Faceclaims — How were you introduced?

I'd love to hear how you first discovered faceclaims! What were your first experiences with them? Was it through real-life or animanga? And what platform did you use? Where does your preference lie now? Is it similar to how you were introduced, or have you since switched to something different? Let's share our experiences about it!

 

I feel like Gaiaonline was the culprit for me lmao. I'm getting war flashbacks thinking about "the old days"! FCs became so standard I've kind of rolled over and accepted that people will use them and I still use them myself, but they're not 100% necessary imo. I'm not going to be That Person ("it's a writing hobby, you should be able to write what your character looks like!!1!") but I understand the perspective lol.

I do remember on Gaia most people had the rule that you couldn't use a big celebrity for RL FCs, you had to pick a model, and I remember that being really difficult for my character types at the time. Anyone else have the same problem? lol