The Anna Delvey story made into a Netflix show; viewers find new treasure at annadelveyfoundation.org archive

The Shondaland-produced Netflix limited series Inventing Anna about both the real and made up parts of a heist of New York City institutions orchestrated by one Anna Delvey Sorokin was released last Friday, February 11. When the story first became popular, I made a blog that served as an archive about Anna Delvey and con artist intrigue. With the release of the Netflix show, I was interviewed by a reporter for the Daily Beast about the “Cult of Anna Delvey Admirers.” The website, annadelveyfoundation.org, that I founded received 60,000 new visitors in one week since the release of the show. I don’t know if that’s a lot, but it feels like a lot for me.

I remember when I first read Jessica Pressler’s “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People,” published on The Cut in May 2018 (link), I couldn’t stop reading it till I finished. There hadn’t been a captivating long read in several years. I used to read literary websites like The Awl, The Hairpin, and The Toast every day; quite honestly, the internet has never felt the same to me since those publications closed. It’s more difficult to run a blog in 2022. Most people write stories on Instagram, but there’s no way to code in Instagram; it leaves your words feeling powerless.

When the story of Anna came out, I decided to do something a little different. I wasn’t working on any other writing projects at the time, so I decided to crate a website at annadelveyfoundation.org to track the news story, create an archive of articles written about the anti-heroine, and practice writing SEO content. The website was a fun project that I did in my free time. I wanted to show how sometimes, with the exception of a stand-out piece like Pressler’s article, all these articles on the internet can start to look the same.

Hope you enjoy reading my entertainment news blog and the interview in the Daily Beast.

Julia

Moving day

Tabby cat lays on top of a cardboard box filled with books

For years, my writing portfolio site was parked at the only web host and content management system that is still available for free and allows you make edits in the backend: Tumblr. The only issue with hosting your website on Tumblr is that then your website is hosted on Tumblr. In 2022, I decided to buy hosting for a WordPress blog and get a fresh new start. My cat, Buck, may make the occasional appearance when he feels like it.

Julia Lipscomb