Disaster Girl
Featured Episode
About
Disaster Girl is a photoshop meme in which an exploitable photo of a smiling girl is superimposed onto images of natural disasters and accidents to imply that she has caused some type of calamity depicted in the background.
Origin
The photograph of the girl and the burning house was taken by Dave Roth[1] in January 2005[2] during the local fire department's live drill training two blocks away from his home in Mebane, North Carolina. While observing the fire, Dave caught his daughter, Zoe, smiling devilishly juxtaposed against the burning house.
Roth first uploaded the photo of his daughter, which he titled "Firestarter," to the image-hosting service Zooomr[3] on January 2nd, 2007. However, it did not receive much attention until later that year on November 29th when Roth submitted the same image to JPG Magazine[4] for an "Emotion Capture" competition. The photo was selected for publication in the February / March 2008 print issue of the magazine.[5]
Spread
In October 2008, JPG Magazine[6] spoke with Dave and Zoe, who were both "jazzed" by the attention the photo had received. By November 2008, the initial JPG Magazine post had gained over 95,000 views.[2] The original photo was posted to Buzzfeed[7] on October 27th, 2008 with a follow-up[8] post the next day highlighting the best derivatives, followed by similar posts on Digg[9], TrendHunter[10], eBaum's World Forum[11] and Best Week Ever.[12] Over the years, the photo and its derivatives have been mentioned on Neatorama[13], photo site DamnCoolPictures[14], Cracked[15] and the Huffington Post.[16]
Various Examples
Disaster Girl Now
Roth has continued to post photos of Zoe on his Flickr[17] account over the years.
Interview with Know Your Meme
On December 18th, 2020, KYM interviewed Zoe as part of their editorial series that follows up on people featured in prominent memes. In the interview, we spoke with Roth to get a glimpse into what it was like growing up with her image plastered all around the internet — even to this day.
Search Interest
Search for Disaster Girl didn't begin until October 2008, when the photos were posted to Buzzfeed. Search peaked in May 2011.
External References
[1] The Traveling Roths – Home
[2] The Traveling Roths – I Have A Meme: Disaster Girl
[3] Zooomr (via Wayback Machine) – Firestarter
[4] JPG Magazine (via Wayback Machine) – Firestarter
[6] JPG Magazine (via Wayback Machine) – Disaster Girl is Coming for You
[7] Buzzfeed – Disaster Girl!
[8] Buzzfeed – The Amazing True Story of Disaster Girl
[9] Digg – Make Your Own 'Disaster Girl' Background
[10] TrendHunter – Viral Compassion Through Photoshop
[11] eBaum's World Forum (via Wayback Machine) – Disaster Girl Strikes Again
[12] Best Week Ever (via Wayback Machine) – Disaster Girl: The New Fail
[13] Neatorama – Disaster Girl
[14] DamnCoolPictures – Disaster Girl Grown Up
[15] Cracked – 6 Images of Kids Too Insane to Be Real (That Totally Are)
[16] Huffington Post – 6 Amazing Kid Photos
[17] Flickr – TravelingRoths
Top Comments
alex1128
Nov 30, 2011 at 06:25PM EST
shadowblade2584
Jul 23, 2011 at 02:06PM EDT