(or the story of a profile photo.)

The story of how I got my profile picture starts back in 2009. My friend Morty was working on a Facebook application for Bally’s Total Fitness, which required a couple models. I’ve had experience modeling for friends before, so she naturally thought of me when she needed to cast the male characters. There were about 5 or 6 different characters in all — each one was a stereotypical personality of the various types of people you may (or may not) see at the gym. After answering a couple questions in the Facebook app, you’d be presented with one of these characters that most accurately fits your gym habits.

So for a couple hours, Morty and Marta (the photographer) proceeded to dress me up as each various character. Out of all the photos taken, it was the Chatlete (Chat-Leet) that I felt came out the best. It was only meant to be used as my personal avatar until the next good photo of me came along, but it stuck and became part of my personal brand. Plus it was just too funny not to use.

Feel free to checkout the final Bally’s Facebook Gym Quiz and see some of the other characters. But for the entire set of photos, I’m going to make you work for it. It’ll be more satisfying that way.

Thanks to Heather Hynes, Daniel Zarick and Brett Gilbert for reading drafts of this.