Friend fakes her entire life on social media

She pretends she's winning awards at work and going on fancy retreats, but the truth is she's sitting at home alone and lying to all of us. What’s going on?

I have a “friend”—more of an acquaintance these days—who’s been acting so strange that I honestly don’t know what to think anymore. She works in sales and recently messaged me asking if she could list me as a “new client” for some internal company thing. I said, sure, as long as I didn’t actually have to go to anything. She said no worries, it’s just so she can show her boss a list and then delete the “reservation” afterward. I thought it was a bit weird, but fine. Then I found out she did the same thing with a bunch of our other friends.

A few days later, she posted on Instagram that she’d received flowers and a gift card from her boss for bringing in the most new clients. Then she did the whole thing again—asked us to let her “sign us up” quickly, and after that she got another gift, this time champagne. Cue another post about how proud she is of herself and how much praise she’s getting from her job. The posts are full of “so grateful for my amazing team” and “hard work pays off 😍” nonsense.

But here’s the kicker: she constantly lies like this. She once texted me “are you home tonight?” and I said yes. Ten minutes later, she posted a throwback photo of the two of us with the caption “girls’ night in full swing!” I hadn’t even seen her that day. She also posts “live updates” from events she’s not actually attending—like yoga retreats, dance classes, or uni courses—when I know for a fact she’s just watching Netflix at home.

It’s become a running joke in our circle how fake her online life is. She acts like she’s thriving—busy, social, spiritual, successful—but in reality, she barely sees anyone, and the only “hobby” she has is lying to make herself look important.

She doesn’t really ask about anyone else or listen when we talk. Conversations with her are always one-sided and shallow. And honestly, I think that’s why she doesn’t have many real friends left. We’re all in our mid-30s now, and this behavior is just… bizarre. It’s like she’s more invested in curating a perfect image than living an actual life.

What could be going on with someone like this? Is it insecurity? Some kind of need for validation? I’m not trying to be mean, I’m genuinely puzzled. It feels like something deeper has to be going on here.