IF YOU’VE SPENT any time at all on the on the internet, you’ve probably set eyes on this girl.
And you’re probably familiar with the phrase ‘ERMAHGERD’, a discombobulation of the exclamation ‘OH MY GOD’, and one of the most recognisable online memes.
This picture is where it all originated, several years ago, after a teenager in Canada found an amusing image online and posted it to Reddit.
The image was of a (then 11-year-old) Maggie Goldenberger. She was unaware it had been found online, probably after it had been spotted on her MySpace or Facebook page. She was unaware that a teenager in Canada had posted it to Reddit.
She was also unaware that someone else had spotted its potential and added the words “GERSBERMS. MAH FAVRIT BERKS” to it, referring to the Goosebumps books she’s holding in her hands. The original text evolved into the Ermahgerd meme we know and love today.
Now, Maggie Goldenberger has been tracked down by Vanity Fair, and she’s told the story of how one image of her, taken while fooling around with friends, made her into the meme to end all memes.
And here she is:
Goldenberger said she had no idea she had become an internet sensation because she was travelling in India and the Philippines with her then girlfriend.
She said it was only when she got to check her messages at infrequent internet cafe stops, that she was alerted to what was going on.
Goldenberger is a nurse, who told Vanity Fair that she was actually dressed up as a character when the picture was taken, something she and her friends used to do a lot.
She said that because the picture wasn’t an authentic reflection of her, she never felt any real shame about it, and she always felt that people were laughing with her, rather than at her.
Thank you Maggie, for the Ermahgerd LOLs.
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