Evil villains and bland good guys

Villains in children's stories have fangs, warts, claws, arched eyebrows, sharp noses--all kinds of specificity. Good guys, by contrast, are undifferentiated. That's because children have a clearer sense of the world around them than of their own identities. Consequently, they identify with undifferentiated characters.

Many lives of kid bloggers

Kids drive the blog on http://www.edgarandellen.com. Though moderators post topics from which fans launch conversations, most of the time, fans take over and talk about their interests. They love Johnny Depp and pirates in general. They think Edgar is "hot." Willy Wonka shows up a lot, as do typical kid themes: homework, pets, and question of identity.

What's new is that fans try out emo and goth identities, they assume three identities and get them to arguing among themselves, they go overboard under one name and renew themselves under another.

By changing a screen name you can change your identity faster that your shoes. Online tweens are the Imelda Marcos's of on-line identities.