small town girl drops out of college

to become the next German Heiress

Humour

Catherine Sohit

After binge-watching Inventing Anna over the weekend, first-year BCIT student Lana Kaminka dropped out to chase the new American dream.

"I’m going to be the next German Heiress Influencer” says Lana. “$320K for my story from Netflix? Yes, please.” When asked about her plan, Lana said, “It’s easy. You party with the rich and famous, travel to exotic locations, and maintain a lavish lifestyle—for free!!” How can anyone doubt her? After all, the only thing you need these days to prove yourself is thousands of followers on any social media platform. #ICanPay If you haven't watched Inventing Anna yet on your freeloading Netflix account, here's the SparkNotes summary: small town Russian-turned-German girl Anna Delvey decides getting a job is overrated, and wikiHows how to get rich and famous. She moves to Paris, then to New York, conning people, forging legal documents, stealing from her friends (who needs friends anyway?), banks, and other financial institutions. Architects, designers, and investors start building her Barbie Dreamhouse while the bank hands her $100K in cash even though she’s got not a single penny to her name. “What I’ve learned is all it takes to trick people into giving you money is a few designer handbags, an ambiguous European accent, expensive clothes, and a lot of Instagram followers,” says Lana.

Okay, Here's An Actual Review of Inventing Anna:

Fake it until you make it seems to be the national anthem of our generation, especially when social media is a constant reminder of everyone's success.

Everybody wants to pose like an influencer who got flown out to LA, even if it's just their mom taking the photo on a family trip. I wonder if social media pressure was what motivated Anna to become a con artist? Don't get me wrong, I've worked very hard to get where I am in life and I'm proud of it, but I get the appeal of the rich and famous lifestyle. The question is: where do we draw the line? Until when is it okay to fake it? Money is great and all, but you probably shouldn't trade your family, values, and freedom just to enjoy an “elite lifestyle.” It's not worth it. Our value should come from our actions, self-love, the things we stand for, friends, and family.

In October 2017, Anna was found guilty of (spoiler alert) scamming people. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and had to pay around $200K in therapy fees to her victims who now have trust issues and can't talk to people named Anna. Netflix, on the other hand, paid her $320K just for existing. big deal; she just pretended to be rich inside and had servants who did everything for her, including her laundry. Shortly after her release, she signed two book deals to tell her story before and after prison. Hopefully she'll also add some financial advice in these books. I need tips to do my taxes.

Anna believes she did nothing wrong. She claims she was just doing what most people in America do, trying to create a business with other people's money. “It's not far from what the Wall Street guys do on a daily basis,” says Shonda Rhimes. “Some people think Anna's kind of like Robin Hood, but instead of giving to the less fortunate, she spent it all on Chanel.” In her latest interview with ABC 20/20, she said people at the top didn’t seem as bright (touché) or as impressive as she thought they would be, While scamming people might be wrong, it's an easy way to make $320K tax-free in four years.

Now, Anna is one of the most famous people in NYC with almost 1M followers on Instagram. She's also been receiving hundreds of marriage proposals. I guess she won’t be needing Tinder for a while.

She was released after four years behind bars. When asked how prison life was, Anna replied it wasn't a