A Nebraska woman was shocked to discover that a decade-old photo of herself became a meme.
Elisabeth Percival, 40, from Omaha, found out last month that an image taken almost 10 years earlier had become the foundation for a new meme persona known as ‘Cool Girl Callie’.
In the photo, Percival is wearing a blue sleeveless shirt, is holding a coffee cup and her brown hair is slightly messy.
The joke is that ‘Cool Girl Callie’ is a woman who treats all – including ex-boyfriends, rock bands and ‘socially awkward penguins’ – with kindness and respect.
Elisabeth Percival, 40, from Omaha, Nebraska, was shocked to discover that a decade-old photo of herself (above) became a meme
The joke is that the meme persona, ‘Cool Girl Callie’, is a woman who treats all – including ex-boyfriends, rock bands and ‘socially awkward penguins’ – with kindness and respect
Percival said she discovered the meme last month after her hairstylist texted her the photo while she was sitting in a lecture.
The old photo had text added to it. Above Percival’s head it read: ‘Yeah I’m a Feminist.’ Below her head it read: ‘Splits the Check’.
‘At first I was confused, and then I was terrified,’ she told the Omaha World-Herald. ‘Because everyone knows that the Internet can be a cruel place.’
The photo had been part of a photography project Percival had participated it online nearly a decade ago called the ‘365 Project’ where a subject takes a photo of himself or herself every day and shares it for a year.
Every day there are different prompts of the various photos such as ‘Take a child-like photo’ or ‘Take a photo right when you wake up’.
The stealing started almost right away.
First, the Huffington Post stole one of her photos for a story. Then someone stole several of the photos, created a fake Facebook account with them and began messaging Percival’s friends.
Percival alerted Facebook, which took down the account. Finally, this August, an unknown person found the photo of her wearing the blue sleeveless shirt, which was taken as a response to the ‘Take a photo right when you wake up’.
The photo had been part of a photography project Percival (pictured, left and right) had participated it online nearly a decade ago called the ‘365 Project’ where a subject takes a photo of himself or herself every day and shares it for a year
Every day there are different prompts of the various photos such as ‘Take a child-like photo’ or ‘Take a photo right when you wake up’, the latter of which was used for ‘Cool Girl Callie’
The meme first popped up on the Internet in August, zooming in on the original photo and adding text to it
They zoomed in on her face, added text and ‘Cool Girl Callie’ was born.
Percival feared the meme would be cruel, call her ugly or other vicious terms. But slowly she began to discover that this new persona was just the opposite – that ‘Cool Girl Callie’ was, in fact, cool.
One example was: ‘Liked Band Before They Were Popular.’ Now Loves Them.’
Another: ‘Tells Guy “Let’s Just Be Friends”.’ ‘Introduces Him to His Future GF (girlfriend).’
‘Most Popular Girl in School.’ ‘Befriends Socially Awkward Penguin,’ reads another.
Percival (pictured) feared the meme would be cruel, but says she was relieved when it turned out to be just the opposite. She said: ‘The Internet decided to be nice to me that day. How lucky is that?’
Percival says she thinks the photo of her was used for ‘Cool Girl Callie’ because she looks harmless, happy and even earnest
Percival said she was bewildered, but also relieved: ‘The Internet decided to be nice to me that day. How lucky is that?’
She said she thinks she understands why the photo of her was used for ‘Cool Girl Callie’. She says she looks harmless, happy and even earnest.
‘Or maybe I’m overthinking it and they just randomly grabbed a photo off the Internet while making 700 other memes,’ Percival said.