Skip navigation! Story from Pop Culture. June 3, , PM. It was June 6, She changed from her uniform top into a dirty green T-shirt crumpled on her bedroom floor, sat down in front of her webcam, and got started. Then she uploaded the video, shared it on Facebook, and waited for comments from the usual friends.
The video found its way onto some website called Reddit that Morris had never heard of. Within hours, it had a million views. The next day, a Redditor by the name of yeahhtoast took a screen grab from the video, added some words in white text, and Overly Attached Girlfriend was born. Working in entertainment had been a lifelong dream, but she was a small-town girl with zero connections.
This newfound internet fame, or whatever it was, was an opportunity. But it also terrified her. When she was interviewed on a radio show that first week, a DJ advised her to set up Twitter and Facebook accounts with a fake last name. As Overly Attached Girlfriend gained momentum, it triggered a tsunami of media requests, thought pieces, and imitators.
There was Misunderstood Girlfriend , a meme that used another still of Morris, but offered rational explanations for seemingly obsessive behavior. Morris never felt embarrassed about being Overly Attached Girlfriend. Unlike other memes, like Bad Luck Bryan or the Ermahgerd Girl , both of which came from awkward middle school photos found by someone else, Morris put herself out there first. So the internet laughed with her, not at her. Morris was six months into a relationship when she became Overly Attached Girlfriend, and remains healthily attached to the same guy four years later.
Four months after going viral, Morris quit her job and withdrew from school to become a full-time YouTuber with professional management. She started making weekly YouTube videos and struggled with her new meme girl identity. Overly Attached Girlfriend. Since then, Morris has performed in a sketch on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon , beaten Jessica Alba in a staring contest at the Social Star Awards honoring international social media stars, and been overly attached to a flight attendant in a meme-tastic Delta Airlines safety video , to name a few.
