If you still have a hotmail account you're a very good person.

Listen up, you email address snobs.

I’m bringing Hotmail back.

My poor ol’ email address has been bullied for years. From earlier this week all the way back to the final year of high school, when a careers counsellor warned me and my fellow wide-eyed pupils that no employer would take us seriously if we had hotmail addresses on our résumés.

Ahem. Excuse me, counsellor. Eleven years on, my hotmail account and I are both regularly employed, and perfectly capable of hard work. (To be fair, it was probably good advice on the counsellor’s behalf to change from my previous self-appointed titles, ‘sweet_petite6’ and ‘luscious_luce1’. But whatever.) And yet, I still get judged for three little letters in my email address.

Hotmail works exactly the same as Gmail (and the other accounts that are considered 'grown-up'. Pfft) just like this: you send an email. If you were polite and not spamming the addressee, you might get one back. It's worked for me for years. The only, teensy-weensy, singular problem I get with Hotmail is this:

People telling me that Hotmail sucks.

That's it. That's the entire problem with Hotmail. Is there a way to send those email-snobby-whingers to my Junk folder? Because shuuuuut uppppp.

Now, tech-nerds who want to fight me, I'm going to stop you there. If you start banging on with your list of anti-Hotmail reasons, with soporific words like 'connectivity' and 'storage space' and 'IMAP', I'm going to fall asleep in your face. IN YO' FACE.

Yes, that makes me ignorant. No, I don't care.

I have a work-appointed Gmail address, and I still prefer my ol' mate Hotty. It's not personal. It's just my preference. And that's my whole point: there is nothing wrong with Hotmail, so why does everyone knock it? Everything seems to work a-ok for me, and according to most tech sites, there is very little difference these days. Why is the G considered more mature than the Hot?

You know what? If I were Hotmail, I would be offended. Hotmail got some of us through puberty. Hotmail was the first time we began to express identity, choosing such cringe-worthy names as 'pretty_baby_87' and 'groovy_disco_chick' without a care in the world. Some of us had several accounts to explore all the facets of our personalities, and because they were just so easy to create. I knew one girl who had an address that was something like 'im_a_genie_in_a_bottle_gotta_rub_me_the_right_way@hotmail.com'. Inconvenient, but impressive commitment. (I rarely emailed her, who could be bothered?!)

And what about MSN? Anyone who had a hotmail address spent their nights typing 'hi how r u', 'gd thnx hru' back and forth for hours. If you ever wrote 'brb' or 'gtg', and now spend your spare time shaming people who loyally stuck with their hotmail account, you should take a long hard look at yourself in the mirror.

How dare you. Hotmail loved you. And like a forgotten teddy bear, you abandoned it. Shaaaaame.

Obviously, we couldn't go forth through life with our original teenage email names on our business cards (but imagine that world for a second. That'd make networking much more interesting). I changed mine to a grown up name-based handle years ago, and yet, I still get laughed at for even having a hotmail account.

But I'm not going to change it. Because:

1. I am too stubborn.
2. I am too loyal.
3. It would be way too hard to transition now.
4. It's vintage, and therefore bound to be back in fashion soon.

Mainly because of point 3 (seriously, emailing everyone from the last 11 years to let them know I've changed three letters in my entire email address, at which point I'd still have to check my Hotmail regularly for anyone who'd missed the memo... No thanks), but points 1, 2 and 4 are valid too.

Let's make a stand, Hotmailers. Don't give in to the pressure. Use your Hotmail account loudly and proudly. If I saw a Hotmail address on your business card, I would immediately assume you're a fun, creative, tenacious person with integrity.

And to all the employers who shudder at the thought of hiring someone with a Hotmail address, here's a thought: get a grip. Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, whatever.

Just judge the people who don't even have an email address. Those people are the freaks.