Remember one of the OG memes, ‘Disaster Girl?’
16 years ago, a pic went viral of a four-year-old girl smirking in a terrifying manor, as a housefire was going on in the background. I mean you would’ve thought she started the fire herself.
Well now the girl, named Zoe Roth, is 21 and she’s ready to make a little money off of her picture that was viewed by millions of people.
Okay, a “little” money is a bit of an understatement.
She announced that she’s selling the picture for a WHOPPING $473,000.
According to the New York Post, the ‘Disaster Girl’ pic is now a “non-fungible token,” or NFT, which is a unique digital structure that’s allowed to be sold like art.
And believe it or not, it was bought almost instantly by Farzin Fardin Fard, CEO of a Dubai-based music production company. He had this to say in a statement to Gizmodo:
“Our management team is always in cooperation with some highly knowledgeable and experienced art advisers who believe that we must grow with technological movements that help us to not only promote our business but also to support artists and the art market.”
I’d say it’s a win for everybody then.
Ironically enough, the fire in the picture was actually a controlled burn as fire fighters were training near Roth’s childhood home in Mebane, North Carolina.
Roth recalls the picture very well:
“In 2005, my dad took a picture of me standing in front of a house fire. I was standing there looking evil, as if I started the fire…but oh my gosh, no, I didn’t.”
“I’m a part of history.”
The picture received national recognition, as it won Dave the JPG magazine’s “Emotion Capture” contest in 2008. She even got flown out to Los Angeles to be a part of National Geographic’s series on the history of the internet.
Roth, who’s now a senior at the University Of North Carolina, plans to split her big payday with a non-profit charity.
All I have to say is I should’ve gotten my dad to take a video of me riding my boogey-board down the staircase when I was four. I could be a millionaire right now…
And while we’re talking memes…. what could this one go for?
