Mommy blogger fakes pregnancy with terminally ill kid

I will not lie: As a mommy blogger, the idea of inserting a lie into a post has crossed my mind. I have been tempted to puff up a quote from one of my kids. I have been tempted to pretend that I vomited all over my boss when I was pregnant because I needed fodder for a post on morning sickness. It's a tough world out there for mommy bloggers. The competition for compelling content is fierce--especially when you have moms who are willing to reveal every dirty secret about themselves.

But while I've fantasized about lying, I've never even come close to writing a lie. No way! I'd be caught in a second.

Last week, my son, Dante, and I saw a friend at La Petite Baleen, the swim school in San Bruno.

"What did you think of Up?" John asked Dante.

"The dogs were so scary," Dante said.

"I read your blog post about your kids getting scared in the movie," John said to me.

It was as if John were fact-checking my story to see if what I'd written about my kids freaking out in the movie was true.

Because I use my real name in my blog, and write for readers who I bump into at Crissy Field, Fairyland, and Pasta Pomodoro, I must tell the truth--even if what's going on in my life is as boring as hell.

David Pierini/Chicago Tribune

Beccah Beushausen photographed near her home

But a blogger who lives in suburban Chicago figured out that by keeping her name anonymous, by simply referring to herself as "B" or "April's Mom," she could engage readers--thousands of them--with a major lie. "B" created a blog about being pregnant with a terminally ill child.

Anti-abortion opponents closely followed the blog because "B" decided that she would have the child even though it would likely die days or months after birth. "People said they prayed that God would save her pregnancy," according to a story in the Chicago Tribune. "They e-mailed her photos of their children dressed in pink, bought campaign T-shirts, shared tales of personal heartache and redemption, and sent letters and gifts to an Oak Lawn P.O. box in support. As more and more people were drawn to her compelling tale, eager advertisers were lining up. And established parenting Web sites that oppose abortion were promoting her blog--which included biblical quotes, anti-abortion messages and a soundtrack of inspirational Christian pop songs."

When "B" posted a story about giving birth to baby April, the site lit up with nearly a million hits.

A few days later, "April's Mom" posted a photograph of herself with a lifelike doll swaddled in white blankets--that was meant to be April. Readers became suspicious.

"I have that exact doll in my house," Elizabeth Russell, a dollmaker from Buffalo who had been following the blog, told the Tribune. "As soon as I saw that picture, I knew it was a scam."

"B" took down her Web site and Twitter and Facebook pages in fear of being discovered but the online community still tracked down her identity: Beccah Beushausen, 26, a social worker from Mokena, Ill.

Last Wednesday, when the Chicago Tribune phoned Beushausen, she admitted to the hoax.

"I know what I did was wrong," she told the Tribune. "I've been getting hate mail. I'm sorry because people were so emotionally involved."

Posted By: Amy Graff (Email) | June 15 2009 at 06:33 AM