100 Day Stretch: Shopping Friend

Last week I watched an amazing documentary called 'Catfish'. This is an amazing story about 3 filmmakers as they unexpectedly discover, that not everyone on the internet is as they seem. I loved this film, and have spent almost every day since watching it thinking twice each time I log online. Imagine my surprise this past weekend when I read about the scandal that had surfaced surrounding the well known blogger Kim from Anthroholic. ( You can read about the details here.) It seems that for quite awhile now, she was posting on her blog while hiding a bit of a secret. A secret that included stealing money from hundreds of unsuspecting bloggers.

As soon as I read the details of the scam I headed to Tara's blog at Little Girl Big Closet, because from following her blog for so long I knew that she had worked with Kim, and they had met once or twice in person. You see the difference between the documentary and what was happening here is that Kim is a real person, who blogged photos of herself in her living room, talked about getting married and attended blogger meet ups. She exists, and clearly got herself in way over her head.

I think as bloggers, we have all made a number of decisions as to what level of privacy we will choose. There are certain topics that for me I choose not to discuss, and others that I appreciate receiving feedback on. There is such a fine line that we are creating because while these are real people we are talking to, and these are real people who are posting but they are still our 'internet friends'. I have met so many lovely ladies through blogging, and I do consider my blogging relationships to be friendships. That being said, whenever I make a new friend in real life it takes a few months before I will share with them any of my real life details, and years before they will get any secrets. For my online friends it will take any longer. The events of these last few days have re-enforced for me what my mother used to preach about back when chat rooms first started to become big. You just never know who your really dealing with on the other end of the screen.

While I feel so sorry for the hundreds of ladies who seem to have been scammed by Kim, I couldn't help but to feel a bit sorry for her as well. Blogging has been a wonderful outlet for me, but when I first started I could easily see the two paths that lay ahead. The one to my right was full of pretty clothing, jealousy over what all of the other girls were wearing and posting, mountains of debt and feelings of never being good enough. The one to my left was a bit more simple but it was about working with what I have, and enjoying the aspects of my life outside of shopping. I knew when I choose the left path that I may not have the best clothes for blogging, or the prettiest items in my closet, but I was making the right choice for me. More than once in my life I have felt myself teetering on the edge of over shopping, and each time I have been able to stop, breathe a little and re-evaluate. I am someone bigger than the clothes on my back, and I have always hoped that in blogging I can show others the same. I can't help but feel like maybe Kim got herself lost of the path to the right, and couldn't find her way back to the left. Shopping can be your friend, until it becomes a dangerous enemy. If ever there was a time to start a shopping detox, it's now.

( This outfit brought to you in part by a Walgreens radio commercial that declares " Somethings aren't meant to go together, like stripes and plaid". Consider this my answer Walgreens. )