# Disaster Girl > Disaster Girl is a 2008 photoshop meme featuring four-year-old Zoë Roth smirking at the camera while a house burns behind her, spawning edits of her at historic disasters and catastrophes. Disaster Girl is a photoshop meme built around a 2005 photograph of four-year-old Zoë Roth smirking at the camera while a house burns behind her. The image went viral in October 2008 after appearing on BuzzFeed, spawning countless edits that place the girl at the scene of historic disasters and catastrophes. In 2021, Roth sold the original photo as an NFT for 180 Ether (roughly $486,716), making it one of the most famous meme-to-NFT success stories. ## Origin In January 2005, the Roth family went to watch a controlled burn near their home in Mebane, North Carolina[5]. The local fire department was running a live drill training exercise two blocks from their house[4]. Dave Roth, an amateur photographer, snapped a photo of his four-year-old daughter Zoë as she turned toward the camera with a sly grin while the house blazed behind her[5]. Dave titled the photo "Firestarter" and first uploaded it to the image-hosting service Zooomr on January 2, 2007[9]. It didn't get much traction there. Later that year, on November 29, he submitted it to JPG Magazine's "Emotion Capture" competition[12]. The photo was selected for publication in the February/March 2008 print issue (Issue 14) of the magazine[3]. - **Platform:** Family photo - **Creator:** Dave Roth (photographer), Zoë Roth (subject) - **Date:** 2005 ## Overview The Disaster Girl meme features a young girl standing in the foreground of a house fire, facing the camera with what *The New York Times* described as "a devilish smirk" and "a knowing look in her eyes"[5]. The joke is simple: this kid clearly started the fire and is proud of it. In the exploitable format, editors swap out the burning house for other catastrophic events, placing Disaster Girl at everything from the sinking of the Titanic to the Kennedy assassination to the 2008 financial crisis[1]. The meme works because of the girl's perfectly timed expression, a mix of mischief and satisfaction that needs zero explanation. ## How It Spread The real explosion happened in October 2008. JPG Magazine's blog posted about the photo on October 28, noting that "internet pranksters" had gotten their "busy photo-shopping fingers" on Dave's image[7]. BuzzFeed picked it up on October 27, posting the original photo and inviting users to create their own versions using a built-in image editor[6]. A follow-up BuzzFeed post the next day highlighted the best derivatives[1]. From there the meme spread fast. Best Week Ever covered it on October 28, calling it "quite possibly one of the funniest, and chilling, pictures I've seen in a long time"[2]. eBaum's World Forum featured the photoshops[14], and Neatorama posted about it on October 30, noting the photo "went viral on the Net" in "a mere few weeks"[8]. Other coverage followed on Digg, TrendHunter, Cracked[13], and the Huffington Post[11]. JPG Magazine spoke with Dave and Zoë around this time. Both were "jazzed" by the attention and "digging the photo-shopped versions as well as the captions"[7]. By November 2008, the original JPG Magazine photo page had racked up over 95,000 views[4]. Google search interest for "Disaster Girl" didn't exist before October 2008, confirming the BuzzFeed post as the viral trigger. Search interest peaked in May 2011[4]. ## How to Use The Disaster Girl format is straightforward: 1. Find or create an image of a disaster, accident, catastrophe, or anything going badly wrong 2. Photoshop the original Disaster Girl (the smirking girl from the 2005 photo) into the foreground, typically facing the camera 3. The implied joke is always the same: she caused this ## Cultural Impact Marie Fazio of *The New York Times* placed Disaster Girl in the internet meme "hall of fame" alongside Bad Luck Brian and Success Kid[5]. The meme crossed over into mainstream media through coverage on Cracked[13], HuffPost[11], and numerous other outlets. The 2021 NFT sale for approximately $486,716 made international news and became a case study in how meme subjects can reclaim and profit from their viral fame[5]. Roth's approach of consulting other meme celebrities before listing, and negotiating a 10% resale royalty, set a template that other meme subjects would reference. The fact that the Roth family retained copyright was notable in an era when most meme subjects had no control over their images[5]. Dave Roth's original "Firestarter" photo also holds a place in photography history, having been published in JPG Magazine alongside work from dozens of other photographers in their Issue 14[3]. ## Fun Facts - Dave Roth originally titled the photo "Firestarter," a reference that several JPG Magazine commenters connected to both Stephen King's novel and The Prodigy's song[12]. - Zoë Roth was born in 2001, making her about four years old in the original 2005 photo[5]. - Roth earned her degree in Peace, War, and Defense from UNC Chapel Hill, a fitting major for someone famous for smirking at destruction[5]. - The controlled burn in the photo was a real fire department training exercise, not an actual emergency[4]. - One Neatorama commenter said the photo reminded them of "Bongboy" from Upright Citizens Brigade, a character who kept turning up at horrible events[8]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Disaster Girl? Disaster Girl is a photoshop meme featuring a four-year-old girl smirking at the camera with a burning house behind her. The photo is edited to place her at various disasters, implying she caused them[4]. ### Where did Disaster Girl come from? The original photo was taken by Dave Roth in January 2005 during a fire department training drill in Mebane, North Carolina. His daughter Zoë was the smirking girl in the foreground[5]. ### What does Disaster Girl mean? The meme plays on the idea that the little girl's mischievous expression means she started the fire, or whatever disaster is shown behind her. It's used to joke about causing chaos or destruction[4]. ### How do you use Disaster Girl? Photoshop the original image of the smirking girl onto any disaster or catastrophe background. The contrast between her calm, satisfied expression and the destruction behind her is the joke[6]. ### Is Disaster Girl still popular? Disaster Girl's Google search interest peaked in May 2011[4]. The meme saw a major resurgence in 2021 when Zoë Roth sold the original photo as an NFT for approximately $486,716[5]. ### Who is the girl in Disaster Girl? The girl is Zoë Roth, who was four years old when her father Dave Roth photographed her in front of the controlled burn in Mebane, North Carolina in January 2005[5]. ### How much did the Disaster Girl NFT sell for? On April 17, 2021, Zoë Roth sold an NFT of the original Disaster Girl photo for 180 Ether, worth approximately $486,716, to a buyer known as @3FMusic[5]. ### Did the Disaster Girl family keep the copyright? Yes. The Roth family retained copyright over the original work and also negotiated a 10% royalty on all future resales of the NFT[5]. ### When did Disaster Girl go viral? The photo went viral in late October 2008 after BuzzFeed posted it and invited users to create their own versions[6]. Best Week Ever, eBaum's World, and Neatorama all covered it within days[2][8]. ### What was the original photo called? Dave Roth titled the original photograph "Firestarter" when he first uploaded it to Zooomr in January 2007[9]. ### Was the fire in Disaster Girl real? The fire was real but controlled. It was a live drill training exercise run by the local fire department, two blocks from the Roth family's home[4]. ### What contest did Disaster Girl win? The photo won an "Emotion Capture" competition in JPG Magazine and was published in their February/March 2008 print issue (Issue 14)[3][12]. ## References 1. [The Amazing True Story Of Disaster Girl]() 2. [Disaster Girl: The New Fail | Best Week Ever]() 3. [JPG: Magazine: Issue 14]() 4. [Disaster Girl - Know Your Meme]() 5. [Disaster Girl]() 6. [Disaster Girl!]() 7. [JPG Magazine: Blog: Disaster Girl is Coming for You]() 8. [Disaster Girl - Neatorama]() 9. [Firestarter | Zooomr Photo Sharing]() 10. [I Have a Meme: Disaster Girl]() 11. [6 Amazing Kid Photos | HuffPost UK Weird News]() 12. [JPG Magazine: Photos: "Firestarter" by Dave Roth]() 13. [6 Images of Kids Too Insane to Be Real (That Totally Are) | Cracked.com]() 14. [Disaster Girl Strikes Again - eBaum's World Forum]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/disaster-girl Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library