so there is a girl in one of my current challenge groups who is busting her ass. she was always bigger than average, but definitely not fat. just a larger postured woman. after experiencing a MAJOR family tragedy and injustice a few years ago, she put on some weight. in the past month she has been working SO hard to take it off. she is calorie counting and meal planning and making a real effort to drink less calories when out with her friends. i am actually very impressed by her.
heres what i am not impressed with. the fucking CHILDREN she works with. they are making fun of her. the legit have ordered chinese food and said (name has been changed) "Maria, dont you MISS THIS? it tastes SO GOOD. Do you want some??". not like, as a serious question. in a tone thats like " haha bitch, watch me eat fried rice". that was like two weeks ago. then the other day they had to nerve to tell her she is "obsessed" with this.
talk about fucking MEAN GIRLS. i dont even know these girls and i know they are miserable in their pathetic lives. i know theyre insecure. i know they have flaws they wish they could fix. and i know they do not love themselves. and ive never seen or met one of them. how do i know this? because that is the ONLY reasons an adult will act like a full blown fucking 13 year old.
as much as i HATE hearing they said that to her. it makes me even more proud of her, knowing that theyre noticing. we dont call it a "lifestyle change" because we dont like the word "diet". its called a lifestyle change because in order to lose the weight YOUR WHOLE LIFE HAS TO REVOLVE AROUND IT. if you JUST change your diet, you WILL fail. you HAVE to change the way you live because the way you live is why you got fat!! so i call it "maria" taking control and doing what is REQUIRED to change her life, and they call it obsession.
those bitches are going to be BEGGING maria for weight loss and fitness tips when they see how awesome she looks when she reaches her goal. the only thing more satisfying than them having to look at her sweet ass every single day, would be maria getting a new fucking job where she gets the respect she deserves. fortunately, her spirits are still high. i told her at first people will laugh and ask you WHY? but eventually theyll come around and ask you HOW?! bitches like that are EXACTLY why my first 3 months of weightloss were a secret. i didnt want to be made fun of for TRYING. i dont condone making fun of fat people, but if youre going to do it, make fun of a fat guy stuffing his face. dont make fun of the fat guy whos actually getting off his ass and doing something about it. ive never understood people who make fun of fat people for trying. its like, youre making fun of me because i am fat. but you dont want me to do anything about it??? what the fuck is that?!!!
this reminds me of the time i tried to jog during the day. it was like 4pm and i went to "jog" and could only make it like 30 feet before having to walk. it was the FIRST DAY i EVER tried to jog.... and a car full of teenage boys drove past me and said "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" until they were far enough away i couldnt hear the other passengers laughing any more. this was 2 years ago and this incident STILL brings me to tears today. how can people be SO FUCKING MEAN???? because of those kids, i stopped exercising outside. i should thank them, because that is how i ended up doing INSANITY in my living room. insanity took major weight off of me and eventually i was brave enough to try jogging again, but only late at night when no one would see me. and now i am a HALF MARATHONER. so, FUCK YOU TEENAGE BOYS!!! your ass couldnt run 13.1 miles without stopping if i fucking paid you!!!! assholes like THAT are who was on my mind when my body wanted to shut down. i cannot fail, because i need to prove every mother fucker who laughed, so made fun, who MOOed, who told me i was fat, who made me feel worthless WRONG.
so, back to my fucking drama. earlier this month a very short story about me was featured on "Ellen's Good News", a page on Shine by Yahoo where ellen degeneres shares all good things in the world. i was lucky enough to make the kept new years resolution post. unfortunately, when i submitted my pics for that story, i was asked for high res, no watermark photos. i didnt think it was a biggie so i sent them.
well, its my biggest regret of my weight loss journey thus far. that picture is ALL OVER THE INTERNET. with NO CREDIT TO ME. its being used on other peoples instagrams accounts, people are using it to gain followers as if it is theres, people are using it for advertisements. and all these people are commenting on it CONGRATULATIONSSSS!!!! to the poster, assuming that person is who it is. and there is NO credit to me. i recently deleted all of my un watermarked before and afters to avoid this. but this one slipped thru the cracks.
for days my friends and followers have been sending me links to my picture on facebook, twitter, instagram, all over the damn place. i message the poster with a screen shot of instagrams privacy policy and ask them to please remove my personal photo as they are violating the copyright of my intellectual property. contrary to popular belief, just because something is not watermarked does not mean it is just free for you to use. if you would like to know more about your rights to your photos or the rights of the people whos photos you steal, check THIS out.
so, for the most part, my messaging on the people using my pictures went well. most people just quickly agreed to take it down and re-post it with a watermark and tag me in it. i mean, what else can they REALLY say? theyve stolen my property and the instagram terms of service say that all original posters own the rights to their original photos. it also says youre only supposed to share pictures of YOUR life. they also say that you are responsible for all photos you post..... this was good to know because many of the accounts that were being paid to feature my picture as an ad for SOMEONE ELSE'S account would say "hey i didnt do anything, i just posted the pic XYZ paid me to post" well, newsflash. it doesnt matter who told u to do it, you did it and its a violation. thats like smuggling drugs and saying u didnt know what was in the bag, you just carried it. that doesnt mean youre not going to jail!!!
it was good people were being so understanding because i honestly dont know what the next step would be. i am assuming a lawyer buit thatd be pointless. it would cost me $$ and im sure the photos would be deleted as soon as the account holder is served.... my only option is report the photos and the account over an over and over and hope instagram does something about it.
so, today i am scrolling thru my feed and i see that an account i was once HONORED to be featured on, is using the unwatermarked pic of me from the ellen website, to advertise their page. that is not honorable. i gave them permission to share my pics once before. A WATERMARKED PIC. that doesnt mean you can just go and post whatever u want, whenever you want of me! i messaged them as well as the person they were advertising with, to please remove it and if they wanted to repost my picture, they could with a watermark.
the person who was doing the advertising was a little rude, but not extreme. we clearly did not see eye to eye (she didnt understand why i cared if she tagged me in the caption. i tried to explain its not about that, i appreciate you tagging me. however now the 11,000 people who LIKED my photo can screen shot it and share it WITHOUT crediting me!!) she deleted the photo.
however, the account that was doing the advertising threw a fucking FIT. talking about "I HATE PEOPLE LIKE YOU, THANKS FOR RUINING MY DAY" people like me??! if by people like me you mean hard working, honest people, who respect others wishes and protect what is theirs, THAN YOU ARE EXACTLY WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS WORLD. and i ruined YOUR day??? ELEVEN THOUSAND PEOPLE had the opportunity to share an unmarked photo of me! that ruined YOUR day, more than MINE? I DONT THINK SO!!!
this person continued by telling me "i didnt post your picture anyways, it was an ad for another page. i would never post your photo on my page" and this is an EXACT QUOTE " you dont even QUALIFICATE"
ok, let me address THAT.
first of all: qualificate is not a FUCKING WORD. youre probably the type of person whos thinks CONVERSATE and IRREGARDLESS are words, too (theyre not).
2nd: i think you mean qualify. and if you mean qualify, you mean to tell me a person who has lost 50% of their weight, 142lbs, MORE THAN MOST FIT WOMEN WEIGH, and i dont qualify to be on your instagram page?
BITCH YOU GOT THAT FUCKING RIGHT. I AM WAYYYYYYYY BEYOND YOUR INSTAGRAM PAGE.
I AM FUCKING SUPERWOMAN, BITCH. THE ONLY THINGS I DONT QUALIFY FOR ARE THE TITLES OF WEAK & QUITTER. THERE ISNT A FUCKING TRANSFORMATION IN THE WORLD IVE COME ACROSS, THATS BETTER THAN MINE. BUT KEEP LOOKING, ILL WAIT. ive lost more weight (by percentage) than ANY BIGGEST LOSER CONTESTANT EVER. i am MORE TONED than like 75% of people whove lost major weight. so when you say i dont "qualificate" for your page, i think what you actually mean is YOUR PAGE ISNT QUALIFIED TO SHARE MY TRANSFORMATION.
you have no idea (ok, maybe you do LOL) how bad my desire to OUT this account is. i wish all of my followers and friends would report their ass for improper use of intellectual property. but i cant do that. why? because i have an army behind me. and if i out them, they will HEAR it. now, id LOVE for them to hear it. but from the conversation i had with this person i can tell their are insecure, ignorant, and spiteful. the last thing i need is a moron with a vengeance and 600k internet followers on my REALLY bad side. they have the power to spread rumors about me. they probably have the technology to hack my account (one of my fav IG accounts gets hacked by a hater ALL THE TIME) and i dont need any of that BS. so i had to just block the mother fucker and bow out quietly.
im waving my white flag. i realize that picture is out there for the world to see and spread and i cant do shit about it. shit, the ellen page didnt even give me any credit as to how to contact me- just wrote "Ashley R".
i know the easy answer is "stop posting pictures" but thats actually not an option. i make determined to capitalize on my transformation and in order to do that i have to SHOW it. i know that making money off of it might sound fucked up.... but the amount of time i spend giving fitness advice and workout and food tips is OVERWHELMING. easily more time than i spend at my actual job. if i dont find a way to make money off of this, i am going to have to cut back on helping people so i can work more as a hairdresser and keep up with my bills. so, my ability to help people on a personal level depends on my ability to make an income out of this. i cant NOT post pictures and expect people to believe ive done what ive done. i cant NOT use social media and expect to build a network. so i just need to accept this is whats going to happen. hopefully at some point i will be so recognizable that i wont NEED to have my pictures labeled. but right now it sucks to know i am trying to build something and other people are promoting me, but only to gain a network for themselves, with no credit to me.
today a really sweet girl on IG posted my pic and DID tag me in it! and asked her friends to all share it to help me reach my goals with my surgery fund. HOW AMAZING?! i dont even know her! but because it was the same unwatermarked picture, i had to ask her to delete it and repost with a watermark. it broke my heart. she was trying to help me and it felt like i was telling her "youre doing it wrong!" or "not good enough!!" and i wasnt at all. i was SO grateful for her share. i just cant keep having my pics floating around without my name on them. fortunately she did delete, watermark, and repost, and i dont think she was offended. i even followed her because i appreciated her so much.
this all came so fast. when i had like 2000 followers it was like "ok, this is nice! i am being recognized!!" then i got a feature on a pretty popular site and my followers went up to like 6000. still manageable. like 3 weeks ago a page with 300k fitness followers shared my (watermarked) photo and shouted me out. i went from 6000 to 10000 in 24 hours!!! now, within the last two days, because of all the photo sharing and my fowllowers tagging me and me tagging myself and commenting back to people who were congratulating the WRONG PERSON, ive spiked to 15,000. this is overwhelming. i now understand why "celebrities" dont comment back. i have nothing for followers compared to celebrities! and i miss things ALL the time!! u dont see all the comments, follows, or LIKEs, your lucky if you see half of them! its super overwhelming. this new internet popularity will be amazing when my book is published, website launched, and someday when i make my own workout tapes!! but for now, its just kind of like, WOAH... bringing me more headaches than anything. i love my followers..... but i am not grateful for the assholes that are noticing me just because i have a lot of followers now. i love my followers, but i hope everyone realizes i am a regular ass person just like you all.
if you see a picture of me on IG that is not watermarked, i have NOT given permission for it to be posted. i appreciate it, but rather than tag me please just report it. i think i will lose my mind if i continue being tagged in 5 pics a day with no credit. as soon as i calm down i realize that a 11,000 people are LIKING my pic and dont know its me on a NEW page and i lose my shit all over again. i havent been as far from my ZEN as i am now in YEARS, and i need to get back to my peaceful life.
when you see the pictures, hit the menu button at the bottom of the comments. hit REPORT INAPPROPRIATE. then hit THIS PHOTO SHOULDNT BE ON INSTAGRAM. and then hit INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY VIOLATION.
also, consider this. when you LIKE or follow someone who has "motivation" or "fitness" account who post different people all the time. if those pictures do not have the individual tagged, you are supporting the account of someone who steals other peoples success, strictly to be popular. is that really who u want to support. follow the INDIVIDUALS, not the big giant pages who just blast them to build their own following.
thanks, babies xo