The NFTs keep coming. Yesterday, "Disaster Girl" aka Zoë Roth sold the meme-famous picture of her as a child for $495,000.
Taken by her father, Dave Roth when she was 4 years old, the image depicts Zoë smirking in front of a house in flames. The image went viral after her father submitted it to a photo contest in 2007 and won. Since then, the background has been photoshopped countless times, with Zoë smiling at everything from natural disasters to the Titanic sinking.
Now 21, Zoë plans to use the money to pay off her college loans and donate a portion to charity. Speaking to The New York Times, Roth explained that turning her meme into an NFT was a way to regain control over her own image. “People who are in memes didn’t really have a choice in it,” she said. “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.”
"Disaster Girl" isn't the first meme to sell as an NFT — Nyan Cat, Grumpy Cat, Bad Luck Brian, and Overly Attached Girlfriend all sold for multiple thousands — and it definitely won't be the last.
In fact, 3F Music, the Dubai-based company that bought "Disaster Girl" acquired “Overly Attached Girlfriend” earlier this month so it seems they're building a collection. The NYT spoke to Ben Lashes, a meme manager – yes, that's a thing – who has helped his clients make over $2 million in selling NFTs. “I think anytime you can find a collector — no matter what the price is — who respects the art behind it and is going to cherish it, that’s a successful sale, whether it’s one Ether or 200 or 300,” he told the paper.
