Who Gets To Tell The Story?

A few weeks ago, Page Six reported that Anna Delvey was shopping her memoir to publishers. Regardless of how true that is, it got me thinking about who gets to tell—and profit from—their story.

In the nearly eleven months I've been working on a con-artist-themed novel, I've crossed paths with the Delvey story more than once. 

If you aren't familiar, let me explain in brief: A Russian girl tells rich people she's a wealthy German heiress, insists she's starting a members-only club, and steals $275,000. Gets caught, goes to jail, decides she really wants to be an influencer.

Last July, I read "My Friend Anna," Rachel Williams' account of how Delvey befriended and defrauded her. The book was a deeply moving account of what it's like to be a victim of a pathological liar. So why are we letting the pathological liar tell the story?

Maybe it's because, when the trial ended and the stories of how her lies affected those closest to her faded into the background, we were left with a woman who was very persistent in her desire to be an icon. Maybe it was the glamour of her high-society lifestyle. Maybe it was just some twisted notion of an "anti-hero."

In any case, by continuing to like and follow her exploits, we're fanning the very fire that pushed her into the spotlight in the first place—notoriety and vanity. And in this fluid domain we call the internet, the line between fame and infamy can be as thin as a dollar bill (or a fake wire transfer receipt).

Attention is a valuable currency, especially these days. It isn't just who we listen to or what content we consume; by giving someone our attention, we lend them the tools to build their platform. How we budget our attention tells a lot about us. It reveals our true priorities.

And that is a high price to pay for photos of lavish dinners and a bedazzled ankle monitor. Because when you really get down to it, she conned all of us, in a way. Anna Delvey is (in)famous now. She got what she wanted all along.

#attentioneconomy #narrative #priorities #mediaethics #popculture