I was driving home from the gym last night and simutaneously checking my twitter account (bad, I know) and I saw this update:
AshleyD: I cannot believe this news about @missmusing! I just had dinner with her on Wednesday!
I think; “Hmmm, I wonder what happened? Maybe, Miss Musing got engaged!”
Let’s backtrack slightly. I started reading Miss Musing’s blog about two months ago. I was amazed at this young woman’s writing talents and the vast number of things she’d achieved in her young life.
She was only 23 years old, yet she had a beautiful house, a loving boyfriend, a fantastic job and had already gone on several service trips to Africa. She talked about the wonderful emotional and physical relationship that she had with her boyfriend. She talked about owning a house in her childhood neighbourhood. Her boyfriend took gorgeous photographs that she posted on the blog. She was learning how to sew. She talked about children that she sponsored in Africa and how she gave up her own personal expenses in order to do so.
I’ll admit that I was fascinated with her blog and her life. It seemed, well, perfect.
When will we learn that nothing is ever perfect?
In case you haven’t heard, Miss Musing was plagiarizing her blogposts, and she wasn’t just taking ideas. She was literally taking entire blog posts, changing the names and characters and posting them as her own. Essentially, she was stealing moments and lives that other people had written about and posting them as her own moments and life. And hundreds of readers, myself included, were hanging onto her every word.
I didn’t know Miss Musing personally, I wouldn’t have even considered her one of my close “blog friends”. I read and commented on her blog quite often and she commented on mine twice.
But I still feel hurt. I would read her blogposts and wonder if I would even be able to achieve half the things she has by the age of 23. Then I found out it was all a lie.
This reminds me of something my mom tells me quite often:
If it seems to good to be true, it probably is.
What do you guy’s think of this? Did you read Miss Musing’s blog? Are you hurt/shocked/surprised to learn that she was a fake?
You can read more about this at the following links:
cjane enjoy it. A blog that Miss Musing plagiarized.
Velveteen Mind. Another blog Miss Musing plagiarized.
The Jet Set. This blog did the original sleuthing and found out that Miss Musing has been plagiarizing several blogs for quite some time. Read about her findings here and about Miss Musing being removed from blogger and twitter here.
Onnuh. This blog has several examples of where Miss Musing lifted text directly from other blogs.
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Woah…I never read her blog, but…why would anyone want to do this???? I’m honestly flabbergasted (yes, I had been meaning to use that word for quite some time now).
ps: can’t believe you’ve never been to NYC! You have to
Quite simply 
Although I have to say your summer plans sound amazing, I’ve only been to Ottawa and Montreal and…that’s it. Nowhere else in Canada!
OMG seriously crazy! What is the point of having a blog that is just someone else’s life. I read it every now and then but not every day!
I read her blog, and I LOVED it (though it did seem too perfect). When I found this out last night, I was honestly hurt. The blogging community has become a place of comfort for so many of us, and we trust our fellow bloggers. When something like this happens, it’s really hard to trust what anyone writes. It’s disheartening.
OMG I am in SHOCK I feel as though a ton of my readers read her – this is bullshit – I’m linking too this post so that people know. Insanity!!!
Wow. That is truly pathetic.
disgusting–it really shows where the talent truly is! with us, not liars
O…M…G… I didn’t have any idea!! I’m disgusted at this… I really liked her blog!
I was in shock also. I have followed her blog for a couple months. At first, I was amazed how positive she always was, how she led such an amazing life and always seemed to find the beauty in life’s simple things. For the past month, when her blogs would show up in my reader, I would skim them, mostly cause I was tired of her eternal optimism. Does this girl ever have a bad day? Ever get in a fight with “the boyfriend”? Well, now that I know shes a fake, it all makes sense! She was always happy because it was others happiness and words that she stole and posed as her own. UGH! Grow up people! Stop stealing!
Eeeeeks! That is so awful. But yes, it’s true…we’re so trusting out here in blogland. Trusting that we’ll all be truthful (for the most part) with each other. And in your twenties when you’re not sure of yourself or what you’re doing and if what you are doing and think you like is actually right, those who seem perfect and invinceable are to be admired. THose are the people I think “wow, I’d like to be like her. How can I do that?” And now she’s essentially slapped her readers in the face. Sad stuff. But now that she’s exposed she must feel pretty crappy. Like I often say, kharma’s a biotch.
wow – that makes me incredibly sad for those who wrote the blogs she plagiarized…
I write my blog as me…it’s therapeutic and at times I am putting my heart and soul out there – I can’t imagine how I would feel if someone tried to take that from me.
I don’t know. I guess I’m always a bit skeptical about what I see in blogs. Some of it has to come from my journalism background (“If your mother says she loves you, check it out!”) and some of it the reality that with the people I know IRL, there’s a certain artifice in their blogs. At least to me. Maybe the blogs seem 100 percent authentic to them.
whoa, I didn’t read her blog but that is craziness. it’s true, something too good to be true probably is! but I am the type of person to think the best in others and I would never have imagined someone doing that. I can’t imagine how her longtime readers must feel! thanks for sharing this…
i followed her and feel like i have been duped (which i clearly have)and i showed her blog to one of my friends and she was liek no way is her life this perfect its utter bs esp at 23 to have REALLY done all tht. i thot she was jst hating cos she and 1 are 25 and our lives are soooo far from perfect and as Africans we have done little to support local charities ( mostly cos we choose alcohol over donations)
but keeping a blog is not hard work and no1 wants a perfect someone we all stumble and fall and i am really disgusted tht someone would blatantly steal like that.am glad she got found out!!!
and now she and her ”perfect” life can go SUCK IT!!!!
I did read her blog, I do feel hurt and I won’t lie, it’s shaken my trust a bit in the blog land. Why bother lying? If you have a crappy life or tough times people should know that the blog world is a place for support and advice. I’m so frustrated and annoyed and even a bit scared. I can’t believe someone would steal other blog posts. I’m just so… floored.
I grew up with my mom quoting that phrase also. And she’s always right. We have smart moms =)
wow, i only read her blog a few times but i remember thinking how great her life seemed and how she seemed to do so many amazing things… bummer that people have to steal others accomplishments to make themselves look good! sad.
Wow. That is crazy!!!!
To reply to your comment re: WW. If you are already counting calories, it’s basically a really simple, painless way to do it. A lot of people have really differing opinions on it. I used to be ‘against’ it because the nature of it promotes eating lots of veggies and fibre (both good things) but discourages healthy fats and proteins (which obviously you should be eating).
Despite my dislike of it for that reason – the user friendly nature of it, and the simplicity of food journaling make it easy to succeed. The best way to figure out if it’s for you is to try it for a month… that’s how I started – a one month ‘trial’ and then I got hooked!
How is it that I have never even heard of this so-called blogger, Miss Musing??? Well, I guess I didn’t miss anything REAL and should consider myself lucky. Yet, I admit, I am curious about what made her do what she did. Pretty pathetic!
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!! I didn’t know that! I didn’t read her blog A LOT but I did read it sometimes, oh my ew ew ew ew ew ew ew. I’m so disgusted!
I’m not hurt by it, and while I’m not surprised that she wasn’t being truthful, I am surprised that she was plagiarizing. I suspected she was exaggerating or making things up, but I always thought she was writing it. It’s just so weird, and I wonder what she was thinking, especially when she met AshleyD.
I found the whole situation odd/weird/bad. I feel for the people who had content about themselves stolen and paraded as someone else’s and I feel for those who met this person and considered her a friend.
I started reading her blog a few months ago and really enjoyed it. Always wondered how she afforded the house while going to school…but hey, some people pull it off, so I thought why not?
The whole situation is pretty crazy. I wasn’t a regular reader, but I had stopped by a few times. It’s kind of scary, because you really can’t stop anyone from claiming what you’ve written as there own…
i just linked to you from adorably distracted and i have to say, this type of thing is really disappointing and just sad…period. i’m older than 23 and i’ve never read her blog, but it sounds like she was inspiring people for more and that sort of thing should never be faked. ick.
hi I just found your blog through ruggy13.
Interesting post, I dont understand why anyone would do that. Its sad and its really pathetic. Its a bitch to as well because many people think my blog is sort of a fake at times and it hurts me thus preventing me from writing many posts from my life.
That is whoa shady. I can’t believe someone would do that. It is kinda sad really. If you can’t talk about your own experiences, don’t have a public blog. Just write for you. Stealing from fellow bloggers on the good they have done in their lives (the Africa part) just makes you look like a hack.
I also found your blog through Ruggy13 and I just can’t figure out why someone would take the time to do that on a blog? Steal others ideas? It seems like such a bizarre waste of time, eh? I never read her blog, but I understand what it’s like to be an avid follower of someone’s blog and discovering that there’s more than meets the eye. It’s too bad.
I’ve had all of those same feelings today since I found out – it’s funny because looking back, you can see all of the inconsistencies in her posts (the boyfriend’s accident, and then his miraculous recovery that allowed him to refinish that vintage pink bike for her?), (when suddenly, a few months back, her formatt changed and she started writing the first sentence of every paragraph in a larger font than the others – clearly ripping off c jane). It’s just nauseating!!
I just don’t understand what she thought the point was. All that feedback? It means NOTHING if it’s all based on a lie. WTF?
I was SO sad to hear about this. I used to really like her blog. Very dissapointed