Tap to unmute
The Facebook Author Who "Disappeared" For Two Years
Embed
- Published on Jan 23, 2023 veröffentlicht
- Today let's discuss the bizarre details of a recent drama in the book world- author Susan Meachen, thought to have passed away nearly three years ago, has suddenly re-emerged, alive and well. A strange story of lies, drama, impersonation, and even allegations of fraud- let's discuss, and hopefully debunk some of the misinformation surrounding the situation. It's a wild one.
❤︎❤︎ SOCIAL MEDIA ❤︎❤︎
Patreon - www.patreon.com/Izzzyzzz
Merch - www.izzzyzzz.com/
Twitter - IzzzyzzzArt
Instagram - izzzyzzz
Email [business inquiries only] - izzzyzzz@night.co
❤︎❤︎ MUSIC ❤︎❤︎
Petz Catz 2 OST
❤︎❤︎ DISCLAIMER ❤︎❤︎
All credit goes to the musicians and composers! This video is not meant to target or harass any person. This video does not condone or encourage anyone to harass or contact any person or persons discussed in this video. This video is purely for entertainment and informational purposes. 
Entertainment
Dated a girl who had a bunch of these romance Ebooks on Amazon as well as a couple in print from a major publisher and her writing advice was you can get away with literally anything as long as it's in romance novel form. I worked in a used book store at the time and I'd show her the craziest things and she'd be like "yeah, there's a whole subgenre where women fall in love with Santa Claus."
Rule 34 left the fanfiction world
Must have been an interesting girlfriend, whatever happened between you I hope she's doing all right, you too
I love humanity and the weird shit we cook up sometimes 😂
Izzzy describing the books as „pretty standard cliché romances“ after just telling us about how unique the author thought her concept was was great
@Erin Jones hi! So whats being a bot like?
@Murphie_ What you write about, luv? Do you publish online?
Seriously, the contrast was great 😂
I'm guessing she couldn't write "I love romance so here's my take on them."
Was was great?
"Its disgusting that online hate drove someone to kill themselves! We should retaliate by directing online hate towards people!" is classic facebook drama
More like Twitter drama tbh
@aaa nobody said that what
@finnfromspace there was this picture showing disney dolls but they had diiferent skin colors than usual (it was a collab btw). A few people liked the snow white one and others laughed at those people. basically facebook is filled with weird hate full people
The "buy my mom's books or I'll unlist them" part still baffles me. Whether it was her or her daughter, it was low to try to profit from the grief of those in the group.
ETA: I'll eat a whole bag of Haribo's sugar free gummy bears if Izzy ever posts a tutorial of her makeup looks.
Yep I legit agree
@Gin Andromeda but who’s the source of the alleged long-term hospitalizations? Susan herself? I think the most important point to note is that Susan had a known history of fabricating health scares for attention + money. Occam’s Razor
I'm still even doubting if all of the people involved were other people or it was just her all the time
Izzy has hearted your comment. *You've just doomed your stomach.*
I think it was crummy of her to continue the hoax. Her friends and fans thought she offed herself. Just declare indefinite sabbatical or disappear *without* claiming to be dead. Can't blame her for wanting to get away if it was that mentally taxing, but suicide is a serious topic: don't fake it.
@Gin Andromeda The first answer through a Google search is correct.
Never trust "proud mom" women
@Kyla Mckenna What is an ARG?
@himanbam True, but just to clarify, I was specifically referring only to those who were *accused*, not those who actually bullied her, if they did. I'm not personally familiar with this whole thing besides having watched this one video, and the details of who or who did not bully her wasn't discussed, so I was more talking about the author's liability here since that was the focus of the video. But obviously bullying is wrong, period...regardless of outcome. I just got the impression that there were a lot of wild accusations flying around after her faked death, and it put a lot of people in the crossfire who didn't do anything wrong or who blamed themselves unfairly (like the friend mentioned in the video). And because of how that must have affected them mentally, I think that's it's small-minded of her to speak only about how her actions were made to protect her own mental health, without acknowledging how she hurt others in the same sphere. Does that make more sense? Sorry for not clarifying on that.
@dubblebubbletoilandtrouble People should feel guilt about bullying other people. Just because nobody died this time doesn't mean it wasn't a possibility,
Another way to say it is,. Someone here said she attempted suicide, but fortunately she survived. Let's just say that was random chance, and that she could have actually died. Whether or not she survived doesn't change what the people bullying her did. So they should feel just as bad whether or not she survived. It's not like you do something wrong and it's a 50/50 chance whether you should feel guilt based on what happens afterwards. Whether they were actually to blame or whether people should harass them for it is another question though.
Making a bully romance anthology in the honour of a person who died because of bullying is…. a choice
Oh wait I think I got it
@Frederick Smith Didn't that show already end?
@Frederick Smith OH GOD
@florae Out of all of the choices, it is one of them.
This season of Brooklyn 99 is dedicated to George Floyd.
Izzzy is the only person who can look like my old Tumblr oc from 2014 and I admire her for that
Dang what happened to tumblr
Two bibbles with tumblr ocs
She is very brave but also pulls it off so well
@Jesus is God we are quoting thr bible randomly in yt comments? Lets go:
"If any man takes a wife, and goes in on her, and detests her, and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings a bad name on her, and says, 'I took this woman, and when I came to her I found she was not a virgin..." (Deuteronomy 22:13,14)
"But if ... evidences of virginity are not found for the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones..." (Deuteronomy 22:20,21)
It is absurd that people are claiming criticizing this author's actions is ableism. Being mentally ill (bipolar disorder in this case) is a reason for an action but it is not an excuse, especially when it is being used to deflect the pain you've caused others.
Source: I have borderline personality disorder.
my birth mom has bpd, bipolar, schizophrenia, you name it, and on at least one occasion she's said her "final goodbye", gone offline for a bit, then came back saying she was in a completely different place (ex going from california to texas)... and like, every time she does it we get really scared and worried, but she's done it so many times that it's gotten to the 'cry wolf' stage, even if we're still scared for her safety. the thing is, she always apologizes, but then does the same exact thing a few months or so later. i _also_ have bpd (not sure whether it's genetic or just a byproduct of similar trauma), and i'll lash out and do some crazy shit, but i apologize every time and actively try to not do it again. and like, i've done that suicide nonsense before, but it was only once when i was a teenager (my ex told me "hey that's fucked up of you to do" and i was like "shit you're right i didn't think about that" and immediately apologized and never did it again. surprisingly our breakup wasn't for another 6 years, but that's another story), and i realize how manipulative and abusive that kind of behavior is. and i don't think it's ableist to call out that kinda bullshit, cause no matter what mental illness you have, you need to take responsibility for your actions and do your best to actively not do that again. like, you shouldn't do it in the "oh you're just doing this for attention, i'm going to insult and belittle you and never listen to you like a human being again" way, but you should do it in the "okay that was really fucked up but i realize that you need professional help and will encourage you to do so, but i _will_ cut you out of my life if necessary" way, y'know?
sorry that this was long winded and i probably didn't explain what i mean properly (i have more mental shit going on than bpd that makes it hard for me to describe my thoughts sometimes), but i felt like i had to put my two cents in, having gone through similar situations
@Judy H dbt was the only reason i was able to get some control over my ocd! cbt is often the only type of therapy that is talked abt which makes no sense as its useless for the treatment of many disorders/individuals
@theMoporter yeah, my mom is bipolar and when it was found out that she was having an affair she tried to say she did it because she was manic and we couldn't judge her for that. Thing is, maybe you could sleep with someone else in a fit of mania, but you don't have an entire two year long affair that includes using your children unwittingly to create elaborate alibis because of a manic episode, especially because her particular brand is very short manic episodes with very long depressive ones.
aaa No, I am not forgiving you for brandishing your past hatred against every person you meet with a specific disability. That is your burden to unpack in therapy.
I think the part where she explicitly blamed the community for her fake suicide says everything you need to know about the people behind this.
@John Wright Oh! I'm flattered to be remembered after so long, hah-hah.
@Ellen Coleman I think you misunderstood me. I didn't mean that she blamed them for 'forcing' her to fake her own suicide, I mean that she faked her suicide and made sure to BLAME HER COMMUNITY FOR KILLING HER.
I don't see any way that's defensible. Even if you use the tortured explanation that it was 'somehow' an acceptable way to leave the community, what gets me is that it wasn't even just faking her death (bad enough to put people through that) but turning around and saying "She committed suicide and it's your fault'. Even if it's collective blame rather than individual, can you imagine what that would do somebody in that community to feel like they were, in some small way, responsible for the tragedy? And of course to turn it around to try and drive book sales? It's vile.
holy shit I remember seeing your NieR let's play like 7 years ago
@Ellen Coleman it would be fair to blame them for contributing to mental health problems. It is not fair to blame them for her choosing to fake suicide, that action is her choice. Theres a huge difference between how you feel and what you do when it comes to questioning morals.
As someone who's pretty heavily ingrained in the romance books community, it was **wild** watching all of this as it played out.
I was super excited when I saw the title of the video because I knew exactly what it was going to be about but also kind of nervous when I saw this video pop up, because it's so easy for someone to take potshots at the entire romance genre. I'm glad that wasn't the case!
Tbf, I've never seen a single video on this channel be disrespectful to the topic being covered!
I have been waiting so long for this :
clip-share.net/video/vC0roEkkKkQ/video.html
I was watching those Amazon screenshots to see if I recognized the authors or book titles. 😂
As a bipolar person, the way that they used her bipolar as an excuse pissed me off so much. Those of us with mental illnesses need help take responsibility for our actions and for those we hurt. Sometimes we can’t stop these events from happening but we can’t avoid accountability. Also her family was absolutely in the wrong here, faking a death is so fucked. Also they watched her spiral and engage in self destructive behaviors and didn’t do anything.
@Cassandra Vazquez bipolar is a mood disorder, but I agree with your sentiment regardless.
Call me cynical, but I'm quite positive that the claim that "her family" started the hoax is another lie. She did it all herself.
Fr. I have bipolar too, and I haaaate when people w/o mental illness dismiss any criticism of a mentally ill person as ableist. Like try that shit with me and see what happens....i have treatment resistant bp and i dont abuse, kill, hurt people. It's insulting to imply I have no control of my life and actions.
It’s super frustrating when I see people excuse all behaviors because of mental illnesses, they may be the reason but they aren’t an excuse. It’s also scary because the more people act like people with mental illnesses can’t be in control of any aspect of their life, including their own actions, the easier it is to argue we are a threat to those around us and ourselves, and push for forced hospitalization and involuntary commitment (just look at what NYC Mayor Eric Adams is doing with homeless folks, using the excuse that being homeless means they aren’t caring for themselves and throwing money at this instead of anything that’d be more meaningful).
@Alice the Mad Honestly. Like personality disorder need any more demonizing.
Listen I would be sympathetic if she didn’t 1) profit off her death 2) continue to run her own fan club under a different name 3) pointed fingers at others as the cause of her fake death 4) showed absolutely no remorse “let the fun begin”
4) That phrase alone annoys me about this ordeal because its so, so tone-deaf and... I don't know, entitled I guess, to think that her return like this (or at all) would be welcomed and celebrated. And the reality was more "bitch there will be no fun, buckle up"
I think we all know a case or two like this from the fanfiction world. the only difference is that because there's money involved with book sales, the story changes from fandom drama to potential fraud, and thus, this is covered by actual news sources instead of getting a writeup on encyclopedia dramatica.
Nah, you don't even get the luxury of an ED article these days, best I can give you is a 3 hour long video essay.
@Nassifeh What fandoms you write fanfic for?
Is encyclopedia dramatica a thing?
I honestly don't think this is it, but only because it's even sillier--I don't think the mainstream media really understands how "self-publishing" now works. It's literally no harder to do than posting fanfic, and the majority of Meachen's readers probably never bought a single copy of her books. They're all on Kindle Unlimited. I have fics on AO3 that have many more kudos than any of her books have ratings, and I can't stress enough that I'm nobody notable there.
I... don't think the media people covering this understand how completely irrelevant to the industry she was before this.
I have been waiting so long for this :
clip-share.net/video/vC0roEkkKkQ/video.html
this, to me, is inexcusable. as someone who's lost a friend, i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. it's one of the hardest parts of life. i can't imagine how hurt her ex-friends who she cruelly tricked are by this. grief is a monster, and the fact that she showed no remorse for the pain she caused makes me have 0 sympathy for this woman
bruh I am just paused at the beginning of the video when the daughter was like “sorry I thought everyone knew she was dead. dead people don’t post to social media.” i’ve re read this about a thousand times. is she implying that because the page had been inactive, everyone should have figured she was dead? sometimes alive people just don’t post to social media??? i’m so confused lmao I feel like there’s something i’m missing .
@sol diaz I didn't mean to be patronising. My comment was based on my experience of psychosis (both in myself & others), but of course that's just anecdotal. There's also a selection bias at play: if someone was in psychosis and was able to "hide" it well, it's unlikely I'd know! I should have given it more thought. Thanks for your criticism and correction (genuinely).
@Anna H (& Skeets McGrew)
not saying whether or not psychosis was a factor in that post but the idea that psychotic breaks are impossible to hide is ridiculously untrue, especially because she was a bipolar adult woman.
the two most severe kinds of episode that feature in bipolar 1 are psychotic mania and psychotic depression, the latter also appearing in bipolar 2. people whove experienced psychosis repeatedly for a long time can absolutely sound coherent when psychotic. it's kind of patronizing to psychotic people to act like psychosis makes people incoherent most of the time--it doesnt.
i think its entirely possible she was experiencing a psychotic depressive or manic episode at the time, whether or not she wrote it. i dont know if she actually wrote it herself, but a psychotic person would absolutely be _able_ to.
@Skeets McGrew I think you're looking for a juicier story that doesn't exist. The alleged story is completely believable to me.
i.e. Susan reaches a breaking point after her underlying mental health issues were exacerbated by her career as an author due to the subjects she chose to write about and toxicity from some members of the community. Her family wants to force her to remove herself from it for her own good so they announce that Susan has died. The announcement is made in a callous way without concern for how it'll affect the people who genuinely care about Susan, because her family is hurting after almost losing her and want to blame someone. Susan finds out what they've done and probably agrees it would be a bad idea to return to her old career.
However, she wants to publish the books she had already partially written so she pretends that her daughter is trying to publish her final books. She creates the fake account to mod the FB group because she wasn't able to completely leave the community that she'd been closely involved with for years and/or has plans to write more books so she wants to keep the community alive. She created an alt account because it would seem a little strange for her daughter to take over the group and/or she wanted to be completely anonymous.
@Anna H Yeah, I suppose an ad would be a pretty unlikely thing to add at the end of something psychotic. I think it's just because the whole thing feels so weird and off, I can't come up with a cohesive story that makes sense without including some serious mental illness. The way that first post acts like it's perfectly normal to not make a heartfelt announcement about the author's death. Like "Oh, yeah, well she's dead, thought y'all knew. Eh w/e." If it was all her own idea, you'd think she would make a concerted effort to write her own fake obituary. If it was her family's idea, you'd think they would know people had no reason to believe she was dead.
Something is very fishy. I just don't understand why
As someone who lost a close friend to suicide, the guilt from such a loss is immense. Like staying-up-each-night-wondering-if-it-was-your-fault-or-what-you-could-have-differently-for-years kind of immense. I still feel guilt ridden over what happened and it took me a lot of counseling to finally accept I’m not an awful human being who let their friend die. I can’t imagine what it would be like experience all of that only to learn it was fake. To put someone through something like this is beyond cruel and I really hope her friends leave her. She may deserve sympathy for her mental illness but her actions were abominable, plain and simple.
0:15 Just a clarification: she called herself Meme, that’s a name for grandma that’s common in the southern US. It’s kinda like Nana, nanny, or memaw and is pronounced like meemee
@Andrea you're supposed to post pics of grandmas fighting
@Andrea It’s not related to her nickname.
@Andrea I mean, I'm sure she knows what a meme is, but describing herself as one seemed out of keeping with the rest of her bio.
then what's a "meme war" at 10:45?
OHHHHHHH yeah that makes sense! (This is extra embarrassing because I call my own grandma Mimi, and it still didn't occur to me for a second that it could be spelled the other way)
I have a friend who is a finance bro. I introduced him to your content and he said "I have never felt further from the target audience but... She's awesome." He now watches all your videos. Greetings from Canada, another armpit of the Anglosphere 🍁✌️🥰
@James A Clouder Well, I guess thank you for that lmao. I suppose we are closer to where everyone actually lives than the Antipodes are, but we're also a bunch of rednecks who drink too much except for those of us who live in like 4 cities lmao
calling canada an armpit is very ironic lmao
@sugarblunt well we do be living life in a silly little box one way or another
Canada ain't an armpit of the Anglosphere. Australia is both armpits. Canada is... the hands? maybe?
Bro it's because we all love rubbernecking car wrecks and Izzy is a great tour guide, curating the best worst details lol
I have to say, those book covers are insane. Neon text, dozens of fonts, fancy curlicue scripts mixed with arial and comic sans; it’s very ‘graphic design is my passion’
Even if it's true that her family made the fake death announcement, not her, it's actually terrible that she chose to keep up the lie for so long. She could have corrected the issue at any time, she didn't have to wait two years.
And no, her mental health issues are not an excuse. Plenty of people suffer from depression and bullying without ever faking their own deaths and trying to scam people into buying their books 🙄
Faking your own death is one of the worst things you can do. It's the pain of losing someone on top of the pain of being backstabbed.
Mental health isn't an excuse for stuff like this.
I'm really glad that you didn't tell a one-sided story and gave accounts from both sides as well as not telling us what to feel about it. When mental health is involved, it can be a really nuanced topic that you need to think about. I'm not sure what to think of it myself but there is definitely a breach of trust between the author and her fans and nobody should be blamed if they can't trust her anymore.
edit: I feel like I might have too light of an opinion on the topic as an outsider looking in, but also mental health should never be an excuse to do horrible things, including just rolling with your 'fake death' if it was actually done by her family and 'blaming(?)' people for low sales.
there really is no nuance here, she took so many steps to profit off from her fake death and secretly stay within the book community she insists harmed her
@Ellen Coleman mental health isn't an excuse for people to do shitty things. It's a cause. Even if you do something that was the cause of mental health you still take responsibility for it instead of using it to hide behind a shield.
@Esther street I don't know, I think mental health problems are influenced a lot by both environment and genetics. Also someone with severe mental health issue is going to effect those close to them in some way. We can't assume anything about the family's mental health.
Also... she might have had mental health problems, but as far as I can tell her family didn't? Even if the whole thing was her idea and it was a genuine cry for help, they surely had the clarity to know that faking someone's death is kinda emotionally manipulative and fucked up.
A bipolar person faking their own suicide sucks for everyone involved but you can't really blame them. A family member going along with it (and clearly attempting to profit off it) is extremely messed up.
Honestly her author self description is a massive red flag already, exuding all that "I'm not like other authors" energy 🤡
@Rachel Mazurek I was thinking that too! The punctuation was just missing in some parts. I don't know if some of it was due to a formatting error, but it seems like something you'd want to be extra careful proofreading as an author.
She has pretty terrible grammar and spelling for an "author"
@Ellen Coleman I get your point, but disagree for this author's case. The way she words it implicitly puts other authors down instead of just focusing on her own unique approach - which is actually not at all unique, at least from the pitch.
Yeah but also that's exactly how you sell yourself in an oversaturated market. 'Buy my stuff, it's not like that other stuff, it's better.' Hardly a red flag for someone with their own business.
They just ignore everything else about the situation, especially how they guilt-shamed people into buying her books, and only talk about how much of a victim she is
@Cassandra Vazquez Seeing as how she has a history of making fake Go Fund Me’s and the like, I’m leaning towards con artist/liking the attention she gets from these situations.
Especially how she talked about being upset about how no one was buying her books now that she was “dead”.
It just doesn't make any sense if the actual for real issue was SM having access to this drama and having issues differentiating between reality and fiction which are all completely real and fair concerns. But hypothetically if that was the case and the family was mental enough to decide faking her death was the right choice then letting her have a fake account in the exact community you want hwe to leave is just counter intuitive. And I'm no psychologist but if someone is genuinely having difficulties differentiating what is reality, making them pretend they are DEAD doesn't seem particularly helpful. Not to mention that if this was set up by her family, the dynamics are so frightening and questionable. The way I see it there really are only three options , option one: her family is incredibly abusive to the point they feel entitled to decide whether she is publicly alive or dead, and then try to milk her grieving friends and fans when the money she was bringing in dries up. Or option two: she was behind this all herself due to an actual disconnect from reality. Or option three: she is a con artist. Nothing about this situation is black and white. Whatever purpose this lie served, it was morally deplorable. If she genuinely is suffering a mental illness so bad that she herself set this up with no bad intentions, but because she does not understand how this would effect people she is having, or has had a mental break and needs to be hospitalized.
Yeah, she's not a victim here, and her family was not trying to help her.
this. they say it was a thing done as a last resort and to keep her away from writing because it hurt her mental health, but they did not hesitate to weaponize people's mourning and empathy to make a profit.
the thing that makes me really suspicious of her claim that her family members were responsible for claiming that she had died is how much promotion of her books went on on her account after her "death". if it was truly just a way for her family to end her writing career it makes no sense for them to continue running her account and try and promote the work they supposedly didn't want her to continue with. it's like she thinks nobody will confront her about all income that was made from people buying her works to "honor her memory" if she doesn't acknowledge it herself.
I’ve heard of people online faking their deaths plenty of times before, but this is a really weird one.
I think this story might be like, the worst case scenario for anything like this. Like you have someone that's struggling with healthy boundaries online, so you, as their family member, want to pull them out. Ok, so after she already made a post on pulling back from The Ward (which I'm sure came after some talks with her family and perhaps some mental health specialists) why do anything more? The MOST that should have been done was Meachen's daughter or partner making ONE post under her account to say something along the lines of, "for the sake of her well-being, she is on hiatus and stepping back-- for further Ward issues see the mods" or whatever, perhaps mentioning that she was in an external place like rehab or the like as she acclimatized to the world. But all this? And the fact that Meachen's "daughter" types like she does, and that the ruse went on for TWO years? Makes me feel like Meachen went along with it and wrote as her daughter to just relish in the drama, probably the exact opposite of what she needed to be doing if her supposed addiction was real. And that's all before the TN Steele business, and the "buy my moms books in 21 days Or Else!!" posts. The fact that she's making money off of this via her supposedly taken down books makes me so mad, just because of how it's clearly hurt so many people, including the author who was accused of bullying Meachen. Meachen's comment of, "It might be immoral, but not illegal" just infuriates me. Where is her apology to the people she hurt?
I'm obviously on the outside of all of this, only really fumed up on the idea of it all, so I appreciate Izzy talking about this very impartially. I clearly can't. I hope the people Meachen and her family harmed in all this are doing okay.
yeah, it was way more drastic than it needed to be.
"It might be immoral but not illegal" is not a leg to stand on. I would not be surprised if every single thing was a lie. I was half expecting this to turn into a MsScribe style sockpuppet drama.
My thoughts exactly. Mental health is clearly something different for everyone, and I don't want to discredit Susan's genuine struggles. However, I still don't fully believe it's not all Susan's idea. I think there's just been far too many scams like this pulled for me to have benefit of the doubt. Her nonchalant response to everyone's hurt seems very callous-- it gives the air that she enjoyed two years of drama and profit.
I just wonder if her husband really did pull that stunt, or if he's just taking the fall so Susan doesn't have to. It's just super icky either way.
I agree that things don't add up. I'm willing to believe that her mental/addiction struggles are real, but her nonchalance during her interview is just so disgusting to me. Like, ok, MAYBE it was her family that started the whole thing off (not fully convinced yet but perhaps it was), but her defensiveness and unwillingness to apologize makes me think that if that was the case, she gladly took the opportunity to indulge her fantasies for her own emotional and financial benefit. It's like she thinks that her own mental health struggles absolve her from any real guilt and take precedence over everyone else's. What about the mental health of her friends and fans? Innocent people were accused of bullying a woman *literally* to death.
This girl just puts on different costumes and make up every video and still make
It look unique and good lmao her creativity is just something else
@Cherie Correct, your gender dictates your pronouns.
@Boiled Egg thats awesome!! majima looks kinda funny without his eyepatch
@microwavedfoxx It is yeah!
@Boiled Eggunrelated but is your pfp majima
Honestly, was it SO hard for her to just say she was going on hiatus for a bit? It’s certainly easier to deal with then pretending to be dead for several years
EDIT: Remind me to fully watch the video first, though still her family and close ones really should have said she was on hiatus instead of straight up saying she k*lled herself.
You are legit that one character that a artist just keeps on changing the ocs design all the time and every time the oc looks so good✨
That's a good way to describe it! I always enjoy her oc designs XD
Her makeup looks are so cute, I love that she has fun with it and has her own style
Omg yessss
This describes Izzy perfectly
DON'T READ MY NAME!!!
My mom is an author, and i overheard her talking about this last month, so im really glad you made a video about this
@BJGvideos no actually, i might at somepoint if shes insterested
You show her the video?
I'm always somewhat taken aback when izzyzzz posts a video that's less than an hour long
Izzy, I've been watching your videos for 2 years now and the topics you cover are always so interesting, I've never heard of this woman before but I am now so invested in her story lmaoo
Same!
same! i missed every bit of this story when it was happening haha
me when any izzyzzz video ever
I was in fandom and on a lot of fanfic groups back in the Yahoo groups days. I knew personally of at least 4 fic writers who committed pseudocide. It’s not something new. Most of them blamed family members when they decided they missed fandom too much and wanted to come back. One woman kept a months long coma going by posting as “friends” keeping vigil at her bedside and then had one post that she’d died. I found her online years later alive and well. Most of the people from her group refused to believe she was actually alive. *shrug*
Izzzy is the definition of taking character customization to its limits. Fantastic look
Izzzyzzz looks like a character made with mods while we're using vanilla character creators
It is one thing that the family did the act. It is another story for the author going along with it and act like everything is going to be fine coming back. Mental health is a serious thing. Take breaks when you need it, talk to someone that is willing to listen to you, do something that you love to help your mind, etc. If anything, all of this most likely adds more stress to the author as she is now dealing with the aftermath. Then there the trust issue if she ever decides to write another book.
This is so wild to me as a children's author! I've just not really ever encountered this sort of group drama. Even when I was frequently posting on writing groups on Facebook/Twitter/Reddit, everyone was so supportive and friendly. You get the occasional not-so-nice person (and btw first rule of writing is never read your reviews and definitely never respond 😂) but I hope people aren't put off of joining the writing/book community because of this.
Have to say I completely empathise with mental health struggles and social media anxiety (been there!) but this was such a strange choice. Why not just tell everyone she deleted Facebook for mental health reasons rather than pretending she was dead? 🤔
@Lits Spri I feel those people would benefit from pouring their thoughts and feelings into a diary before putting them into something that a lot of people are going to read and not like.
Dying is way more exciting than taking a break, and it sounds like they were intent on capitalizing on it because they were certainly frustrated when that didn't do the trick.
I'm so happy to hear an author say not to read reviews! All the authors spreading hate related to reviews and ratings was the main reason why I as a reader left book twitter. There were just too much hate going around. I can't even hear an author ask for "a good review" without getting bad and most likely unfair associations. I have a suspicion that the vocal authors who can't handle criticism from readers are the same authors who refuse to get feedback from editors or friends before publication of their "baby"
As someone who designs covers, I am losing it over how poor the typography is on those covers. It covers the range from "boring" to "garish" to "downright unreadable." Makes me feel so much better about my own work.
i love the fact izzy always has different aesthetic makeup/look every video💜
(For context I'm a recovering alcoholic and this is the information that was given to *me* in hospital, idk if it's true or true everywhere) To my knowledge, one of the only things that disqualifies you from kidney or liver transplant lists is active or recent alcohol abuse! A lot of autoimmune patients v much need and can (with proper medical support) have uncomplicated transplants.
"A paranormal bully romance anthology"
Me: A what now?
Assuming it _was_ her family that initiated the lie, and that she had entered a mental health facility as the posts said Susan told someone, can you imagine how bizarre that would be? You come back from in-patient treatment to find out that your family told people you were dead. I can understand how that'd be a situation where you're not sure what to do.
While I kind of get the motivation behind the family's decision and recognize that'd be a very strange situation for Susan to figure out how to navigate, she had plenty of time to reveal the truth. And the fact that the account was still promoting the books is sketchy as heck.
Mental illness does not excuse someone's behaviour. It may explain why someone acted the way they did, but it does not negate the harm their actions may have caused.
I mean... Izzy is legit that one deviantart OC but we all love her and admire her ♡♡♡ (this is a compliment btw, izzy is so epic
If the one story of Susan’s family just deciding to fake her death online while she was in therapy is true, then I feel so bad for her.
I do think that there is a lot of toxicity in the world of books & writing and it's very discouraging to me and other people who want to become authors some day, but I don't think that excuses Meachen's actions
@Tarō Tsushima I just feel like I see a lot of baseless criticism towards writers for the littlest things nowadays. Like people can be very nitpick-y and I find it discouraging because I write for pleasure but I also want to share my ideas with other people.
Like I feel like I have to make my stories absolutely perfect or I'll end up getting straight-up hate comments and a Clip-Share video or two reviewing my book and calling it trash.
I don't expect any accolades for my writing, I just wish I could write without a fear of heavy criticism
I know a bit of it is just in my head, but I've seen hateful comments made about books and other media I love and it feeds into my anxiety and crippling fear of failure and criticism
@Sophie Cleverly A very good chunk of drama I hear about is in the YA world specifically. It famously can get pretty volatile, so I think staying away from that area will probably cut down on the amount of toxicity. But, of course, I think a big problem is that the internet is still relatively new and so much of this is uncharted and society hasn't really figured out how to deal with a lot of issues yet.
@Esther street I wouldn't call it cynical, moreso logical. The amount of drama on Goodreads that boils down to "Author seething bc not everyone treats their work like it should get a Pulitzer just for existing." As well as targeted harassment from readers either in white knight attempts or other reasons. It would be a lot better to go back to when the worst thing you could do to an author whose works you hate is just not reading them.
I'm an author and I really haven't encountered much of this at all! Perhaps it's because I write children's books, but there is very little drama or open competition and I've met so many really lovely and supportive people. So I wouldn't be put off, sometimes it's just about finding the right places to hang out I think.
This is a really cynical solution to the issue, but sometimes I think that there needs to be more of a barrier between authors and fans. A lot of authors are clearly struggling with the fact that everyone on social media has their own opinion on their hard work, and perhaps the best option is to just... take a step back. The same goes for fans, you shouldn't expect an author to respond to your criticisms or be present in fan spaces.
This is wild and it unlocked a memory of being on forums (like neopets or gaiaonline) or instant messaging chats (AIM, YIM, MSN, etc) and making friends with people who would make up second and third accounts and basically roleplay/catfish that they knew these people irl and then they'd "write them out" and it was just drama.... I can't be the only one that experienced being catfished in this non-romantic type of way?
This reminds me of how fanfiction authors leave their book incomplete from months to years.
I mean, as a fanfiction author myself, I also did stop writing for a few months to a year, but I made sure to check in with everyone who follows me and I made sure they knew the truth, that at the time, my mental health was so bad it made me not want to do anything at all. That when I tried to write I had no motivation to. And that's where I think Susan and her family went wrong. They could have said that she wouldn't write anymore because her family thought it was taking a toll on her and everyone would have accepted that just fine. But they played with everyone.
It’s a good day when you waking up dreading the adult stuff you have to do around the house and izzzy uploads a video to soften the blow
Hearing the Lupus bit made my blood boil as someone who HAS Lupus Nephritis and has since I was 6. Everything else was scummy and gross, but holy shit to use that against people who don't have knowledge of chronic illnesses and make it worse for people like me who actually have them makes me angry beyond belief.
This is such a wild story. I cannot even imagine the emotions of everyone involved. Especially those closest to her. However, I can also understand how mental health can be affected in a community like that. There was just a better way to go about it for sure.
Also you are SLAYING this look. It reminds me of skeleanimals. ❤️🖤
Ig this is the story I've heard being referenced on Booktok drama lists. Yeah the whole thing is insanely wild but I will say, mental struggles and the absolute hellhole the book sectors of social media are aside, the family member basically holding those books on ransom so people can keep giving money despite only even pulling this stunt out of concern for the author's mental wellbeing is absolutely scummy, no ifs or buts. The fact that the author didn't also expose the ruse as soon as she could is suspect as well. I wouldn't blame anyone who got soured off of her works once this all blows over.
Something really funny to me about this situation as someone that speaks portuguese is that her surname is written almost like "find me" in portuguese ("me achem")
She should post these as podcast things on Spotify so we can listen while gaming 😎
Seeing Izzy in a plain background is so oddly funny, I kind of love it😭
I made a friend this week at a gaming store with someone over a mutual interest for izzy's videos, so thank you izzy! :]
That’s so cute!! Awwwe
I was hoping this was going to be covered. How do you just fake a death and come back after what you've done. That's so wild to me.
Why does Izzy always have the best fit? I am jealous of their style.
okay fine i can understand her family putting out that announcement as a last ditch effort to protect susan from the toxicity that was hurting her mental health. but fuck when susan found out about it, couldn't she have dm'd her friends in the community and brought them up to speed?
Ikr imagine the grief you’d feel if one of your close friends died!! Especially since some of Susan’s friends also struggled with mental health, what if this triggered them and caused them to spiral??
This whole situation is so weird. She made a post about leaving the community so why fake her death not long after?? Very messed up either way
When it comes to legallity I'm not sure on US law but there may be a case you could make for fraud here. The family posted that she died and then said for fans to support her books to help the family. That could be seen as misleading the possible buyers.
I have a friend who would read "romance" books in class when we were in high school. Romance in quotes because they were literally the text equivalent of adult-oriented, shall we say, videos. The covers of these books could pass as thumbnails from said videos. Honestly not sure how those books were allowed in school but girls couldn't have their shoulders exposed.
One time, a math teacher warned her about half a dozen times to put the book down and focus on the lesson, and then he took the the book. Gave it back when the class hour was finished, though. This happened when we were like 15 or 16. We're 22, going on 23, and she STILL "hates" that teacher for taking her book after multiple warnings. Hate is the word she uses, but I just call it a weird hill to die on.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I clicked on this video but Izzy never disappoints
Doesn't matter why they did it, they got money from her "death" and caused her friends massive trauma. Some people just aren't good people. That's her and her family.
All I can say after watching multiple videos and reading multiple sources about this situation, is that I hope everyone involved is getting the help they need. Mental health issues are not an excuse to avoid accountability for one's actions, but it seems like Susan's issues were very much a contributing factor here, and I just hope that the huge amount of publicity and scrutiny this incident is getting doesn't end up making things worse.
Super surreal seeing self-published authors being mentioned on a large channel. I am one! Not in that genre, but of urban fantasy/dystopia. It's indeed hard out there. But yeah... drama indeed. I never thought I'd see drama from the writing community come up here!
Can confirm that if you have lupus, you can get a kidney transplant. My paired exchange and I are proof, I have systemic lupus erythematosus and she had lupus nephritis.
To me, this feels a lot like the classic fandom flounces/pseuicides of the old live journal days, but I know that's a callous oversimplifying of a complicated mental health situation. I don't know why this kind of thing keeps happening in online communities.
I just had a failed ER visit and coming home to see Izzzy uploaded has really lifted the anxiety, thank you so much
Don't worry too much about the background change, I watch you for you and your content! We'll miss the garfields but can deal until they get back :) I'm more sorry about you having to live with the disruption for so long!
Why the heck would faking your death be the solution to anything like this 😭 like there had to be MANY other reasonable options here right?! 😭
Never really comment but I recently found your channel and have binged every video, specifically enjoy the videos that go over shit from when I was a kid, online flash games/etc etc. you and billiam are my favorite creators when I want to watch content covering things I feel nostalgic about. Keep it up
I thought I wouldn't enjoy this video because I tend to prefer the more "quirky internet history" ones, but I once again stand corrected. I coul watch you talk about the history of dishwashers, you have such a great way of presenting things that makes it so simple to focus on you and the things you're saying. I wish you did videos for school stuff and work stuff so that I would actually pay attention
As an independent author, thank you for addressing this topic without disparaging self published authors and their books.
Susan is a bad person jfc. Thank you for going so in depth into all of your stories!
Ive been here since Izzy’s 3rd video and to be honest this is the only thing I brag about, because Izzy’s content is the best thing that ever happened to my timeline
I need a video on this girl called Izzzyzzz, she's like one of the best video essayests I've ever watched. I think a video on the rise of her could be really cool.
izzy is nb! :3
Don’t worry about the background! We’re just happy to have videos from you^_^ And your looks are always so interesting anyway!
only partway through the video- I wouldnt be surprised if the family pretended she died in order to try and keep her from writing. I, also, am mentally ill, and the amount of things my parents will overstep and control honestly quite cruelly with the intent to help me.... Wooof.
I don't know. maybe she was in on it, maybe she was struggling to keep her writing going because she liked doing it as a hobby.
EDIT - now that I've finished the video - yeah shit sounds really complicated. I feel like we still dont know everything. did she go along with the lie for her own benefit or was she made to? I think her taking a break from writing wouldve been a good idea, it sounds to me like she was struggling with the kind of psychosis that comes with bipolar disorder, but I think her family saying Oh She Died :/ No More Writings From Her Also Please Go Buy Her Books Right Now is not only deeply unhelpful to her but also majorly suspicious
Istg izzzyzzz is always the first to make vids on topics nobody else would. I learn so much random shit from her vids and I love it
Izzzy I hope you stay strong about the construction noises. I personally don't mind the different background, you are dressed up with your usual fashion so the identity of the channel is still there (maybe bring a Garfield plushie to the new "studio" idk).
About the whole situation, the author's "daughter" started monetizing and asking for sales day 1, they were actively profiting from the ruse, I don't know whose idea it was but the author definitely decided to get money from it, because creating a fake account doesn't help disconnecting from your toxic hobby
Absolutely love the look in this vid! The eye makeup, black upper lip, hair, and the hoodie, it's all so good! Suits you very well too! Probably my favorite look of yours so far
Happy Birthday, Izzy!! I’ve been binge watching your videos all week and I’m so excited to see this one!
Not only do i love every topic you cover, I’m always excited to see the make up look of the week, i want an excuse to try out colors and patterns and makeup but don’t have an event or reason for it, so i absolutely love living vicariously thru you!!!! Thanks for putting in so much effort to your videos theyre a guiding light in my boring sad life (seasonal depression ima be okay friends)
Rest in peace susan meachen, gone but not forgotten 😔
Wait I think I missed some important detail...
Gone but not forgotten. Or Gone, it would seem.
LOL
I love how thoroughly researched your videos are! Everyone else has been sharing the same single screenshot around and around but you've dug into the details and got to the bottom of things
Dont worry about the background, while your usual setup is adorable Im sure those of us who watch each of your videos are here for the stuff you talk about :)
Though if you feel like this background *needs* something maybe you could try to make like a movable cardboard bg prop? Maybe a garfield theme or print out some of that cool fan art youve got :)
I agree the idea of "paranormal bully romance" as a (sub-?)genre is... different, but considering SM's profession, I guess the dedication isn't /that/ strange. Then again, I've used the Internet for over 20 years, so my litmus test for weird might differ.
Speaking of Facebook, i'd honestly love to see you do a similar video documentary about the "Take this Lollipop" Facebook game, It has a pretty extensive history and was even banned at some time because people genuinely thought it was dangerous
I'm so thrilled you're covering this!
This reminds me of the time a guy told everyone online that he was dying from cancer, and that he wished someone would play this Mario World romhack in a Let's Play. So ProtonJon took up the challenge (after formerly retiring from romhacks) and just before the end of the game, it came out that the guy was lying. Jon finished the game anyway, but had a lot to say about the situation. Then the guy came out with an apology video (before apology vids were even a thing like today) and it seemed like he was remorseful and Jon more or less forgave him.
Wow. I was apart of that group way back when but left it a while after her “death” was announced. Never in a million years did I expect her to pop back up.
As you said, it’s not a totally black and white situation. I can understand telling her ‘fans’ that she died if it truly was best for her mental health and to hard detach her from writing. But I don’t think it was okay to leave people she claimed to be her close friends in the dark and mourning for years like that. What can I really say though, I’ve never been in a situation like that.
The description of the dedication as "a choice" absolutely floored me 🤣🤣🤣🤣 feels like something a bully would do tbh.
Although she says her family did it. It smells way too much like they faked everything to sell more, not to mention it seems like someone with legit mental health would do.
I do love your videos honestly they do always seem to have emotion to them I also like how you tell stories too!! You're doing great!!
I had a friend who attempted to end himself and his family told everyone who wasn't related to him that it was totally an accident because he didn't want people to know the truth. If this story she's told is totally true, its honestly not that hard to see how you get there. You realize how dangerous a certain community is to your loved one, so you just cut off any chance of people trying to beg for them to keep making books or harass them. And then you've got tons of bills and someone making no money with these books just sitting around waiting to be sold. It's crappy for sure, but I get it. Manipulating people is pretty bad, but also arguably these parasocial relationships give people a undue sense of closeness or being owed something
@theMoporter it's still a similar thing where the family lied to everyone for their family members sake: in this case they're claiming that her family told the world she was dead for her sake
They told the community she HAD died by suicide when she didn't. That's literally the complete opposite of your friend's situation.
thank you so much for the videos you make! i love deep dives into niche topics and you have the best topics delivered in a funny yet informative way. you always have the best makeup and outfits too and inspire me to be more creative! my gf and i love your videos and i hope you enjoy what you do :)
A review of the wholesome and counterculture Chuck Tingle novels would be fun :)
I'm so glad I've just discovered your channel recently, I wish I'd found it earlier! You cover such interesting topics in a really fun way, and you give me so much nostalgia 👌 and you're literally the only person other than my best friend who's ever heard of Chickensmoothie lmaoo
Also I absolutely adore your makeup looks and whole style in general 💕
The fact that this news reached you and you felt compelled to make a video about it... it's like two of my internet communities combining, haha.
Izzy is amazing ngl, just vibes all around and great to listen too while doing work or just chilling
Izzy, I’m gonna need you to make a second channel for how you do your makeup and outfits for your videos because your style is just SUPERB.👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
if i had to come up with an understanding of this it would be that tn steele was her way of sneaking back into the group and feeding her 'drama addiciton' without her family knowing, playing into it just to hide her use of facebook from her family because her daughter wouldve likely recognised if she started posting on her main