The humble origin story of a viral meme

The internet has recently been inundated with a photo of a girl speaking intently to her, rather indifferent, male companion. The viral ‘Girl Explaining’ meme has now been used by a multitude of people to voice their opinion on assorted issues — from a Star Trek series to climate change.

But the girl in the picture, Denise Sanchez, had no intention of taking social media by storm. The image, she told the Washington Post in a recent interview, was taken in 2018, when she was attending a New Year’s Eve music festival in her native country, Argentina.

She was talking to her now ex-boyfriend when she was captured in the background of someone else’s picture, The Post reported.

Refuting the popular perception about the meme that Ms Sanches was shouting in a void, the report stated that she was actually singing along to a song.

However, this was not the first time Ms Sanchez has gone viral. The same image was widely circulated in 2019 as well, for the same reasons.

“The meme was born when the photo’s actual subject posted it on social media two months after it was clicked,” Mr Sanchez told the Post, adding that they had captioned it: ‘When strangers mess up your photos’.

Later, an eager social media user cropped the duo from the background, giving Ms Sanchez her first shot at fame.

The resurgence of the meme came around Aug 15, when a Twitter user shared it with a message about the incompatibility between Geminis and Scorpios, The Post reported while quoting Know Your Meme.

Originally published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2022