDM song I've ever heard was, but the one that REALLY solidified my love for EDM was "Better Off Alone" by Alice Deejay. Then came Darude "Sandstorm", "She's Homeless" by Crystal Waters, "Mr. Saxobeat" by Alexandra Stan; to name a few. Guess what hits my brain? Deadmau5 and Skrillex. Once I discovered Skrillex's dubstep and Deadmau5's progressive house/techno music, it was genuinely over. That had planted a seed straight into my brain. We've reached the point of no return at this point. EDM was constantly being played on TV, and we eventually purchased a few CDs (one of them being "Scary Monsters and nice Sprites"). Around this time,,, or a few years before this time, I was hooked onto the internet.

World Wide Web!

Okay so music exists, instruments exist, video games exist.. What else??? The computer is connected to the world???? WHAT

Got obsessed almost immediately... But of course me nor anyone else in my family knew how to use it other than my sister, but I think I took it upon myself to explore on my own. From my friends, I had already gathered two websites that I knew FOR CERTAIN existed: Youtube and Newgrounds. I would log onto Newgrounds to find animations, and go on Youtube to find..... Animations of different flavors. This might've been around the time my sibling introduced me to games like Wizard 101, Roblox, Habbo Hotel, etc. Roblox was most definitely the most influential game to me, and taught me a lot of internet culture right off the bat. I also had a DSi XL that I played on very frequently, and even dabbled in Flipnote! Flipnote helped me discover "Flipnote Hatena," aaaand Oh! There's a lot of cats,,,,, they're either exploring fighting each other, or doing little dances... Warrior Cats?? Okay! fuck was that another seed in my brain

Somewhere around 2007, I discover colorful magical ponies that REALLY fw the Elements of Harmony and Friendship. Oh there's videos of these ponies on Youtube!!!! What am I feeling right now..... ooooooh okay I think that was another seed planted in my brain... DAMN alright well I think I'm a brony now... Idk how to watch the actual show sooooo I'll just indulge in the art my own way! All of these different avenues of browsing animations of different fandoms genuinely shaped me VERY quickly to become so curious and explorative. Around 2008, I discover a slight deviation from MLP and Warrior Cats, and that would be furries. I would see them from time to time--and have seen anthropomorphic characters from Disney and Flipnote--but I never found what they were called...

"I'm not alone?"

After a few years of discovering, exploring, experimenting, etc., I download an app called iFunny. I now avoid that app like the plague but at the time, it was the first app I used that began my scrolling addiction. Around 2012, I discover furry art. I wish I had this image but from what I remember, it was an illustration of two anthropomorphic characters cuddling on a grassy hillside. There was a brownish color over the illustration, otherwise it was all just values. Then I find more furry art: A portal two piece of two furries. Then another illustration of a wolf with a scarf... If I remember correctly, I think that art was created by Thanshuhai (possibly the most influential artist ever, and I would consider them to be important furry history so please go check their old/new work out!). This was the moment I realized tags were a thing on iFunny, so when I found more furry art, I checked the tags and finally found the term "furry."

Before I absolutely forget to mention this, around 2012 I began playing a Rhythm game, Osu! Of course, once I got hooked onto the game I would watch Youtube videos of it. I discovered players like Cookiezi and WubWoofWolf. Then a friend came up to me and showed me the songs Lapfox Forever, and of course, The Big Black by TQBF. I know that we do not mention these names, just know that I only mention them because yea, they did influence my childhood drastically. For the first time ever, I heard the CRAZIEST FUCKING MUSIC I'VE EVER HEARD... All of my knowledge on EDM has created a whole new neuron in my brain once I discovered Lapfox. This was when I realized that two different mediums/worlds can coalesce; Furries and EDM. I would search up Renard very often on Youtube, which would eventually take me to a video that had the title "Renard 2012 Anthrocon Rave" or something along those lines. There's a convention for furries????

This was when I finally discovered Telephone the angel dragon. Discovering that fursuits exist watered every single seed that was in my brain. They all blossumed. That moment when I saw Telephone slamming money into a donation bucket was the very moment I realized that I absolutely love this. You know the 7 Level of Furry? There is that denial stage where you just "hate" them, when you lowkey rlly rlly like them a lot. I skipped the denial stage. I followed this fandom IMMEDIATELY.

More curiosity

Okay so... Furries, art, music, stories; EVERYONE seems to be extremely talented in this fandom! This is awesome!!!! Let's jump waaaaay ahead to November 2016. Around this time, I was very into furry animation memes. I would watch them everyday, try to find more, learn more and more about the fandom, etc. Oooo,,, Kittydog? They've got great animations! Oh, someone in their comments mentioned a Kittydog community on another app??? I download the app............ Amino...... Good grief that was the most insane app I've ever used. A lot of good memories but a lot of bad as well. Before I joined the community, I went under a rlly shit name "HailorSalsmen." I needed to nuke that name cuz it was genuinely so ass. So I join the community under my newly created name "BlueM3llow" ("BlueM3llow" comes from the microphone brand "Blue Snowball," and marshmellows... I didn't know how to spell marshmallows at the time, but the username was still nice so I kept it. I just added the little "3" cause I like leet speak)!

I finally meet directly with the furry fandom. I met a few friends that I am still friends with today (If y'all see this... hai!!! :] 💜)! We would talk, meet new friends, create a group chat to talk more, send each other art. Damn... My friends are really really talented,,, what if I gave drawing a try? Since I played Osu! at this time, I had a pen tablet, so that's convenient! Here we plant a flag; December 16th, 2016, that I finally begin my journey as a furry artist.

That's not all however. For many years before 2016, I have always had an open mind. I may have judged people/things, but that was because I was misguided. I had eventually broken out of that, and understood that people live their own lives in their own way for their own reasons. I learned that I LOVE hanging out with people, and understanding their side of the story. I discover the terms Homosexual and Transgender. What is this? Oh my fucking god no way is this possible

OKAY SO YOU CAN JUST,,, TRANS YOUR GENDER ????? PEAK ASF

Being with friends that understand these aspects more than me, I naturally came to them to ask questions; to understand what all of it means. Did my own research,,,,,,,,,,, so you can do all of this huh.... That's so beautiful. You can be whatever you want. It was so thought-provoking to me, how you can go by specific pronouns but look like something else, or prefer no sexual interaction but invite romantic interaction. My life started to make way more sense. Of course, the imposter syndrome in my brain speaks loudly, but to dip into areas that were most comfortable, I realized that you can literally do whatever you want. It's as if your own body is a lucid dream. You can explore yourself however you want to if you put the thought into it. For a while I've experimented with different pronouns and what I liked out of curiosity. It gets confusing, but it gets you to where you want to be eventually. It's beautiful!

Current day

That is basically the majority of my life condensed! It was a whole lot of experimentation, a whooole lot of finding things out, a whoooooole lot of pattern recognition. Many people/things that have crossed my path had eventually left the other way, but that's just how it goes! I would genuinely not have it any other way the way I discovered things. I genuinely don't know what I would've been doing if I wasn't a furry today. Of course, I have a life outside of being a furry, but furries influenced many choices of mine creatively: Furries are the reason why I'm an artist, why I have the friends I have today, why I present myself the way I do, and why I act the way I act.

Art in itself has changed me drastically. I'm glad my parents pushed me to explore music, to join my elementary school's band, to play around with art. They are the reason why I can explore all of these avenues of creativity, and I cannot thank them enough. They influenced my music side, but welcomed anything else that came from it! I'm glad that I've become the person I am today. Mistakes may linger but knowing that mistakes were made turns them into learning experiences.

It only goes up from here. Thanks for reading :]

~ Mel/Mellow 💜