No Really, Why The Pseudonym?

I write under a pseudonym.  Why you ask?  Because I want to remain anonymous to my neighbors and protect my kids in case I'm ever famous.
No?  Okay, you got me.

Because I'm really a best selling author who wants to see if she can do it all again on her own.
What?  That's even less believable?

Alright, the truth is because I have a very large fear of failure.  My whole life I've been afraid of trying anything I might fail at, so I never did.  High school and college, I never tried out for anything if there was a chance I wouldn't be the best.  Don't get me wrong, I did things, just not challenging things.  So you'd think I would have learned to be a little braver, looking back on all the fun I probably missed out on.

Well, believe it or not, even though I don't use my real name, just doing this writing thing at all is a big step.  Because typically I have a dream, then talk myself out of it because of fear.  But this time I went forward.  I wrote the book, published it, am doing publicity, and my fear is abating.  I started telling my family that I'm writing a book (they think it's my first) and it will come out this summer.  It's a big step for me.  And even if it fails, I feel really good about doing it at all.

So, anyone else out there using a pseudonym?  What's your reason?  You can even leave a comment under anonymous and I'll understand:)