A woman who gained internet fame seemingly overnight due to a memorable photo taken in front of a burning house has seen significant financial success from it since 2005.
Zoë Roth, known as the ‘Disaster Girl’ from a viral meme when she was just four years old, has decided to sell the original photograph for a substantial sum.
This iconic image was captured by Roth’s father in Mebane, North Carolina, where firefighters had set the house on fire intentionally as part of a training exercise.
Now at 21, Roth opted to sell the image to Ben Lashes, an expert in NFTs (non-fungible tokens), who has also acquired other well-known memes like Nyan Cat, Grumpy Cat, Keyboard Cat, and Doge.
With her newfound wealth, Roth plans to use the proceeds to cover her college tuition and contribute to charitable causes.
When reflecting on her long-standing status as a meme, Roth remarked to the New York Times: “The internet is big. Whether you’re having a good experience or a bad experience, you kind of just have to make the most of it.”
Having sold the image, Roth shared her thoughts on how people can become famous online without intention.
She told Raleigh News & Observer: “Nobody who is a meme tried to do that, it just ended up that way. Is it luck? Is it fate? I have no idea. But I will take it.”
Roth’s image was sold for a total of $473,000.
The transaction occurred on April 17, equivalent to 180 Ethereum in cryptocurrency.
The sale was inspired by a previous event when Christie’s in New York auctioned a digital file created by Mike Winkelmann for $69.3 million.
The buyer of Roth’s image, known only as 3FMusic, is rumored to be Farzin Fardin Fard, CEO of a Dubai-based music production company.
In a statement to Gizmodo, the purchaser expressed that the acquisition was made “in cooperation with some highly knowledgeable and experienced art advisers, who believe that we must grow with technological movements that help us to not only promote our business but also to support artists and the art market.”
With her new earnings, Roth can now enjoy the benefits that come with the image’s backstory as explained by her father, Dave, to Refinery 29.
“There was no danger or stress in the situation at all,” Dave recounted. “The kids and I walked around to see the fire from different angles. It was cool — something you don’t see every day.”
Dave, an amateur photographer, snapped about 20 to 30 photos before they returned home.
It was not until three years later that he uploaded it to Zooomr, naming it Firestarter.
“I guess because I knew the whole backstory, I’d overlooked the expression on Zoe’s face until then,” Dave noted. “But someone with a blank slate has to make sense of the fire in the background and then the little girl with a creepy half-smile. It’s like something out of a horror movie.”
In November 2007, Dave entered the photo in a JPG Magazine contest called ‘Emotion Capture’ and won $100, along with a magazine subscription and a feature in the February/March 2008 issue.
“My dad handed me a magazine, and I started flipping through it,” Roth recalled. “Then I saw the picture of me — and I flipped out! I took it to school the next day and showed everyone.”
She had no idea how impactful it would become.