Several months ago (February to be exact), I found myself painting my nails pink and I looked over and saw my gold glitter top coat. "Why not?" I thought and gold-glitter-top-coated the heck out of my freshly pink nails. Quite pleased with how they turned out, I tweeted a photo of my new manicure and cited this blogger's home office decor as my inspiration (she was my blogging hero after all). Here was my tweet and the photo that accompanied it:
My newest manicure inspired by @byEmily 's home office- pink with gold sparkles http://yfrog.com/h7gu0uzj
Later that day, she tweeted back (I took her real name out of the tweet):
Today as I was checking her blog (as I do every day) this was what I found...
"I love when an unexpected nail polish color combination turns out perfectly (kind of like this eery combination from last fall). Today I layered a pretty pastel (Essie’s French Affair) with a sparkly top coat (Sephora for OPI’s Only Gold For Me) and couldn’t be happier with the results. It’s fun and flashy when it catches the light and subdued and sweet indoors."
followed by these photos...
Now clearly this is not about a case of me being upset about borrowed ideas as I'm fully aware that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and whatnot. The part that hurt was that after I had cited the source of inspiration when tweeting to my 3 followers, she did not extend the same courtesy when blogging it to her thousands of followers. As of this post there were 49 comments commending her on and thanking her for the wonderful idea. Does a lowly Arkansas blog not deserve a shout out?
Again, I realize this is quite petty but the big picture is that I suddenly feel burned by someone I used to look up to. I think that's a notion a lot of people can relate to. Please lift my spirits and tell me you understand the feeling?
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Mallory this has happened to me in various situations, not necessarily in the blogosphere, but I know how you feel! You are justified!
ReplyDeleteMallory....you are a bright, fashion forward, innovative young woman. It comes as no big surprise that someone tried to your claim your idea as their own personal genius. I am sorry that it happened:( The good news is: you'll continue being a mover and shaker that others will notice. The bad news is: some that notice will "borrow" your material without asking or crediting their inspiration. I love the blog and I am wondering how gold would look over some Essie Turquoise and Caicos polish :)!!! Love your blog, keep it up!
ReplyDeleteHey Mallory,
ReplyDeleteI just saw your comment (and subsequent post) so I wanted to make sure I got back to you. I'm a big proponent of giving credit where credit is due, but I honestly didn't remember your manicure back in February. I have over 30,000 twitter followers and while I try to be as responsive as possible, I simply can't remember every single thing that's been sent to me. I've been layering colors with sparkles for years (as evidenced from my September post), so I hope you realize that I wasn't denying you any credit. I'm so sorry if you feel slighted, but just wanted to reiterate that I always site my sources (for both pictures and inspiration). I wish you all the best.
Of course, I understand. Thank you for your response.
ReplyDelete