It should come as no surprise that this isn’t the type of content TSM would normally post. Most of the content we post is light, and funny, with a slight air of self-deprecation, then a few serious posts thrown into the mix. So when this story was submitted as a column, we were surprised. But it was so interesting, we had to share.
Below is the unedited story of a college girl — potentially a sorority girl — who actually catfished guys in her high school. It’s about how she got started, and why she continued for so long.
I know what you’re thinking. ‘oh my God this low life is actually confessing that she hid behind someone else’s pictures.’ Well, I did. For about… five years. It started out so innocent. In 7th grade, I was addicted to the Facebook game, FarmVille. I made up two ‘fake’ accounts to send my self gifts on the game, i.e. sheep, bales of hay, cows…
Of course when making a Facebook account, it required you to have a profile picture. So, I literally googled “pretty Australian actress” and set the first picture that came up as the profile picture. I was the only ‘friend’ to my accounts. But, I guess since there is a ‘recommended friends’ section on Facebook, guys from my middle school starting adding them left and right. CUTE GUYS.
Naturally, I freaked out. I freaked out even more when they started messaging my accounts. Being the awkward, tall, frizzy headed troll that I was, I LOVED talking to all of these guys. It was like ‘FINALLY, I GET MALE ATTENTION!!!’ They would ask what grade my account was in and I would be like “7th!” Oh yea those 25 year old models sure did look 13… not. But those guys ate it up.
I would sit behind the guys that would message my accounts and they would always talk about them. Soon after, even the popular girls started messaging my accounts. After a while, people were always talking about those super hot 13 year olds who were ‘homeschooled.’ I loved it, I can’t deny it.
Eventually people would find out that the pictures I would use for the accounts were of someone else. No worries. All I would have to do is type in the name Brittany, or Ashley in the search bar and just take pictures from the first attractive girl that popped up. Then just come up with some catchy name and voila! Some accounts would only last a month, but one lasted three years.
Let’s talk about the one that lasted three years, the one that did the most damage. This one basically consumed all of high school. The girl who I made up went to the most expensive private school in the state, she was a model, foreign, everything that I wasn’t. I would mainly talk to guys at my school, because I actually knew them, and I would get to see them. Whenever me and a guy would argue if we were “dating,” he would be mad at school, if I sent a funny text to him during lunch, I would see him laugh. It was like I was in the relationship with that guy. Not the account.
I made an Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Tinder, Tumblr, anything that would make my account more realistic. Anytime I would receive a text, it wasn’t from any of my real friends, it was from a guy that was trying to talk to my account. I started to never get on MY social media. I would just stay logged into my accounts. Anytime I would get a phone call (besides from my family) it would be a guy, wanting to speak to my account. My whole life became my account.
It was the end of my senior year of high school. My account was old news. I started getting attention from people outside of my normal friend group. I started becoming myself. In one day I deleted everything to do with my account. A weight was lifted off my shoulders, and off my phone storage. I discovered how stressed having the account made me.
I was always worried what Ryan was doing and why he wasn’t texting me back or if Dillon isn’t texting me back because he found out who I really was. Or maybe no body is snap chatting me because I forgot to crop something out when sending (it’s possible). I was always paranoid. And I was way over my head. Instead of texting guys in my grade, I was hitting up their college senior brothers. And I was always scared that they would find out and tell everyone.
It was not easy letting go of my other “life.” At first, it would frustrate me because I wasn’t being texted 24/7. Or that no one was snap chatting me on my actual snapchat. I learned to like it. I learned to enjoy being exclusive. I felt free of my phone. And that I didn’t have the need to check it all the time.
It is now a year later since I closed my account, and I love myself. .
Image via Shutterstock
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