It's always flattering to find out that someone is a big fan of your work.
However, Lauren Bullen, the travel blogger behind the wanderlust Instagram account Gypsea Lust, recently came across an admirer who's on a mission to follow in her footsteps.
Literally.
Yep, Bullen was pretty shocked, not to mention super creeped out, when she stumbled upon an Instagram account, @diana_alexa, that featured a woman who travels the world to recreate the blogger's Instagram photos.
Shortly after she made the disturbing discovery, Bullen wrote a post on her blog, Gypsea Lust, fittingly titled "Imitation Is The Best Form Of Flattery," that calls out the woman who travels the world making exact copies of her Instagrams.
If basically stalking Bullen as she travels across the globe isn't unsettling enough...
...this Instagram admirer does more than mimic Gypsea Lust's travel itinerary.
If you take a close look at these copycat photos, it's not hard to see that this woman basically wants to be Lauren Bullen so bad, it's not even funny.
In addition to staking out the same photo locations...
...this woman also copies Bullen's signature poses in the photos...
...included her boyfriend in some of the snapshots just like Bullen...
...and oftentimes she'll even wear the same outfit as the Insta-famous travel blogger.
Yeah, it's not hard to see that this lady is not-so-low-key obsessed with Bullen's travel blog.
Bullen addressed this insanity in her blog post rant, stating, "I don't promote and tag everything I wear, so that would have taken a lot of time and work, even down to the anklets and necklace."
She continues, "Not to mention the cost of all this — those outfits and accommodations don't come at a cheap price."
"A lot of what [my boyfriend] and I do is work with companies and brands to create imagery & promotion — this is our business and how we are able to continue to create this for everyone."
The imitating Instagram account also jacked some of the clever captions on Gypsea Lust's photos...
And there was one instance where the shameless thief stole a photo from the Instagram account of Bullen's boyfriend altogether.
The Gypsea Lust blogger also reveals her uneasiness about the whole situation, saying, "When a girl travels across the world recreating your exact imagery over and over again you begin to worry."
Bullen's takeaway message from this odd occurrence is simple: Imitating someone else's artwork and passing it off as your own is totally unacceptable.
In the blog post, she writes, "I understand seeking inspiration from what I do — and I love that, but this truly shocked me."
"At first I thought it was all photoshopped & had to take screen shots to compare the two.. They honestly did an incredible job copying our imagery, controversially insane mimics, so I congratulate them for this!"
"But stealing someone's art- that's never okay."
The Instagram user behind the @diana_alexa account has since deleted all of the photographs and set the account to private.
Citations: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" (Gypsea Lust)
