TO THE CREEPY IMPOSTER
Dear Facebook and Flickr user Makena Becker. you are not me. those photos are not yours. and those children certainly aren't yours either. your creepiness has me reeling. you have five hours to remove all my photos, all my words, and all your really skeevy claims to be someone you are not before i take legal action. you have infringed on my copyright. and i am pretty freakin' ticked off and grossed out by it.
thank you to reader paola for letting me know about this.
i would have loved to keep this a lot more vague and focused more on the idea of creating your own life, how figuring out who you are, little by little, and being true to that potential and the people you love is what makes life really great. and i think the higher road is to maybe leave names off.. but i can't. this is just too weird and violating and there is no possible explanation i can think of where someone would do this "innocently." if you have an idea, i'd love to hear it. i'd love to have something to wet the fury burning in my chest.
until then, i've got a birthday party to prepare for.
also: i have operated this blog the same way i try to live my life- based in faith and happiness and expecting the good rather than fearing and expecting the worst. this is not the worst, but it is really really weird. and i may need to adjust things around here for awhile until i figure this out..
ADDED: dear people (the non creepy ones), i love you. i sincerely do. i wish you were all here in person. i would hug you and thank you, wipe away my angry tears and take you to the park for a big picnic. we'd eat fruit, watch kids run around, soak up the sun and celebrate life (and the fact that the pictures were all taken down! hooray!!). after getting in our fill of spring at the park, you'd help me try to foster a little bit of sympathy and a little understanding for those who do things that aren't right, but then we'd let it go and move on... and after all that i'd try to sucker you into helping me make cupcakes and clean and decorate for tomorrow's party.. i've got a lot to do and am suddenly sooo very tired.
thank you again. truly.
xoxoxo
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 11:02AM
Reader Comments (537)
I have never commented before but I so love your blog. It is brilliant and cheerful and funny and inspiring. I hate that there is creepiness in the world. I, too, selfishly hope you can find a way to keep posting as I love your creative ideas. My kids and I made the baby food jar butter just this week; I've got the ingredients for the granola and bean brownies to make this weekend + I have a half finished zigzag quilt in an upstairs closet just waiting for 100 or so more zigs (and the dang binding which I may never get to...;)then there's all the felt balls which I now have a plan for thanks to you. I wouldn't have nearly as many partially completed projects without you! Wishing you all the very best.
oh, no. i'm so so sorry this has happened. it squicks me out, too.
I am so sorry this happened to you. So utterly creepy. I reported the Facebook profile. I love your blog and I feel bad that this happened to you.
I totaly understand your feeling, the creepy idea of this "theft" (What is it, trying to steal a life, a personality? brrrr) and the feeling of not understanding why.
I hope all that strange stuff is removed by now, and that it won't happen to you or to any of us again.
Oh Katie - how awful. I adore your blog - I genuinely look forward to each new post - and hope that you have the courage to continue after such an experience. I can't find her flickr account, so I hope this means she's been kicked off or taken the photos down. Courage, mon amie!
What is going on? this is the second case of identity thief I've read about this week. http://sixandahalfstitches.typepad.com/
I'm so sorry this has happened to you. It's quite obvious these people are out there and in numbers. The only thing we can do is stand together and watch out for each other. Just as any good neighbour would. Bx
Katie--
I'm really disturbed by this breach of your privacy as well. I'm just glad and encouraged that there are so many "eyes on the street" (to borrow lightly from Jane Jacobs!) looking out for you and your family! I may be tagged as an eternal optimist for this, but what an interesting and roundabout way of showing you that you -can- have faith in people that you have, or maybe in most of our cases -haven't- met. What an excellent show of support and community-- and extra thanks to Paola for her sharp eyes. Glad to know that this episode has been addressed!
Happy birthday to Eve!
hello! i just wanted to say i ADORE your blog. it's a huge inspiration. the pictures of your kids make me smile and everything around here is just so fun and upbeat. i have no idea why anyone in their right mind would do something like that. i'm glad they took them down! and i hope it doesn't prevent you from continuing on here. your posts really brighten my day! thank you!
What a skeevy thing to do! This is something that no one should ever, ever experience. I think it's safe to say that we are all pushing our positive energy and thoughts in your direction!
Sending virtual cupcakes! Glad they took the pictures down.
That is really freaky. I hope you get it sorted out really quickly so you have peace of mind. On a brighter note, I've only found your blog and i LOVE your sewing! I have 3 daughters myself (aged 9, 6 and 4 years) and I love how you sew for your girls where both outfits blend together but aren't the same. I hope you do continue bogging. Regards from the Land Down Under (Brisbane).
more support from me, and empathy -- and gratitude for sharing your creativity.
this is so frightening. i can only imagine how you feel. i worry about this kind of thing from time to time (usually after my mom puts her thoughts out there). you want to be able to freely express yourself, but unfortunately there are psychos out there. i'm sorry this happened, but please know how wonderful you are! hope the party is fabulous!!
I haven't commented before, but love your blog and have to tell you how sorry I am and offer you a virtual (and, I hope, thoroughly uncreepy) hug.
An idea of how someone could do this "innocently", I'm not sure. I do know that I love your blog (and tons of blogs) and I look at your lovely pictures and sometimes think thoughts along the lines of "I hope my life looks like this one day." In an endearing way. Not in a creepy way. I know that down the road I'll have kids of my own and I'll be taking photos of my own and we'll have our own lovely life and I'll probably never wish to compare it to someone else's. I think a typical blog reader probably looks at your blog and enjoys looking in at what you choose to share of your life, like a movie, and thinks isn't that lovely. How it goes from that to someone actually claiming elements of your life as their own - I'm not sure. Probably some kind of mental disorder or delusion. Probably someone wishing they had a life like yours and letting that go way too far, into an obsession. I'm definitely not saying it's acceptable but I guess I can kind of understand how a normal interest can turn into an obsession or a fantasy about a life that's not your own.
Hi, My wife told me about this - she is a regular reader. We feel sorry for your violation.
A likely reason for this is spam.
http://www.pc1news.com/news/0325/fake-profiles-on-fakebook-facebook.html
If you want to dig into this a little more I suggest that you send emails to all of the photography links that your fake self has become a "fan" of. You might ask them if they recently engaged the services of some person that promised them to increase their profile on facebook. That might lead you to the real culprit.
Woa, this is the second blog post in a row I've read about this subject (the other was Six and a Half Stitches). People are so freaky sometimes. I'm so sorry this happened to you.
Wow__these comments are the most fascinating thing about this. That, and the fact that you got me to get on here twice today. Way to go Katie, next time I need a strong arm posse I'll call you.
In case the facebook page goes away here is a list of some of the pages that this fake profile was pointing too.
I might point out - these companies probably did nothing wrong. I suspect they are being scammed too.
*
Keri*Meyers*Photography
Keri*Meyers*Photography
*
Melanie Joanne Photography
Melanie Joanne Photography
*
Rachel Devine Photography / sesame ellis
Rachel Devine Photography / sesame ellis
*
Sialia Photography
Sialia Photography
*
Mamapatrice
Mamapatrice
www.frogsandflowersboutique.com. ·
Hope for God's Children.
Rebecca Helen Photography's
Epiphanie
I am a faithful and non-creepy stalker, and I love your blog! I will gladly come help you make cupcakes any day! Hopefully this will all be over and in the past very soon. Hope the birthday party is wonderful all around.
wow...that's just awful...i cant even imagine...
so sorry =(
you are a force to be reckoned with, lovely woman. you roared and were heard and it sucks that there was a reason to, but you did it. and i wish i was just a tad closer as i would love to help with cupcakes tonight...happy celebrating to you and yours. amiee
super creepy! I can't believe she even used your kids real names and updated her status to pretend she was doing the things you were doing. Ick. I reported her on facebook as well. I love your blog because it is so inspiring and such a place of happiness - I hope all this mess doesn't ruin your enjoyment blogging. Sending some prayers your way.
absolutely distasteful. i'm glad that she or the companies took down the photos (and hopefully all the other stolen items), however, i'm sure that it still is freaky and a personal violation. i understand that you need to figure things out and i hope you know that the larger part of your audience understands. please know, though, that your blog has been a beautiful inspiration to me and has helped me to venture into sewing for my own young daughter. so, i hope you continue to go on with it. but you need to do what's best for you. hope your weekend brightens up considerably.