Current Events > In bizarre reverse catfishing story, married creep turns out to be teenage girl

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://deadspin.com/teen-girl-posed-for-8-years-as-married-man-to-write-abo-1820305588

For the last eight years, baseball fan-turned-writer Becca Schultz has presented herself online as Ryan Schultz, a false identity she assumed when she was 13 years old, duping and harassing women on Twitter along the way.

On Wednesday night, a woman named Erin tweeted a series of screenshots announcing that Schultz is not actually Ryan, a married father of two studying to become a pharmacist. Instead, Schultz is a 21-year-old college student in the Midwest, whose entire career as an aspiring baseball writer has been under a fraudulent byline.

Schultz began contributing to Baseball Prospectuss local White Sox blog at the end of the 2016 season and wrote for BP South Side and BP Wrigleyville throughout the 2017 season. Additionally, Schultz wrote for the SB Nation sabermetrics site Beyond the Box Score throughout 2017.

People who knew Ryan Schultz online say that in retrospect, some of his behavior seemed odd, but no one expected that this moody White Sox fan from Missouri would actually be a teenage girl.

Schultzs fraud was as true to the catfish genre as can be. She told the people who discovered she was not who she said she was that she assumed the identity because she felt as if she couldnt write about baseball professionally as a woman, especially at the age of 13. As the deception went on, she couldnt figure out how to get out of the middle of her web of lies.

Over time, Ryan formed serial relationships with women who use Twitter to talk about baseball and hockey. Some women told me that he would get drunk and berate them; others told me they felt emotionally abused and manipulated because he would imply that hed hurt himself if they didnt continue to talk to him. Ryan received nudes from at least two women I spoke with, one of whom said she did it because she was afraid he would hurt himself if she didnt.

Schultzs story is interesting for reasons far beyond its sheer shock value. Its entirely reasonable that at the time she created the Ryan persona, she might not have thought she could easily have a career writing about baseball as a woman. Shes also drawn a big red arrow sign pointing toward the exploitative ecosystem of online sportswriting, which created the conditions for her to get her enviable opportunities without much interrogation from editors who have a lot to do and few resources with which to do it.

Most of all, though, there are real women who have been genuinely hurt by their interactions with a woman who, as she tells the story, caught herself up in a lie she didnt know how to untell, not least because it was bringing her what she wanted.
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I wanted to be a sportswriter, she said, but I was young and thought that the only way people would notice me is if I was the stereotypical guy. So I chose a name that was similar enough to mine, and I went with it. It was fine and probably wouldve been over a year or two later if I hadnt met Alex. I was young and had no idea what to do, so I just acted like I thought a man would do. That slowly led me down a path to some things that I was very uncomfortable doing but didnt even realize were happening. At the time I still probably had the valid excuse that I was young. But things started to get serious, and I had no clue how to dig myself out of the hole I was in.

By that point, Becca says, she had enough Twitter followers that she felt like she couldnt just disappear.

I tried a few times to just slowly back away, but I always came back, she said. Those couple times I came back are the biggest regrets of my life, because that was probably the best and only way I had out until now.

By the time Becca graduated from high school, she had been performing as Ryan for five years. She told me that she was in so far that I didnt know what were my thoughts and what were his especially online.

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...Huh.
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Not catfishing, honestly - that's one level to creating false identities. This is just mentally disturbed with a severe split personality disorder.
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Becoming the mask.
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masticatingman posted...

Not catfishing, honestly - that's one level to creating false identities. This is just mentally disturbed with a severe split personality disorder.

"mentally disturbed with a severe split personality disorder"

lmao
More like shitposting taken to superdeity ubersaiyan status x2.

So was she a good baseball writer or what?
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Hexenherz posted...

masticatingman posted...

Not catfishing, honestly - that's one level to creating false identities. This is just mentally disturbed with a severe split personality disorder.

"mentally disturbed with a severe split personality disorder"

lmao
More like shitposting taken to superdeity ubersaiyan status x2.

definitely not mutually exclusive
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she cute tho?
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TommyG663513 posted...

So was she a good baseball writer or what?

The story suggests: reasonably so.

In any event, Ryans White Sox recaps were strong enough that the site offered opportunities to write more original pieces, including a two-part piece on the White Sox rebuild. In February 2017, Ryan also got in some reps at BP Wrigleyville.

Baseball Prospectuss local sites work as small standalone sites. The editors are given a small budget and can distribute it to writers as they see fit; most writers work for free or for up to about $100 per month. The business is mostly run on passion and intellect, which I thought offered a pretty simple explanation for how Ryan passed through without much notice: He must have been writing for free. One source, however, said Ryan was a paid contributor to BP

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Antifar posted...

TommyG663513 posted...

So was she a good baseball writer or what?

The story suggests: reasonably so.

In any event, Ryans White Sox recaps were strong enough that the site offered opportunities to write more original pieces, including a two-part piece on the White Sox rebuild. In February 2017, Ryan also got in some reps at BP Wrigleyville.

Baseball Prospectuss local sites work as small standalone sites. The editors are given a small budget and can distribute it to writers as they see fit; most writers work for free or for up to about $100 per month. The business is mostly run on passion and intellect, which I thought offered a pretty simple explanation for how Ryan passed through without much notice: He must have been writing for free. One source, however, said Ryan was a paid contributor to BP

I mean, that is pretty damn good for someone who is so young. I would definitely think she has a future in it if this whole catfishing thing doesn't ruin her chances.
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I once catfished myself.
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cool

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Antifar posted...

People who knew Ryan Schultz online say that in retrospect, some of his behavior seemed odd, but no one expected that this moody White Sox fan from Missouri would actually be a teenage girl.

She's not a teenage girl though
Antifar posted...

Schultz is a 21-year-old college student in the Midwest

lol

Really hope no one is celebrating this or making excuses for her
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Frolex posted...

she cute tho?

this is important
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Lol wtf

Is she a CEman?
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Kaname_Madoka posted...

Lol wtf

Is she a CEman?

What if Muaythai was actually a teen girl.
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Frolex posted...

she cute tho?

Kaname_Madoka posted...

Lol wtf

Is she a CEman?

What if Vegy was actually a teen girl.
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Kaname_Madoka posted...

Lol wtf

Is she a CEman?

What if Vegy was actually a teen girl.
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needs pics
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