Wannabe on the Trail: Wannabes and Posers

Mom I wannabe watching cartoons… on your new phone!

Hi all– I’m still trying to get back into the swing of things. But I’m still wheezing a little and it’s cold outside–I’m so weak. However, I watched the new Netflix special Inventing Anna.

I really don’t understand my fasciation with millennial fraudsters but I’m going to to talk about it anyways– I’m actually creating a couple of commentary videos for YouTube were I talk about being a lost millennial that, while I paid attention to the news from 2006-2019, I didn’t really pay attention to social media. Which is where most of the millennial fraudsters thrived.

Now, I can’t say I was living under a rock— maybe a cave—and while I had Facebook, Instagram, and so on I didn’t live on there like most of my generation. I’ve touched on my lack of insight in previous posts so I won’t bore you with the details.

However, the sliver lining that was caused by the lockdowns during the height of the pandemic and being pregnant I binged watched a lot of YouTube videos that covered everything while I was living in my cave– From Trisha Paytas to Onision I discovered a lot of what I missed ignoring social media over the years. I also watched the documentaries about Billy McFarland, Anna Delvey, Elizabeth Holmes, Beanie Babies, and the list literally keeps going.

Fyre Fraud, rapper scams, Theranos, Anna Sorokin/Delvey, what an exciting time for con artists…

While I plan on touching on it more in my YouTube videos, Anna’s case kind of fascinates me for several reasons.

The confidence to pull this off– like I have confidence but I don’t have “con” fidence.

The flash of money and the perceived wealth caused a breakdown of basic business practices– from hotels to banks. Which is honestly one of the reasons why people are making her part of the zeitgeist– we don’t mind corporations being made a fool of– but the law will still go after fraud for them…

The case of Rachel Williams– which I think was horrible but also at what point do you say no? I think Rachel saw a way to elevate herself and live the life most women on Instagram would like. However, while I do think what happened to her was criminal– I have hesitations. I listened to her audiobook, My Friend Anna, and a few things stood out to me with the Marrakech trip. It started with the plane tickets, then food, then shopping, then the room, then the events at the gardens… I know Anna said she would pay her back but if you can’t get me a working credit card to book your flights I’m not offering…

Which leads to one of the few things I agreed with Anna’s lawyer was she played the wrong role in trial. Had Rachel came in and said the facts of the case without being emotional, or framing it as the worse thing that ever happened to her, it might have gone different with the jury. Especially, when Todd (Anna’s lawyer) cross examined and pointed out the book, talk shows, and speaking deals that made back the $62,000 and then some– painting her as similar to Anna.

I also think a lot of the Rachel hate is because most people can relate to being her– we don’t have the “con”findence that Anna has but we could definitely ride someone’s coattails and be the victim to a confidence game. Even if we don’t think we could/would, we identify with her and her motivations in a way that hits close to home and we don’t want to “be” that person.

Also, if you ever get a chance to watch HBO’s Generation Hustle or even the American Greed episode about Anna, compare Anna’s lawyer to the way he’s portrayed in Inventing Anna— they make him a lot more likable in the Netflix show…

The biggest one is how they called her a “wannabe socialite.” I would argue that she was a poseur over a wannabe. I know to a degree those words are interchangeable but let’s look at the definitions.

Wannabe:

1. (Noun) a person who tries to be like someone else or to fit in with a particular group of people.
2. (Adjective) aspiring or wanting to be a specified type of person.

Poseur:

1. a person who tries to impress others by behaving affectedly
2. A person who strikes an attitude or assumes a pose in order to impress others.
3. A person who assumes or affects a character, manner, sentiment, etc., in order to impress others.

This also leads to a discussion over if she’s a poser or a poseur…

Poser:

1. A puzzling or baffling question
2. a person who poses

And Anna is by far a puzzle and there are a lot of baffling questions.

I won’t get to much farther into this because I want to save a lot of it for the video but– Anna Sorokin wasn’t clinging to others to be a socialite– she affected a character, Anna Delvey, and posed as a socialite. I would argue that Rachel Williams was the wannabe in this particular situation.

I can speak to the wannabe aspects of this– it’s my brand, the Wannabe Backpacker, after all. I’m not posing as a backpacker in order to get more clicks and likes. I’m still stuck in the wannabe category. I think a lot of people are wannabes to certain degrees. However, there are some out there that are poseur’s. In fact, I would guess most influencers are to varying degrees.

Keep being a wannabe,

BJ