Caroline Calloway has been exposed as a complete scam. And she’s embracing it.
Last week, New York Magazine’s The Cut published an explosive essay by Caroline’s former best friend, Natalie Beach. The article details their destructive friendship and Caroline’s problematic method of achieving success in the influencer world.
But as the story spiralled into a series of subsequent subplots, it became a confusing one to catch up with.
So here, we explain the whole damn thing. Strap in.
Who is Caroline Calloway?
Caroline Calloway is a 27-year-old Instagram influencer with about 800,000 followers.
Her real name isn’t Caroline Calloway; It’s Caroline Gotschall. She changed it at age 17, because Calloway, her middle name, “will look better on book covers someday.”
She studied at the University of Cambridge where she catalogued her days in lengthy, intricate captions on Instagram.
“I always knew I wanted to be a writer,” Calloway told Man Repeller last year. “I’ve always been convinced that I have stories to tell and that I would be successful at telling them.”
Her aim was to land a book deal, which she achieved in 2016 with Flatiron Publishing. The book was a memoir titled, “And We Were Like”.
But in 2017, she withdrew the deal, because she felt she had sold a facade to the publisher that didn’t depict her authentic self. However, Calloway had already spent her book advance money when she pulled the plug, which she is reportedly still paying back.
Her name next piqued public interest earlier this year.
She offered her fans a "Creativity Workshop" tour, charging US$165 a ticket for the four hour seminar.
Journalist Kayleigh Donaldson exposed the tour as a "Fyre Fest in the waiting" and Calloway's name quickly became synonymous with the word "scam".
The first two seminars went ahead, with attendees reporting their disappointment at the lack of organisation. Calloway cancelled the remaining workshops and the "scam" went viral.
"I think that criticism is really valid and I apologise to anyone who felt cheated by the price point of $165," she wrote on her Instagram Stories at the time.
"I take full responsibility for letting my total inexperience with event planning and GREED create a situation where the details of the tour were ever-changing, preparation was inadequate, and the event did not match the description by the time it went on."
Then in July, eight weeks ago, she announced she would conduct another seminar, this time called "The Scam".
"I am hosting my first event since I went viral," she told her Instagram followers. "It is...............The exact same fucking event as before, but with a different name."
"Come make friends. Hang out with me. Work on your art. Laugh about art. Eat salad on the floor. Drink oat milk. Take photos with flowers in our hair. Consider pain. Discuss self-love. Be scammed."
So... Why is everyone talking about Caroline Calloway now?
Earlier this month, Calloway revealed her former best-friend, Natalie Beach, was writing an essay about their friendship for The Cut.
Once again embracing her infamy, Calloway uploaded a plethora of posts about the essay in anticipation for its publication.
"Everything in Natalie’s article will be brilliant and beautifully expressed and true. I know this not because I have read her essay but because Natalie is the best writer I know," she said in an Instagram post earlier this month.
"You should read Natalie’s article when it comes out," she told her fans. "I’ll post a link when it does. Go leave a comment on nymag.com even if it’s insulting me. Every digital impression will be another reason for The Cut to hire Natalie again and to pay her even more next time."
Five days later the essay, "I Was Caroline Calloway", was uploaded.
Beach reflects on her experience as Calloway's unknown paid ghostwriter, revealing she was the voice behind many of her famous captions. She later would also work with Calloway on her aforementioned book proposal.
"My involvement was uncredited, as the entire selling point of Caroline was that she was an ingénue," Beach wrote.
She also claimed that Calloway in fact bought followers early on, therefore undermining the entire 'authentic' brand she had supposedly built organically.
Their friendship ultimately fell apart, alongside the demise of the book deal.
"Caroline was caught between who she was and who she believed herself to be, which in the end may have been the most relatable thing about her," Beach said.
Caroline Calloway bizarrely encourages her followers to read the essay, with the link to the article in her Instagram bio.
What has happened since?
Two days after the expose, Caroline Calloway's father passed away.
"My um... My Dad just died," she shared on Instagram. "Today. I got the call an hour ago. The cause of death is unknown."
"I’m worried that by even telling this I will cheapen the truth. That I will make this moment into another 'notorious misfortune' of mine as the New York Times called them.
"For many years (2013-2018) I tried to BE my online persona. I tried to make myself seem happier, prettier, more interesting on the internet and then I tried to be that girl in real life."
Top Comments
No such thing as bad publicity, it seems. I remember reading about her ridiculous 'workshop' a while back. She seemed to have absolutely no idea of the amount of work and planning required to pull off an event like that. She seems to be one of those people who wants all the fun, pretty stuff (her name on a book cover, hanging out with all her fans at workshops while wearing flower crowns that look good on Instagram), but doesn't want to actually get her hands dirty and do the actual work.