The Real Story of the Ermahgerd Meme Girl

Know Your Meme

In 2012, Maggie Goldenberger was backpacking through India when she discovered her childhood photo had become a global meme. You know the one... braces, pigtails, and Goosebumps books. But Maggie didn’t ask for any of this. In this video, she shares how the Ermahgerd meme exploded without her knowledge, the violations of privacy that came with it, and why she ultimately walked away from internet fame. Today, she’s a cardiac nurse with a very different kind of story to tell.  Thanks to @BuzzFeedVideo for some of the interview clips and footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKfPgZO7zOo  00:00 She Went Viral Backpacking in India   00:22 The Meme Photo Explained   00:56 What the Meme Looked Like   01:18 How the Meme Spread   01:42 Maggie’s Real-Life Backstory   02:00 The Photo Shoot That Started It All   02:32 The Meme Reaches Her Friends   02:57 When It Got Out of Hand   03:26 The AMA That Went Too Far   04:20 Why She Never Monetized It   04:50 Vanity Fair & Furry Party Appearance   05:26 Where She Is Now   05:44 How She Feels About the Meme Today   06:10 Maggie’s Final Message    Check out our new MEME STORE: https://thememestore.com/  Subscribe to our channel to learn more about trending memes, hear interviews from meme personalities and more! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbrPqq29C9Q_TQP7OFFRzcw?sub_confirmation=1  #ermahgerd #goosebumps  #wherearetheynow

Transcript

00:00In 2012, while backpacking through India with her girlfriend, Maggie Goldenberger got a message from her mom.

00:05It said something strange, something about a German meme that used Maggie's photo.

00:10She ignored it at first, but then a friend reached out too, saying someone they know had been reposting a meme non-stop,

00:16a meme they didn't even realize was Maggie.

00:18That's when it hit her. She hadn't just become a meme, she was already viral.

00:21A fun photo I took when I was about 10 years old. I was holding up Goosebumps books and that resurfaced years later in 2012 and became a viral meme.

00:32The photo was simple. A kid with braces, wild pigtails, clutching three Goosebumps books with a crazed look on her face.

00:38The caption, Erma Gerd, Gersperm. It became one of the most iconic memes of the Advice Animals era.

00:44But Maggie had no idea this was happening, because the photo had been taken years earlier.

00:48And when it went viral, she wasn't even online. So what actually happens when your awkward childhood photo becomes one of the biggest memes of the year?

00:56And where is Maggie Goldenberger now? Let's rewind.

00:59The Erma Gerd meme features Maggie as a tween, hair and pigtails, wearing a vest over her long-sleeved shirt,

01:05holding three R.L. Stine Goosebumps books, Monster Blood 3, It Came From Beneath the Sink, and Say Cheese and Die.

01:11The image was paired with stylized, exaggerated text meant to sound like someone speaking through braces.

01:16It was instantly meme-able.

01:17It all started when Canadian Redditor, XWavy, found the image on a Photobucket account and posted it to r slash funny with the caption,

01:25Just a book owner's smile.

01:27Then, another Redditor, PlantLife, added the now iconic line,

01:30Gershberm, m'er fervid berksh.

01:33From there, the meme exploded online.

01:35Reddit, Tumblr, Facebook, the image was everywhere.

01:38What most people didn't know was the photo wasn't random. It had backstory.

01:41Maggie grew up in Olympia, Washington, where she described herself as a total tomboy.

01:46She loved sports, comedy, and being goofy with her friends.

01:49The photo was taken in either 1998 or 1999, when Maggie was around 10 years old.

01:54Her best friend, Kaylin, had just gotten a Polaroid camera, and the two of them loved staging silly dress-up photo shoots.

02:00One night, we were taking pictures, and I was trying to look as ridiculous and as nerdy as possible.

02:06We got the Goosebumps books out.

02:07We grabbed her old backpack from first grade, a vest her mom found at Goodwill, took my hair and put them in pigtails.

02:13I had a retainer that I usually wore at night.

02:17We got it out.

02:18I threw it in and just started making faces.

02:20The photo was a joke, a character, and it lived quietly on Kaylin's fridge for years,

02:25until she uploaded it to Facebook and MySpace, thinking nothing of it.

02:29Eventually, it got scraped, re-uploaded, and spread by people who had no idea who Maggie was.

02:34That included one of her old classmates, who reposted the meme on e-bombsworld without realizing it was a photo of someone he knew.

02:40Maggie texted him, asking why he'd post her photo without asking.

02:44He was shocked.

02:45He genuinely didn't know it was her.

02:47He said he found it from a comedy website.

02:49So then I realized, there's some legitimacy to what my mom's saying.

02:52So now I really want to know what was going on.

02:55Who would put my photo on the internet?

02:56That's when Maggie realized how far the meme had spread, and how little control she had over it.

03:01By 2012, Irma Gerd was everywhere.

03:04There was an Irma Gerd translator that let users convert normal text into meme speak.

03:08There were parody videos, oil paintings, and spin-offs.

03:11The Nerdist made a full sketch.

03:13Paramore's Hayley Williams even got in on the joke.

03:15R.L. Stine himself commented on the meme, saying he didn't really get it, but that it definitely boosted goosebumps sales.

03:21Why is it funny? I didn't get it.

03:23It's pronounced goosebumps. Goose-bums.

03:26At one point, Maggie thought about doing a Reddit AMA to clear things up, but then things got complicated.

03:31I didn't see any photos of my actual photo online until my brother's friend was trying to prove it was me.

03:38He wanted me to participate in an AMA on Reddit and said the proceeds would go to charity and all these good things.

03:45And then next thing I know, I'm getting a message from a Reddit user showing me what he's posting to prove it was me.

03:50I'm like a bunch of personal information, a bunch of personal photographs, and I was like, whoa!

03:54I was like, this is not what I signed up for.

03:57And like when I backed up from it, that was absolutely the most unnerving thing.

04:02A friend of her brother's tried to prove she was the meme girl by posting old photos of her online, including one of her in a bikini.

04:09He also outed her relationship with her girlfriend at the time, who wasn't out yet to her conservative family.

04:14It was a total violation of privacy, one that made Maggie pull back from the spotlight entirely.

04:19Despite the meme's popularity, Maggie never tried to monetize it.

04:22She didn't sue anyone.

04:24She didn't sell merch.

04:25She just moved on.

04:26People told her to lawyer up.

04:27Others wanted her to sell t-shirts.

04:29But Maggie didn't understand why people thought it was so funny or why anyone would want her face on merchandise.

04:34She figured the meme would disappear in a week.

04:36I did think about like selling shirts and all those things, but I'm like, I feel awful.

04:40They're not like, you know, like organic, sustainable, you know?

04:43And I was like, I'm like charging $50 for a shirt.

04:46No, no, no, you know what I mean?

04:47So it just didn't seem to like match, just didn't seem to line up.

04:50The only time she leaned into it publicly was in 2015, when Vanity Fair interviewed her.

04:55I don't want to be known as the Ermagerd girl forever, she said.

04:58But I also figured I might as well just tell the story.

05:00She told the New Statesman that she avoids bringing it up, especially on dates.

05:04I keep it on the DL, she said.

05:06There was one other time she briefly embraced her meme status, a furry party in San Francisco.

05:11She was invited to attend and met Paul Bear Vasquez, better known as Double Rainbow Guy.

05:16According to Maggie, the event was a jungle-themed brewery party where guests were dressed in fursuits

05:21and the dinner was infused with something she didn't realize until it kicked in.

05:25So where's Maggie Goldenberger now?

05:27After the meme went viral while she was traveling in India, Maggie returned home and earned her nursing degree.

05:32Today, she's a cardiac nurse living in Phoenix, Arizona.

05:35She's kept a low profile ever since.

05:37No influencer brand, no TikTok account, and no desire to capitalize on meme fame.

05:42She says she's only ever been recognized in public once.

05:45These days, she still sees the meme pop up now and then and actually finds it funny.

05:48Her favorite version, her own face, photoshopped onto Mary Poppins.

05:52At this day, when I see my picture pop up, it's fun because it's not common and it's really random.

05:59And it's just, yeah, it's like a joke, an inside joke.

06:02And then my friends, I'm like, I'm still alive.

06:04I still got it.

06:05This old lady's still ticking.

06:06So yeah, I really enjoy it now.

06:08For some early meme stars, viral fame was a launch pad.

06:11For Maggie Goldenberger, it was just something that happened to her.

06:14Something weird, funny, and a little bit traumatic.

06:17A flash of internet history she didn't ask for.

06:20The rest of the world may remember her as Irma Gerd Girl, but Maggie, she's just a nurse

06:24in Arizona, who once took a photo with a stack of Goosebumps books.

06:28And if there's one message she'd leave you with, it's this.

06:30Reading is cool, and do not let the internet tell you otherwise.

06:34It's cool, and do not let the internet tell us.

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