Hi! My name is John Alex, and I am very excited having the opportunity to write this column for the steemit Members. I currently hold the title of the Middle Atlantic Women of 2017, and I wear that belt with pride. What that means is that I am an ambassador for the Central Atlantic Women's Leather community. Generally, the area is considered Washington, D.C., Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York City. This is an amazing group of people and we accomplished many things.

We work and play hard. We are eager to have fun. We raised a lot of money for various charitable activities and found a very creative and sexy way to do it. We love spending time with laughing. We loved the entertainment which was nice. We relate to ourselves, especially sexually, so that many people may not allow themselves to experience because of the stigma that matches those desires and needs.

Some of the questions I often ask are, "What is leather?" And "What makes me a skin person?" I can understand - I also have this question. Some days I still think about it and I enjoy the discourse with others who claim to be skin. If you ask ten different people, this question will get you with 12 different answers.

"What is leather?" Some say it is a fetish outfit. Some say it's all about raw, vulgar and perverted sex. Some say it's about being a villain and staying on the edge of society. Some say this about honor, integrity, respect, and truth. For me, all this. I will also say it is up to everyone who experiences it. I consider it a code of ethics, a reminder to do my best at all times and walk the world in a way that will respect myself and those I love. I wear a belt and / or boots about 90% of the time as a touchstone to remember who I am.

"What makes me a skin person?" If you feel you belong and you feel you are a skin person, you may be. I felt at home the first time I went to a play party organized by the women's leather club, FIST. Never in my life have I felt so comfortable. I did not take immediate skin identification - which occurred about two and a half years later - but deep down, I knew that the skin was at least part of me. I just do not know how many. To me, this is a feeling. That sometimes makes people angry as an answer, but that's the best I can give.

One of my goals for my fiscal year is to highlight the great people of the Middle Atlantic, especially the women. Every week on Facebook (and soon to be published on Tumblr), I have posted a feature called Mid-Atlantic Mondays. I am sending a question to different people who created the Central Atlantic Regional Skin community of that special place. Some of these questions are serious, some of these questions are fun, and some may make no sense at all. I want to find different sides of people. I want people close and far to know these talented people.

The skin can look creepy when you peek from the outside. I knew that I was intimidated before entering the play party for the first time, it took me four months since I spoke to kinksters online as I entered the old Baltimore Playhouse on North Calvert Street in Baltimore. Hopefully this column will help you see that we're not much different from you and maybe, just maybe, you'll want to join us in the bar or the next play party. See you again.