‘I’LL TAKE IT’

Woman From ‘Disaster Girl’ Meme Auctions It Off for $450,000

Zoe Roth, now a 21-year-old senior at UNC-Chapel Hill, watched in astonishment as she saw bids rolling in for the famous photo.

In January 2005, 4-year-old Zoe Roth went to check out a house that was burning down in her North Carolina neighborhood with her dad, who happened to have a new digital camera. Sixteen years and millions of memes later, the image has sold for about $458,000. Roth, better known across the globe as “Disaster Girl,” auctioned off the famous photo of her childhood self earlier this month as a non-fungible token. According to the Raleigh News & Observer, she initially expected the the meme to sell for 100 Ether, a cryptocurrency that adds up to about $2,200 per unit, but watched in astonishment as it shot to 180. Roth, now a 21-year-old senior at UNC-Chapel Hill, is gradually coming to terms with having nearly half a million dollars. She told the newspaper she’s researching nonprofits to donate to, and added: “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’ll take it.”