Lolita Valentines is a community started on Live Journal in 2007. The premise is simple; you take an image, write a nice comment on it for a specific lolita, and submit it to the facebook page. Obviously, the moderators can see who you are (but won’t tell anyone).
The moderators then periodically gather all the submissions and post them in a list (with no indication of who submitted them) for people to view.
When making a valentine, you should generally pick a publicly available image to use as the background image. Images people post of themselves to a public space like twitter, Instagram or tumblr are best. Be careful of photos someone has not posted themselves as you have no way of knowing if the person likes that photo of themselves.
Make sure you follow any size rules, and that your secret is legible. It’s better to not use fancy script fonts if you are putting the text over a photo. If your photo has a lot of contrast or is very busy, consider drawing a filled in box over part of it and putting the text in the box. Phone apps that let you decorate images with text and stickers are a quick and easy way to make a Valentine!
Be careful not to use backhanded compliments; things like “Wow, that wig really makes your face look thinner!” can be interpreted as saying the person usually looks like they have a fat face to you, which even if it’s true, isn’t exactly a compliment. Lastly, if you get posted to Lolita Valentines yourself, it’s never amiss to write a thank you comment!
Make a Promise to Yourself
Lolita Valentine Challenge
I challenge myself to make and submit 50 valentines over the course of the next year (approximately 1 per week).