On Monday December 16, a BBC docudrama entitled Fake Heiress explored Anna Delvey’s rise and fall. You may not know who she is, I also didn’t until I read stories about her. After watching her story I concluded that Anna is testimony of how easily appearances can blind us, especially when applied well by someone who wants to fit in a certain category of people or status.

Basically, they fake it till they make it or till they can’t fake it anymore. 

I am reminded of my high school where a few classmates who came from good homes and carried nice clothes would share them with us on Saturdays for photos. Recently we were reviewing those photos wondering who owned what.

Some of us who did not have trendy stuff, not even once took photos in our clothes, we always borrowed. Times have changed, people might not borrow in schools today but we live in an era where the gorgeous, slaying ones will be given freebies in order for them to pose and post photos in them.

If a girl in Nyamagabe was watching reality TV she would be amazed at how much these people possess. She would desire to own beautiful things and might vow to do all it takes. Now, come to the city where a lot of people struggle so hard to fit into certain social groups.

There is nothing wrong with aspiration, in fact, it is possibly what fuels a lot of people and jolts them to the next level. It only becomes problematic if one has to borrow, deceive and steal in order to be seen to belong. A story is told of a lady who for long said she was an orphan and tied herself on a rich uncle’s family yet her parents were alive.

Some people go to good schools because their parents have the means, then others go to the same schools because of parents that are willing to make a sacrifice just so their child has the best education.

A friendship kicks in; these people from two different backgrounds become friends but it’s not easy on the child without much, because unlike the other one whose parents have it all, this one is required to get a job and take care of the parents after school. But it does not happen because the little money he gets he wants to spend lavishly to keep up with his rich friend. 

In 2018, New York Magazine had an expose on Anna Delvey, a German girl who had traversed New York pretending to belong to a wealthy family. She spoke real deals and when she needed a bail out it was thousands of dollars to pay for a night out because her card had failed, and due to time differences, she could not receive help from home.

Using different lies, she tricked friends and businesses out of hundreds of thousands of dollars; she got them to trust her by looking and sounding the place. You might not be lying about being an heiress and maybe the law will never catch up with you because you’re not telling big lies, but the psychological torture of living a fake life cannot be compared to anything.

One of life’s best silent rules is to never compare your life to another person’s, you don’t know what they do to have that which you admire on them.