Who's Stealing Fairytales and Fitness?


After five years, I admit I’m not completely in love with our blog name. It’s true! But again, after five years it has kind of become a part of us and quite frankly changing it would be more of a hassle.  At the time we started the blog, the name seemed to fit.  We knew we were going to talk a lot about Disney and Disney races since that is where we got our start.  I didn’t want to pigeon hole us by putting Disney in our title (and I’m sure that would alienate some readers as well), but I did want it to have something to do with the magic of running at Disney.   So we came up with the term Fairytales.  This was kind of a spin on words too since I am a journalist by trade and of course fairytales are stories. I hope I am a good story teller.


 Also, we thought it could relate to traveling too since we both like to travel.  And of course fitness just kind of rolled off the tongue. Running was our main sport but again, why pigeon hole us.  And with that, Fairytales and Fitness was born.  

Of course we did our research and at the time, the only thing close to our name was called “A Fitness Fairytale” which I’m not even sure was an actual blog. I think it was more of a title of an online article that kept showing up. Now of course I see it is a Youtube channel, but back then I don’t think it was.

I then created social media pages for us including a Facebook page title Fairytales and Fitness, a twitter account and then later Instagram.  When I created twitter I could not get the handle @fairytalesandfitness because twitter told me the name was too long (too many characters).  I settled on @Fairytalesnfit. I did the same for IG.

This brings me to the other day,  I was playing around on Scott’s phone (like I usually do) because I wanted to see if his Newer phone did all the cool stuff my old phone does.

I wanted to see if his phone had the voice activated reader so I pulled up our blog.  As I went to do this, I saw a few other links for Fairytales and Fitness that did not belong to us. What???

I was now intrigued who these other Fairytales and Fitness imposters were.  One is a Youtuber and instead of Fairytales and fitness (which belongs to us) she is Fairytalesandfitness.  The other is an Instagramer @Fairytalesandfitness. This is the one that made me instantly furious because I tried to have that handle years ago when it did not belong to anyone and could not.  Of course I had to check out these folks’ other social media handles and nope, none of them are anything related to Fairytales and Fitness. So what is the connection for them? Why is it important for them to have OUR name?  Okay, Okay, I know I can’t actually call it our name since we don’t have a trademark on it or anything but it still bugs me because I feel like we put a lot of work into our brand.

Ever have an issue with your blog name or social media handles? Have you found some imposters?


33 comments:

  1. I havent even thought to look for my name in other places. I'm almost afraid to...
    that's crazy that others are taking your name. & your name really does become such a part of your online presence. Even if you dont feel like it really represents you.... you have so much time & energy invested in it all over the web, it bites to have someone step up to try & get your traffic.

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    1. There is a lot of time and energy in it and it just stinks that others did not take the time to see who was using that name before they decided to use it as well.

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  2. I had someone steal my old blog name out from under me and Google let it happen. I was over the name but was still holding it (not sure why) but it's gone for good now. I've seen my current blog name used on other accounts but mine is the most prominent. As long as you use it you will always show at the top from what I've seen.

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    1. Oh that's interesting! How was someone else able to get the name if you were still using it?

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  3. Thats really frustrating! I changed my blog name last year because I just felt like I outgrew it or something. But it was annoying because Mile by Mile was already taken (for some race reviews or something related to cycling) so I added blog on, but my twitter/instagram handles don't match.

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    1. I wonder if the "Mile by Mile" cycling page is annoyed that there is now another "mile by mile" site out there. I'm sure those words are used a lot for websites that are about running or cycling and stuff (maybe travel too).

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  4. When I started my blog, the handle Taking the Long Way Home was taken on every platform. So like Lisa, my handles don't match my blog name.

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    1. Now that twitter upped it's character count I could have probably had my full title as our handle but back then I could not so that's annoying. I would have changed it had I known but Someone else beat me to it now.

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  5. The internet is a wild and sometimes "lawless" place. I'm on my third blog name in 9 years. Don't get me started on all the things I've had stolen, from content to my kids' pictures. Ugh.

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  6. There's a robot blog who steals every post I make. In order to get them removed, I have to submit the URLs for each and every post...and when I discovered this, there was years and years of my posts there. Seems ridiculous that I have to do so much work when it's blatant but that's Google for ya. Not hugely impressed with them in that department.

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    1. I was searching for a specific race to read other recaps, saw one that I'd done and was all "oh hey, cool - someone else ran this random small race" - clicked on the link and WTF, it was MY POST. Still pissed that Google is making it so hard to delete those posts - and for every one that I submit to have removed, they just add all of my new posts.

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  7. This is one thing I may never have to worry about. Who wants to be a Ho? LOL.

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  8. So far I haven't found anyone that's stolen my name, but I will admit it's been some time since I checked.

    People love to reserve stuff that isn't theirs!

    It absolutely should bug you. Mr. Judy had a photo stolen once & it was plastered all over the internet -- AND was being used (sort of) for profit. He did get a resolution (so to speak) but it took some work.

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  9. That's SUPER frustrating! Especially because your blog name is a huge part of your identity. Ben's YouTube is Nutrition Mission and he's had some issues with people ripping off the name too.
    BUT, just remember that you've put hard work and dedication into your blog, and you've made this name for yourself! And nobody can steal that!

    Susie | http://milehighdreamers.com

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    1. Thanks Susie! "Nutrition Mission" is a great name! How are people ripping off his name? Are they using it for other social media channels?

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  10. I've seen a few similar. Years ago a web designer tild me when I was starting my wedding business to buy the domain names similar to mine so no one else can take them. He never mentioned it but social media wiuld make sense to do the same. I guess if I was to start from scratch yeah I think it would be a good idea to grab similar social media account names and stuff. I've been away from blogging and I'm really starting to miss it, I've really got to find the time to get into it more. Have a fabulous Thanksgiving!!

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    1. Sorry for the spelling errors I'm not illiterate I promise lol. I shouldn't read and respond while walking lol.

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    2. That is interesting. But if the domain name is already out there then doesn't that mean that somebody else already bought it?

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  11. I haven't found my blog name otherwise, but when I renamed it a few years a go, I did some searching to make sure I wasn't taking a name that belonged to someone else. Thankfully, I didn't find anything.

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    1. I like that you did the research first to see if there was something similar.

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  12. I do like the name as well. Fairytales and Fitness sounds unique, and it makes you want to learn more about what you guys blog about.

    Happy Holidays!
    The Fitness Bro

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  13. I have seen a lot of "confessions" of something blogs....Of course I like to think I am one of a kind! I do like your blog name it's cute and different

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  14. My "name" comes up in random places, but it's usually in reference to other stuff. I have never taken the time to actually research it in depth, though. What a nightmare for you guys ;-(

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  15. How frustrating to have others using the same name. I've never really looked (until now ;) anyway) haha! and it looks like it's just me out there.

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  16. I've never seen anyone steal my name - it's kind of a bizarre one to steal. And some days I think I should come up with a new one, but instead I'll just run more MCMs. But I've had blog posts and pictures stolen. I finally just stopped worrying about it. I don't need the stress.

    Oddly there's a twitter account that streams all of my pins to pinterest. I have no idea how they benefit from that. So very odd.

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  17. Gosh, that is really frustrating. So far I've been pretty lucky with Run With No Regrets but I have thought about protecting the name because I don't want anyone else to steal it!

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  18. I have never had any issues with people stealing my current user name, but had problems with it in the past to a point that I changed my online handle. My teenage handle was actually used by a less than savory site at the time.

    Hopefully the people who are using your handle are at least on brand.

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  19. I remember when I came up with the name for my blog that it just came to my mind right away. It wasn't something I thought about for a long time. So I went to Google and typed in "Meg Go Run". Luckily, everything that comes up is either my blog, my youtube vids, or other blogs I have commented on. I did find a blog called "Run Girl Meg".

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Fairytales and Fitness is a personal blog authored and edited by us, Meranda and Lacey. The thoughts expressed here represent only our own and are not meant to be taken as professional advice. Please note that our thoughts and opinions change from time to time. We consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind in an ever changing society. Any thoughts and opinions expressed within our out-of-date posts may not be the same, nor even similar, to those we may express today. Some links may contain affiliate links. Some links are just to pages we'd like to share.