Woman claims Hallmark network STOLE her viral story

Woman accuses Hallmark of ‘STEALING’ viral video about her traveling cross country in a van with strangers – claiming network turned it into a movie without her permission

  • Florida-based writer Michelle Miller alleges that Hallmark ‘exploited’ a real story
  • She claimed in two TikTok videos that the network did not provide any credit
  • Hallmark allegedly did not seek permission and blocked her on its Facebook

A woman has claimed that Hallmark stole her viral story and transformed it into a movie without her permission.

Florida-based writer Michelle Miller took to TikTok on behalf of her friend Alanah to allege that a viral video about their real-life experience was turned into a holiday movie.

The original clip that she claims was used as the basis for a Hallmark movie saw Alanah, Michelle, and several other plane passengers left stranded at an airport as the result of a canceled flight – prompting 13 of them to rent a van together to drive to Tennessee, an experience that they documented online.

Now, Michelle has claimed that Hallmark ‘exploited’ their true story by using it as the inspiration for its new movie Holiday Road, which came out on November 24, without providing any credit or seeking permission from the group. 


Florida-based writer Michelle Miller took to TikTok on behalf of friend Alanah to allege that a viral video about their real-life experience was turned into a holiday movie 


In Alanah’s video, Michelle was one of passengers who got stranded at the airport due to a canceled flight before a group of travelers teamed up and rented a van for 13 people to get to their destination in Tennessee – all while bonding in transit 


The clip, which was posted on December 4, 2022, she recorded fellow passengers who were stranded as they introduced themselves and explained their motivations 

In Alanah’s video, which was posted on December 4, 2022, she recorded fellow passengers who were stranded as they introduced themselves and explained their motivations.

One flyer shared that she would ‘possibly miss [her] finals,’ another family spoke about wanting to visit the University of Tennessee and others were simply keen to get home.

Also in the video, Michelle is shown explaining her personal situation at the airport.

‘I’m the Farm Babe from Florida and I’m the keynote speaker in Knoxville on Tuesday, so we’re gonna go and I’m gonna make my speech.’

Fast forward to less than a year later and the Hallmark Channel premiered Holiday Road in November.

The seasonal film follows travelers who also got stranded at an airport and teamed up together to take a van to their destination. 

In the movie, the group heads from Portland to Denver and develops strong bonds during the trip.

Michelle posted a video on TikTok on December 8 and confessed that she is ‘really mad at Hallmark right now.’

Michelle confessed that she is ‘still friends’ with the other fellow passengers and they are all in a ‘group chat’ and are like a ‘big family’

She explained that a year ago, when their story went viral, the group of new-found friends were interviewed and featured by multiple news outlets.

She says they were even contacted by a literary agent, Tyler Perry’s producers and Netflix, which were all interested in representing the story, possibly through a documentary. 

‘Hallmark swooped in and completely stole everything we did. They stole our entire storyline, all the way down to the trailer.’

Michelle claimed that even her saying, ‘I’m here for the snacks’ in a TikTok video, was featured as a line in the film.  

‘They literally ripped off our story. Didn’t give us any credit. Didn’t get our permission. 

‘Didn’t do anything to involve us. They are literally exploiting our story. 

‘God only knows what kind of money they’re making off of it, on our story without even crediting us.

‘Hallmark, what you did was shady.’

She captioned her video: ‘Hallmark channel – you are SHADY!! They completely STOLE, ripped off and exploited our 13 strangers story that went really viral last year.

‘Hallmark completely stole our storyline. Please join us in telling Hallmark that using our story without credit & profit sharing is 100 per cent MESSED UP.


Michelle has since posted a video claiming that Hallmark ‘exploited’ their true story in its movie Holiday Road, which came out on November 24, without providing any credit or seeking permission from the group 

Fast forward to less than a year later and the Hallmark Channel premiered Holiday Road in November 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=6oH4h0IXa1I%3Frel%3D0

‘Hallmark – this is NOT OKAY. Rule number one when sharing someone’s story…. You ALWAYS GIVE CREDIT. Everyone in media knows this and what they did is not okay.’

Michelle later posted a follow-up video in which she once again stuck to her claims and also provided more context.

She explained that when Alanah posted the original video, a lot of followers tagged Hallmark and asked the brand to ‘turn [it] into a movie.’

Michelle confessed that she is ‘still friends’ with the other fellow passengers and they are all in a ‘group chat’ and are like a ‘big family.’

She believes that she was represented by on-screen character Dana, since renting the van was ‘her idea and she’s the single traveler,’ and that Alanah was portrayed as the character of Maya.

Michelle opened up vulnerably and let viewers know how she felt about the network allegedly taking their story for its use. 

‘We never did this for fame, for fortune or whatever, but I feel very violated. 

‘It’s hard to explain but I feel like exploited and taken advantage of.’

Although she said that ‘it’s a good movie’ and ‘it’s cute,’ she shared that ‘some of these heartfelt moments’ were allegedly just taken from her.


Michelle later posted a follow-up video in which she once again stuck to her claims and also provided more context 

An open letter to Hallmark. #holidayroad #13strangers #13strangerswhobecamefriends @Hallmark Channel @Alanah #hallmarkmovie #fyp

‘[Hallmark] could have invited us to do something. 

‘We could have collaborated with them and posted and shared how awesome it was to be a part of this movie that was based on our lives and instead Hallmark just took it and ran with it and are profiting off of us and completely explaining our story without any communication.’

She admitted that ‘half’ of her traveling group is ‘blocked from the Hallmark Facebook’ for expressing that they’d like to have the ‘opportunity to talk’ to the network.

Her intention is to get the channel to ‘understand what [it] did was wrong and [to] rectify the situation.’

Michelle captioned the follow-up video as: ‘An open letter to Hallmark.’

DailyMail.com has approached Hallmark for comment. 

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