‘Disaster Girl,’ now 21, makes $450,000 selling the original picture behind her meme
- Zoe Roth, 21, became an internet sensation at the age of four when she was pictured standing in front of a burning building with a devilish smirk on her face
- The image has since served as a perfect meme for those who want to depict any disastrous scene or mischievous act
- Zoe has sold the image as a non-fungible token (NFT) for $473,000 by collector known as @3FMusic
The woman in the famous ‘Disaster Girl’ meme has sold the original photograph as an NFT for $473,000.
Zoe Roth, 21, became an internet sensation at the age of four when she was pictured standing in front of a burning building with a devilish smirk on her face.
The image has since served as a perfect meme for those who want to depict any disastrous scene or mischievous act.
The picture in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) – a kind of unique digital asset that has exploded in popularity so far in 2021 – was snapped up for 180 Ethereum, which is equivalent to $473,000, by a collector known only as @3FMusic.
Zoe Roth, 21, became an internet sensation at the age of four when she was pictured standing in front of a burning building with a devilish smirk on her face
The picture in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) – a kind of unique digital asset that has exploded in popularity so far in 2021 – was snapped up for 180 Ethereum, which is equivalent to $473,000, by a collector known only as @3FMusic
The collector @3FMusic is reportedly Farzin Fardin Fard, CEO of a Dubai-based music production company, according to Gizmodo.
Zoe, now a university student, and her father Dave – who captured the photo – were approached by an anonymous person via email in February who encouraged them to sell the image as an NFT.
Each NFT has its own blockchain-based digital signature, which serves as a public ledger, allowing anyone to verify the asset’s authenticity and ownership.
Zoe was pictured by her father in January 2005 when she and her family were living near a fire station in Mebane, North Carolina.
Zoe Roth, who was pictured in the famous ‘Disaster Girl’ meme has sold the original photograph as an NFT for $473,000
The family went outside to see a controlled burn – a fire that is intentionally set to clear a property – and Dave snapped a photo of a smirking Zoe in front of the fire.
Since then, Dave won the JPG magazine’s ‘Emotion Capture’ contest in 2008 and the image went viral after it was posted online.
‘Nobody who is a meme tried to do that, it just ended up that way,’ Zoe told The Raleigh News & Observer. ‘Is it luck? Is it fate? I have no idea. But I will take it.’
Since then the photograph has become an internet sensation. The NFT was coded in a way that will allow Zoe and Dave – who have said they will split the profit between them – to acquire 10 per cent of profits whenever the NFT is sold in the future.
For the first time in 15 years, Zoe and Dave have control over their image.
‘Being able to sell it just shows us that we do have some sort of control, some sort of agency in the whole process,’ Zoe said.
Zoe, who is a senior at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is looking into nonprofit organizations she can donate her proceeds to while Dave hopes to fix the air conditioning of his Honda Civic.