Yes, you read that title right…..your local idiot got catfished on Kik.
In the year 2012, I was a fresh and young 13 years of age. Young and naive, lost and confused, desperate and in a constant state of boredom. And I should mention that at 13 I didn’t have that much going on in my life so when I thought I was talking to one of my favorite celebrities at the time, my world was rocked.
I hope you didn’t think I was trying to find love on Kik, because I was actually trying to get noticed by Brooke Hyland from ‘Dance Moms’. Probably one of the most random catfish stories you’ve ever come across, but hear me out.
It was a simpler time back then. Every Tuesday I’d tune into ‘Dance Moms’ at 7 o’ clock sharp to watch Christi and Kelly fight with Melissa on how Maddie gets all the solos and is always on the top of the pyramid (if you have not watched a single episode of ‘Dance Moms’, please do yourself a favor and get on that immediately to understand this ridiculous reference). This show was literally the highlight of every week of my life for YEARS and I would never shut up about my love for it to everyone I knew.
So naturally when I got my first smartphone I had to download Instagram ASAP to follow all the moms and their girls from the show. Sadly for me this was before account verification on Instagram existed, so I was really out here risking it all trying to figure out whose accounts were real and who was trying to play me. Spoiler alert -I got played. :(
So let’s set the scene real quick- I’m chilling on my bed in my Justice pajamas, it’s like 6 p.m. and I’m scrolling on Instagram stalking my favorite celebrities. Side note- the fact that it’s 8 years later and my routine has barely changed is kinda sad.
Anywayyy, back to 2012. So I came across a Brooke Hyland account with a Kik in the bio and somehow I thought to myself, “Wow, that looks legit.” Seriously, what celebrity in any year of existence has had a Kik account, let alone plugged it??
Of course baby Yasmin gets all excited and begins to type the fake username into Kik on her Motorola Razor, and says something stupid like:
Me: “Hi Brooke!!!!<3 This is Yasmin I like luv u a lot and wanted to say hi:):)”
I then patiently wait for a reply thinking I really did something there.
Now I would pay good money to have someone revive the screenshots of these conversations for me because oh my god they were hilarious. Apparently when you log out of Kik for 8 years they delete your old chats- and might I add without asking. Rude, I know.
So I will try my best to give you the gist of what is left in my memory, fortunately it was emotionally scarring so I remember a lot for it being 8 years ago.
And on top of that, I documented a lot of this experience in my Hello Kitty Diary so in lieu of the screenshots I will be writing out a brief synopsis of the dialogue.
Ten minutes(ish) later and it happens…I GET A REPLY!!
Brooke: “Hi Yasmin, Its Brooke thx 4 being such a gr8 fan<3”
WOW so now I think I’m cool and all, but of course I have to thank her for taking time out of her busy schedule to reply to my desperate texts.
Me:“Omg I can’t believe u responded!!!”
Brooke: “Hahaha no problem:) so where do you live?”
*record scratch* Now wait a minute.
You may be thinking, wait did this person actually ask where do you live?? And to answer your question, YES they did!!!!!
But you’re probably thinking surely you didn’t disclose that information? ACTUALLY YES I DID. WITHOUT HESITATION.
Me: “Haha I live in Kansas<3”
*slams head in door* YES y’all, at 13 years old I disclosed where I live, to a STRANGER that I thought was Brooke Hyland from ‘Dance Moms’. Honestly I’m surprised I’ve been alive for this long because wow being stupid back in the day almost cost me my life.
Luckily I only disclosed my state of residence- this doesn’t make the situation that much better but you know Kansas is kind of a broad answer I suppose. But I probably should’ve finally realized this was a scam when the person responded with this after I said I live in Kansas:
Brooke: “Omg that’s so crazy I just had a meet and greet in Kansas we should hang”
Me: “WOW that’s such a crazy coincidence I’d love to but I have social studies homework:(:(”
First of all why did I think it was normal that this chick was ~coincidentally~ having a meet and greet in Kansas?? Second of all, who let me have access to a phone with WiFi at this age?? I clearly did not have enough brain cells for this.
So I guess I thought I was a bad bitch for a while because I declined Brooke Hyland’s invite to hang out to go do a writing assignment on the Euphrates river.
This energy soon died after I came to the VERY late realization that I was NOT in fact talking to Brooke Hyland (shocking). Essentially the turning point came maybe a month later when I texted this:
Me: “Hey Brooke:):) Just wondering how school is going 4 u ik it rlly sucks for me now:(“
To which she replied with a random answer on how she hates *going* to school. Upon reading this I thought I had just cracked a mystery case and realized that the Hyland sisters were HOMESCHOOLED and did not engage in the physical activity of *going* to school, thus making the creepy Kik imposter a fraud.
To make a long story short, I was a major fool along with many other preteens in the early 2000s. Reminiscing on this experience made me realize how easy it was to get catfished back in the day and how it still is. However, at this age I sadly did not learn my lesson because I recently stumbled across a fan mail letter I sent to Laura Marano on Gmail months later:
Who knows why I felt the need to send this email and again why I thought this was legit- but at least I got another good laugh out of it.
Pro tip: Next time a celebrity promotes their Kik in their Instagram bio or asks you to send them fan mail on Gmail, consider it a scam.