EARLIER THIS YEAR, US college student Ashley VanPevenage let her make-up artist friend do up her face following an allergic reaction.

Her friend posted her fantastic work to Instagram – intended just for her followers interested in the make-up skills:

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The image then made its way to Twitter, with the following line added

It was then picked up by major accounts, who repeated the observation

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It went massively viral

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There were many nasty comments made about Ashley’s skin – not knowing the context of what was going on in the photo

Then the meme was put on this Facebook page, garnering nearly 350,000 shares in August

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So, earlier this week Ashley took to YouTube to tell people what it’s like to be the centre of such a massive meme – and one that wasn’t very positive. And her story has been covered everywhere from the Daily Mail to Buzzfeed:

I will be the first one to say that I used to be entertained by many memes, but when it’s actually you and you’re dealing with harsh comments it’s a whole different story.

It did have an impact on her:

Some days I will read through the comments and just see how cruel people can be.

But she left viewers with an inspirational message at the end:

My advice for people who may have to deal with this in the future is it doesn’t matter what people say about you or what they think about you. Everyone is beautiful inside and out.

Watch her full message here:

hat-tip:Buzzfeed

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