Caroline Calloway

Caroline Gotschall Calloway (born 5 December 1991) is an American internet celebrity known for posting Instagram photos with long captions. She gained popularity while a student at the University of Cambridge.

Caroline Calloway
Calloway in 2016
Born
Caroline Calloway Gotschall[1]

(1991-12-05) December 5, 1991[2]
Falls Church, Virginia, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Cambridge (BA) Phillips Exeter Academy
Websitecarolinecalloway.com

Early life

Calloway was born on 5 December 1991 as Caroline Calloway Gotschall in Falls Church, Virginia. At the age of 17, she changed her last name to Gotschall Calloway.[1] Her maternal great-grandfather is Owen Burns, an entrepreneur and real estate mogul who developed many of the historic structures of Sarasota, Florida.[3][4]

She graduated high school in 2010 from Phillips Exeter Academy before studying history of art at New York University.[5] In 2013 she left NYU to restart her undergraduate studies at St Edmund's College, Cambridge, where she graduated in 2016.[2]

Career

Influencer

Calloway joined Instagram in 2012, with the help of her NYU classmate Natalie Beach.[1] Calloway's Instagram account documented her life at Cambridge University and contained lengthy captions accompanied by photographs.[6] Calloway bought followers and purchased ads to grow her account.[7]

In September 2019, Natalie Beach wrote an essay for The Cut, titled "I Was Caroline Calloway," chronicling her friendship and collaborations with Calloway.[7][8] In her essay, Beach disclosed that she had ghost-written a number of the captions credited to Calloway, and that she had closely collaborated with her to produce a subsequent book proposal.[7] Calloway has since responded to this with a series of blog entries, titled "I Am Caroline Calloway," on her personal website.[9]

And We Were Like

In 2016 it was announced that Calloway would publish a memoir titled And We Were Like about her time at Cambridge with Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers, with the help of literary agent Byrd Leavell.[10][1] During her senior year at Cambridge, Calloway had hired Beach to co-write the book and proposal.[11] She then set up an initial meeting with Leavell by pretending to his secretary that she was already his client.[1] Leavell has since commented on his experience working with Calloway, stating that she was "deeply unwell, deeply dishonest" and that "It was more important to her to be seen as an author than it was to be an author. She didn’t know how to be an author."[12]

Calloway publicly announced that Flatiron Books had offered her a book deal to write a memoir for half a million dollars in 2015, of which sum she had received 30% as an advance.[13] Calloway announced via her Instagram stories in 2017 that she was withdrawing from her book deal after failing to fulfill her contract.[14] Following this, Calloway offered the book proposal with personal annotations for sale on Etsy.[14]

Writing workshops

In December 2018, Calloway launched an international "Creativity Workshop Tour". Her original announcement indicated that the workshop would offer tutorials on building an Instagram brand, as well as developing ideas, and addressing "the emotional and spiritual dimensions of making art."[15] Participation in the tour was priced at $165 per person, and tickets were sold for events to be held in Boston, Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Austin, Charlotte and Washington, DC.[14] This tour was subsequently cancelled due to Calloway failing to book venues for these events, with Calloway announcing that she would refund those who had already bought tickets.[7][14] Eventually, Calloway held two workshops in New York.[16] The cancellation of the workshops gained public attention when reporter Kayleigh Donaldson created a Twitter thread that gained news coverage comparing Calloway's tour to Fyre Festival, later publishing this as an article for the online publication, Pajiba.[15][14][17] Following the publication of Donaldson's article, Calloway briefly offered t-shirts for sale on Threadless, which bore the caption, 'Stop hate-following me, Kayleigh'.[18] Threadless suspended the sale of these t-shirts for violating their targeted harassment policy.[18]

In August 2019, Calloway held a second creativity workshop titled, 'The Scam' in New York.[19] Although press was not invited to the event, a reporter from Vice purchased a ticket, attended the event under a false name, and published an article about her experience.[19]

Forthcoming publications

In April 2020, Calloway announced that she would be publishing a response to an essay written about her by her former ghost-writer, Natalie Beach.[20][9]

Calloway announced in January 2020 that she would be publishing a memoir titled Scammer in April 2020, which would be printed on demand and shipped in Spring 2020.[21] Calloway subsequently stated on her website that because of delays in production, she would instead be combining her blog, "I Am Caroline Calloway", with her manuscript for Scammer instead, allowing her to expand the essay into three parts.[22] In July 2020, Calloway announced that the book was estimated to ship by 31 August 2020.[23] Scammer did not ship on 31 August 2020, and the author has not provided any writing, publishing, or shipping updates.[24]

Sex work

In April 2020, Calloway posted a picture of her nipples on her Twitter account as a "humble apology" for failing to meet her promised word count in the first post of her blog, 'I Am Caroline Calloway'.[25][26]

In 2020, Calloway created an OnlyFans account, promising video and photo content containing nudity.[27] Calloway alleged in interviews that her intention to enter the adult entertainment industry had been planned by Playboy, and that the magazine had commissioned a photo shoot of her dressed as a student in a library.[28] When asked, the magazine stated "Playboy does not have and did not have any photo shoot planned with Caroline Calloway."[28] Calloway has described her sex work as "emotionally poignant, softcore cerebral porn."[29] Her content includes cosplay of characters from children's movies such as Harry Potter, Matilda and Beauty and the Beast,[25] and partially-undressed photographs of herself captioned with details of her father's autopsy.[30][28]

She posted her projected income from sex work on her Twitter account in May 2020, leading to criticism about her failure to recognise difficulties faced by sex workers, as well as her attempts to distance herself from sex work.[31][25]

Controversies

After complaints about lacking consent for images she posted of current and former lovers, she now covers the face of her dates with an emoji.[32]

In April 2020, Calloway was criticised for posting a tweet with an antisemitic cartoon, with a caption mocking Natalie Beach, her former ghost-writer.[33] Calloway later deleted and apologized for the tweet.[34] Calloway further attracted criticism after she liked and shared a suggestion on social media that she should dress up as Anne Frank for her OnlyFans account.[35]

Calloway also attracted criticism for posting an image of Japanese shunga (erotic art) on her Instagram, which depicted a woman copulating with a bat. Calloway captioned the image, "the first human case of the corona outbreak, but make it porn," attracting criticism for engaging in the promotion of stereotypes about Asian cultures, particularly in the context of heightened racism and xenophobia during the COVID-19 pandemic.[36]

Personal life

Calloway has general anxiety disorder and depression.[1] She has been open about her Adderall abuse and addiction while at Cambridge.[7][1]

References
  1. Hunt, Elle (April 28, 2020). "'I love fame': how Caroline Calloway survived being cancelled". The Guardian. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  2. Barr, Sabrina (September 12, 2019). "WHO IS CAROLINE CALLOWAY, WHY IS THE INTERNET TALKING ABOUT HER AND HOW IS SHE CONNECTED TO NATALIE BEACH?". The Independent.
  3. "Instagram influencer Caroline Calloway finds solace in Sarasota". Herald-Tribune.
  4. "Caroline Calloway on Instagram: "My grandma's father's name was Owen Burns..."". Instagram.
  5. Flanagan, Caitlin (September 27, 2019). "Caroline Calloway Isn't A Scammer". The Atlantic. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  6. La Ferla, Ruth (March 27, 2019). "The Captionfluencers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  7. McNeal, Stephanie (September 25, 2019). "Caroline Calloway Wants To Talk About Why You Love To Hate Her". BuzzFeed. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
  8. Beach, Natalie (September 10, 2019). "The Story of Caroline Calloway & Her Ghostwriter Natalie". The Cut. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  9. "I Am Caroline Calloway". Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  10. Palmer, Alex (February 5, 2016). "Follow the Influencers: Social Media Stars 2016". Publishers Weekly.
  11. Scott, Daniella (September 11, 2019). "Caroline Calloway's ex-best friend Natalie Beach has published a story about all her scams". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  12. Mauzy, Alexa. "Donald Trump's Book Agent Comes Clean". Public Seminar. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  13. "Caroline Calloway Talks Social Media, Book Deals and Fans". Man Repeller. June 20, 2018. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  14. Donaldson, Kayleigh (January 18, 2019). "The Empty Mason Jar of the Influencer Economy: The Case of Caroline Calloway and her Creativity Workshop Tour". Pajiba. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  15. Kircher, Madison (January 14, 2019). "This Instagram Influencer's Failed Tour Will Satisfy Your Fyre Fest Nostalgia". Thecut.com.
  16. McNeal, Stephanie (September 11, 2019). "Who Is Caroline And Why Is Everyone Talking About Her? Let Us Explain". Buzzfeed.
  17. Sicha, Choire; Jonah Engel Bromwich (September 11, 2019). "Who Is Caroline Calloway? An Explainer". The New York Times. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
  18. Grady, Constance (September 11, 2019). "Caroline Calloway, her "one-woman Fyre Fest," and her ex-best friend Natalie, explained". Vox. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  19. Iovine, Anna (August 6, 2019). "I Scammed Influencer Caroline Calloway at Her Event, The Scam". Vice. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
  20. Dazed (April 1, 2020). "Caroline Calloway's response essay to Natalie is finally here". Dazed. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  21. "Caroline Calloway Says She Is Releasing A Book Called "Scammer"". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  22. "Caroline Calloway". Caroline Calloway. Archived from the original on June 15, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
  23. "SCAMMER Pre-Order!". Caroline Calloway. Archived from the original on July 23, 2020. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
  24. "Caroline Calloway sold a book about her own scams. So far, no one has received their copy". MamaMia. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
  25. Downs, Claire (May 14, 2020). "Why Is Everybody Suddenly Selling Their Nudes?". ELLE. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  26. Calloway, Caroline (April 1, 2020). "I fucked up..." @carolinecaloway. Twitter. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  27. Downs, Claire (May 14, 2020). "Why Is Everybody Suddenly Selling Their Nudes?". ELLE. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  28. "Who's Actually Horny on Main When Everyone's Horny on Main?". MEL Magazine. April 16, 2020. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  29. Sung, Morgan (August 19, 2020). "Influencers are flocking to OnlyFans but not everyone is happy about it". Mashable. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
  30. Sweeney, Tanya. "Caroline Calloway: From self-styled 'scammer' to queen of quarantine horniness". The Irish Times. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  31. Grant, Melissa Gira (May 13, 2020). "The Coronavirus Is Making Us All Camgirls". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  32. Phelan, Hayley (January 30, 2020). "Will You Be My #Content?". The New York Times. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
  33. "Caroline Calloway and Antisemitic Caricature | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  34. Calloway, Caroline (April 28, 2020). "@carolinecaloway". Twitter. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  35. "Controversial influencer accused of antisemitism for posting bizarre Anne Frank comment". indy100. April 29, 2020. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
  36. Connelly, Irene. "Caroline Calloway says Harry Potter taught her anti-Semitic stereotypes". The Forward. Retrieved July 8, 2020.
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