Girl behind ‘Disaster Girl’ meme has sold her viral photo for $500,000 or P24 million

Ever heard of a get-rich-quick scheme 12 years in the making? 

Zoe Roth, the girl from the viral "disaster girl" meme, has cashed in on her Internet royalties to the tune of $500,000 or P24 million. She sold the original copy of the photo via NFT, with the proceeds going to paying off her student loans and charity donations.

The internet rights to her infamous smirk was bought by Dubai-based music company 3F Music, who coincidentally also bought the Overly Attached Girlfriend meme for $411,000 (P19.8 million) and The New York Times’ NFT-column for $560,000 (P27 million).

The story behind the smile

In an interview with Buzzfeed in November of 2020, the now-22-year-old shared that she was only five years old when the elusive photo was taken. The fire in the photo was also simply a contained “test burn” by the local fireman, so children were allowed nearby,

“The house that was on fire was donated to the fire department by the owners for a test burn because they wanted to clear the land,” she shared.

“My dad was taking pictures of the house and everything that was going on and then he said it was my turn to smile. He said ‘okay smile’— so that’s why I made that face.”

“Any picture from that period, I feel like you could look at it and be like ‘oh this definitely looks like the same girl because I just had an evil smile.’”

Truly a 500,000-dollar evil smile.