Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Bad News - I was Plagiarized

    Hey, babes! I have some bad news to share with all of you. Last night while checking my blog traffic sources, I found out that I was plagiarized. I was shocked! At first, I was stunned. My blog doesn't have a large following and I'm incredibly grateful to have each and every one of you supporting me. I'm not exactly sure how to go about this because I never thought I'd have to deal with this, but here it goes!

The post that was stolen can be found here: Tillie Polish - Wonderland Collection plus Promo Code.
The post is question has been deleted by the blogger Bedizzle. (The blog is deleted now.)

     First, I came across this in my traffic sources. I thought it was a bit strange to find a line from one of my posts in my sources. 



     I copied the line "cozy up to me is a beautiful cool nude with a super creamy formula" and entered it into Google. I then found these results. 


     Well, that's a little odd, isn't it? I thought it might just be a coincidence. Nope. Not at all. Bedizzle stole nearly all of the text from my post! She took my intro talking about MY feelings this time of year, my description and review for Cozy Up To Me and Tillie, and my blurb about the promo code for 15% off. Here are screenshots that I took from my phone last night. They're easier to read than the screenshots from my laptop. Keep in mind that my original post is from December 6th while hers was from the 10th.

Click on me to make me bigger! 

     Bedizzle also took my descriptions and used them on Instagram. Keep in mind that she has over 114K followers on Instagram. Yes, over 114K followers. Insane, right? 


     All of that sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it? This is not okay. She stole my words, my hard work, and my personal thoughts. Her review was NOT honest; it was MINE. Plagiarizing can never be justified.

     I emailed Tillie Polish first and then fowarded the message to Bedizzle. She responded shortly after. (I'm still waiting to hear back from Tillie. It's not their fault at all. They're just an innocent bystander in this and I hate that this happened with their product in the post. They're such great ladies!) I haven't responded to Bedizzle again because I'm SO furious right now. I'm sharing the email because her email address was on her PUBLIC blog that has been removed.



     A friend of mine sent her a KIK message to ask her about it before I received the email response. Her response made me roll my eyes. It really isn't acceptable. If she was so tired, she could have waited to post the review the next day. Or, just post the pictures and add in the text the next day. Is it really that hard?


      I'm not sure about you, but that excuse never would have worked in college and it surely isn't going to work with me. Bedizzle posted an apology on Instagram last night, but I was sleeping. A friend was nice enough to grab these screenshots for me. Bedizzle deleted the post and made her account private. (Which doesn't really do anything for a user with 114K followers.) Here's the apology and some comments (the usernames have been blocked out) from her followers. I'm still in shock that some people thought it was okay! 


     I wasn't the only one she stole written material from. I have screenshots of a few other instances, but it's not my place to post about them here. I'll leave that to the other bloggers. Unfortunately, if you're a fellow blogger, you won't be able to tell if she's stolen anything from you as she's deleted her entire blog. I think that speaks pretty loudly about this issue. Also, how can anyone dismiss this and think it's okay?

     I put a lot of work into this blog. I try to bring you worthwhile content that is put together in a concise, easy to read, and enjoyable format. Like I said before, I never thought this would happen to me. A private apology and a halfhearted and short-lived post on a private Instagram account  is not enough. This needs to be shared so that others know about it. If you're a company who is looking for someone to swatch or review for you, please think twice before using someone who would blatantly take the thoughts of someone else and play them off as their own. There are plenty of hard working and honest bloggers out there. This is just one bad egg out of hundreds it not thousands of great bloggers like myself. (Just a shameless pat on the back!)

    Feel free to share this post. I want all of her followers to know about this. There's absolutely no way to justify this.

I'll update this as I get more information. Please excuse any typos as I'm currently seeing red. 


Edited to Add: December 18, 2013 11:20 AM EST

     Bedizzle is still ignoring my emails. Yesterday afternoon, she deleted her Twitter account. (I have screenshots of that, too.) She also lost over 1,000 followers on Instagram and went from over 1,000 pictures down to about 700 before deleting her account. As of right now, she's in hiding. She was also featured on Nail It's website in October. I shared my post with them and her article has been removed until further notice. It's really great to see everyone stepping up and taking action to stop this.

    I can't thank you all enough! I never thought I'd get such an overwhelming response of love and support. It's great to know that people from the nail polish community and beyond and come together and support such a small blog like mine. Yesterday was pretty turbulent, but I felt so much better as the day went on. So thank you to everyone who read, shared, or commented on this post, to all my new followers and fans on here, Facebook, and Instagram, and to all of you who reached out to me on email. I truly appreciate all of you!  You've been the silver lining in this otherwise stormy situation!

101 comments:

  1. Absolutely unacceptable!! I would definitely forward the stolen material from other bloggers to them so that they can also take action.

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  2. Wow, how bold of her. I totally understand you and I can't understand how someone can steal Posts from a private Blog. I mean... if you are not able to write something about (for example) nail polish and some nice words for your readers... why do you have an own blog? That doesn't make any sense and: Blame on her! (Sorry for my english ^^)
    I hope everything will get alright. Good luck and have some nice Christmas days! =)

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  3. I am so sorry that happened to you. As a blogger myself that is one of my fears. That is absolutely awful. I know there's nothing anyone can say to make this better, but you do have a wonderful blog. My only suggest is to disable right click on your blog so that people can't copy anything on it. Good luck! :)

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  4. I am so sorry this happened to you, and am horrified that someone would do this. Thank you so much for sharing this. It really makes me, as a blogger, worry about policing my content on the Internet. I hope this doesn't happen again, but in the event that it does I will be sure to explore my options as to how to deal with it.

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  5. Thank you for your support! I wasn't sure about how to handle it, but this seemed like the best way. We all need to be on the look out because I'm sure she's not the only one.

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  6. Thanks for the tip! I had a script to disable the right click, but it doesn't seem to be working anymore.

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  7. Thank you, Bianca! I appreciate your kind words. :)

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  8. She's only sorry she got caught. If you hadn't found out, she would've been fine leaving that up there. I hope any other bloggers she's ripped off decide to call her out as well. There has to be a reason she deleted her entire blog.

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  9. I'm in the process of that now! Thanks!

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  10. That's what I'm thinking. She might bring her blog back with a different name. I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

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  11. That is NOT okay. Bloggers (like you!) put a lot of time and effort into their blogs, and to just blatantly copy and steal that work?! Shame on her. How did she get such a huge following? :/

    Ugh there's so much drama going on this week!

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  12. Well done on you for calling her out. It should defo be done more often! It's your hard work, not hers and she doesn't deserve 1 follower let alone 114k

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  13. I can't believe that there are people who are ok with this and think it was just an "honest mistake" this is disgusting!! As a blogger myself I would be beyond pissed off. You take time an effort to bring something to your readers that is your own opinion and then someone just copies it because they "were really tired"!?! WTF!! I think people are forgetting what morals are.

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  14. This is utterly ridiculous and I'm glad you posted about it. Saying "look how sorry I am" doesn't mean jack if you don't actually recognize that you did wrong. When I feel tired, I don't copy others' work, I just don't post. It's really not that hard to not plagiarize.

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  15. You're right! I'm tired 80% of the time. That doesn't mean I copy someone else's work.

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  16. I can't get over an account with so many followers using someone else's descriptions.

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  17. I am so sorry this happened to you. Some people have no conscience to guide them, no moral compass either. Hopefully her actions will be noticed by the nail polish community and her followers will realize that it's 'not acceptable behaivor.

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  18. i dont know if im more shocked at the so called blogger who did this or for the people who said it was ok for her to have done it. at this point, i have to just take the internet with a FEW grains of salt because it just keeps getting worse and more acceptable by others. obviously those people who say "move on" don't blog. they just think we all get "free" polish and should shut up, right? omg i hate the world some days. im really sorry this happened to you Ashley.

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  19. Thank you, babe. Some people see this and think it's so easy to do. It's not. There's a lot that goes into blogging. I'm glad you understand.

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  20. Exactly! She even stole my reason for not blogging because she was too tired to blog for herself. Shady, huh?

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  21. I think this is a fear of any blogger. Even if we only have 10 followers (like my tiny little blog) or 1 million followers, we still put a lot of work into our posts. Its such a slap in the face to have someone do this!! And this is no "honest mistake" ugh. How someone can think this is ok boggles my brain. Sorry this happened to you, but I think you handled it very well.

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  22. Definitely. It would have been completely different in some young girl reposted one of my photos without credit. It's not right, but it's not as bad as this. It's outrageous.

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  23. Ashley,

    This is really terrible to say but, integrity isn't something everyone adheres to. There are different ways of getting to a place and unfortunately there are a number of people out there who will chose lying, cheating and stealing to get ahead versus putting in the hard work. While it's flattering that she used your words, she should have quoted you directly if she couldn't figure out a better way to describe the polish. I don't know how old this person is but she has the attitude of a teenager who doesn't realize how their actions effect others.

    I am utterly appalled at the fact that her followers think it's okay to plagiarize work. What the heck is wrong with society today.

    I never really check to see if something like this happens to be since my blog is so small but maybe I should.

    best,

    Chrissy of Crashbeauty.com

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  24. SMH... That's terrible. I have no words.

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  25. I had no idea who she was until I saw this. It looks like she took her blog down, but I was able to view some of it on Bloglovin', and she did this to me as well. I decided to send her an email letting her know I'd have a team of lawyers crammed all the way down her throat if she ever did it again. Ridiculous.

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  26. I am sorry that this happened to you.... It must be devastating! I am so disappointed at bedizzle as she was one of my favorite people on Instagram, but I am hitting the "unfollow" button right now and I am pretty sure other bloggers would too.

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  27. I think this may scare her away from blogging. I'm sure no one will want her reviewing for them after this.

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  28. Thanks for your kind words. I think that she may have thought she could get away with it because my blog is just a tiny part of the beauty blog community.

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  29. Wow - this is hard to take in! I'm so sorry this happened to you. Why on earth is this person blogging of she can't think of what to write.


    I could maybe understand (but never condone) someone stealing pics if they had poor nails/application skills/photography but never the words. Seriously, if I'm too tired to write, I just don't - why can't the post wait until another day?

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  30. She has already lost around 1000 followers!

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  31. I'm glad that people are wising up to her and not following her! :)

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  32. I really appreciate the support!

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  33. I noticed that a bit ago! Maybe this will be a wake up call to her.

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  34. You should check her pinterest as well and see if your stuff is there. http://www.pinterest.com/bedizzles/

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  35. so sorry this happened to you Ashley. Stuff like this just makes me sick. I have no words.

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  36. How is stealing content ok with people? Geez... your idea, your work. It's totally wrong. JUST GIVE CREDIT. Or use your own ideas, especially if you are getting free polish. My goodness.

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  37. Also: someone on facebook on Nail Polish Wars page noticed that she has at least two other ig accounts: bedizzle_V2 and maybe bedizzle_24. Worth checking those two out as well.

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  38. Apparently some people are okay with thieves.

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  39. Me, too. I hope she didn't take anything from you!

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  40. I'm so sorry this happened to you - a small silver lining is that it helped me find your blog! Keep up the excellent work :)

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  41. I can't believe the nerve & thought process of some of her followers! Crazy! You copy your friend's essay in school, it's called plagiarism & you get in trouble. It's simple really. If your too tired or too lazy or not creative enough to write your own words, then you probably shouldn't have a blog. Of course, this is just my opinion!

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  42. What an idiot she is. I would hate too and want to kill her and tear the flesh out of her nails if she would do that to me. I totally support you and I hope you get the recognition you deserve!!

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  43. Thank you! It wasn't easy to stay composed while I wrote this post. I tried my best to hold my tongue!

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  44. Thank you! I hope you enjoy it. :)

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  45. That's really horrible. People should never plagerise but sadly, copying seems to be ok now. Keep on doing what you're doing cos I think it's great! :)

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  46. Oh, Ashley. I am so sorry you have to deal with this. I can't even imagine the kind of nerve this takes and to not even be remorseful about it. If she hadn't been caught, she'd still be doing it. Wouldn't surprise me if she doesn't pop up somewhere else with a different name.

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  47. Thank you! I'll get back to regular posts soon. :)

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  48. That's what I'm thinking. Her IG is losing followers and she's deleting her pictures. I just want her to respond to my email.

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  49. So disheartening and sickening! :'( I can't believe some people have such gall, and then for her followers to defend her! Credibility just goes down the drain. I'm sorry this happened to you, Ashley! :(

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  50. I haven't seen anyone defending her since this post. I hope they realize she was wrong.

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  51. Not cool at all. She didn't even provide you credit or a link back. Who does that and thinks it's ok? If I was a "follower" of hers and I saw she did that I would have unfollowed her immediately. Sorry this happened to you but its a good lesson for anyone who blogs, no matter how big or small the blog is!

    xo.
    jenn @ hello, rigby!

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  52. Omg! I'm so sorry this happened to you. I can't believe someone with so many followers has to steal other peoples stuff to keep her blog going unless she's just been doing that the whole time. I would be so upset if something like that happened with my stuff.

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  53. WOW... I can't believe that Bedizzle would do that! I looked up to her on Instagram :( It goes to show that even fellow nail artists steal from their own family. What is happening to this community.... I'm so sorry that this happened to you. If someone plagiarized my blog, I would absolutely flip!! It's no different from taking a picture from Instagram and not crediting the original artist! Shame on her.

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  54. 2 weeks from now she'll have imported all of her old blog into a new one.

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  55. Unfortunately, you're probably right.

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  56. It wasn't easy to take the high road, but it was well worth it. All the love and support is overwhelming in the best way possible!

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  57. Sorry to hear this. Being a blogger I totally understand the pain taken to write, edit pics and post a blog. Shame on her

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  58. This is so completely messed up. "I was tired, so I stole your work" is an absolutely rubbish excuse, and I'm appalled at the people defending her.

    On the upside, I'll be following you now, and I'm sure I'm not the only new reader you'll get out of this mess :)

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  59. WOW, what a huge lazy loser she is! This blows my mind, she didn't even make a tiny attempt to hide the plagiarizing. So sorry this happened to you. I'd be devastated also.
    Oh, and the people on her Instagram defending her are delusional.

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  60. I'm so sorry this happened to you. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. WRITING the blog post is definitely the most tedious part of blogging for me but while I may not be Shakespeare, they are my own words and thoughts and feelings and anyone who thinks it's ok to plagiarize is a lazy, worthless moron in my opinion. There's one blogger who's a pro at C&Ping press releases from blogs authorized to receive them "because once it's out there on the web, it's fair game." GAH!

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  61. The comment about polishing your nails becomes plagiarism is hilarious. I can't even handle it.

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  62. I'm glad good has come from this! :)

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  63. It's a lot harder than most realize!

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  64. I am still shocked. I followed her Instagram for a long time and always thought that she is doing a great job. And now I have to find out she stole the whole content??? OMG..... I really don't understand why some followers defend her! I am sorry that this happened to you and other bloggers. If I could I would unfollow her but she deleted her account ;)

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  65. she is a piece of shit. what a horrible person. if the pictures are hers, why is it so difficult to write a few words of her own? is she too stupid to form a sentence? if she has sponsors, sent them a link to this...that girl doesnt deserve followers.

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  66. Wow.. just wow! What a nasty/stupid/weird thing to do! I am very sorry for you and other bloggers that might have been plagiarized.

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  67. This is seriously discraceful behaviour! there's no excuse for it. I can't believe the comments from people defending her. If they sat down to write even one blog post they would think differently. For me at least, finding the right words is the hardest bit of blogging. It's quite clear they're commenting on a subject they have no understanding of!
    Sorry that happened to you, what a bitch!

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  68. Stealing is just wrong, doesn't matter if it's a physical object, pictures, or words. I've had to ask people not to copy my blog posts. What I want to say to potential bloggers is this: If you don't have anything ORIGINAL to say, then don't blog, period. Especially in the cosmetics and nail polish world, people seem to think that all you have to do is put up the name of your new blog and you'll be showered with free samples from all the big companies. Not so. You have to work for it. Too many people want shortcuts and don't care how they get them.

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  69. The funny part is that I don't see any of those defenders now. That really makes you wonder.

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  70. As of now, she's deleted her blog, Twitter, and Instagram. I think she's fallen off the radar for now.

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  71. That's the ticket! I don't care how much time you put into doing your nails and taking pictures. If you can't come up with a generic description, just don't add any text. I appreciate your comment!

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  72. her other two instagrams are still active, though it looks like they haven't been updated in a week or so.

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  73. I saw that. I'm not sure if it's actually her or if it's a "fan" reposting for her.

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  74. Gosh, I'm SO tired of this happening! I wish people could think for themselves. And I am appalled that people think this is okay! How is taking someone else's words because you are not capable of an original thought "okay"?? I'm lost on that one. Sorry this happened to you!! :(

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  75. I don't think I'll ever understand this. Thanks for your kind words!

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  76. holy crap. This is so wrong in so many ways. I hope she loses all her followers.

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  77. She actually deleted all her accounts!

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  78. Good for you for posting this for everyone to see. Its a shame that someone so "popular" in the nail community thinks this was okay. We've got your back, girl! ♥

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  79. Ugh, look at all those idiots defending her! Why do people blindly defend things they're a fan of, even in the face of that person doing something wrong like this? Ridiculous!

    I'm glad you stepped up and she's having to face the consequences of her actions. Creative theft is NOT ok! Some people might think "it's all about sharing, who cares about who created it," but that's not right. If content creators keep getting ripped off and other people are using their work to gain followers, then those original creators will stop creating the new works and everything becomes stagnant. Good on you and everyone else who has responded to this with punitive action against Bedizzle and her "works."

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  80. Well I just found u and I'm glad I did. I followed bedizzle for ages and loved her work. No more. Now I'll follow you :). I put so much work into my blog, if someone stole my work I would die.

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  81. You have no right calling someone a piece of shit, unless you actually know her. What she did was wrong but that's no way to talk to someone or call anyone that. Thought you were all adults and knew better.

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  82. You don't see any of her followers because none of her followers follow your blog lol

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  83. It seems that her blog didn't have much of a following to begin with. Her IG followers weren't given a chance to see her wrongdoing because she disappeared.

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  84. Why would anyone want to know someone who stole from others? That's not exactly a personality trait I look for in others.

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  85. You have no right judging someone from one mistake they made

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  86. You would've apologized and deleted your account if you were in the same situation?

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  87. It wasn't just one mistake. She did this to multiple bloggers.

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  88. I wouldn't plagiarize someone else's work.

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