Some people spend years trying to go viral, but Maggie Goldenberger managed to do it completely by accident.

Back in 2012, an old Polaroid of Goldenberger pulling a funny face and holding up several books with her hair done up in pigtails went viral across the internet, all while she was offline, backpacking through Asia.

Before Goldenberger could say, "EHMAHGERD," her image had become synonymous with lispy, nerdy speech on the internet, and people were sharing her childhood photo without even realizing it was her.

So, what happens when your awkward tween photograph becomes the internet's meme of the month? Here's a look at what Maggie Goldenberger has been up to since her viral meme.

What Is The 'Ermahgerd' Meme and How Did It Go Viral?

The "Ermahgerd" meme features a girl with pigtails and a retainer, wearing a vest over a long-sleeved shirt, holding three R.L. Stine Goosebumps books: Monster Blood III, It Came From Beneath the Sink! and Say Cheese and Die! The image is accompanied by text written in a mock speech impediment meant to sound like someone struggling to speak through braces: "ERMAHGERD GERSBERMS."

The image first surfaced online in March 2012 when a 16-year-old Canadian Redditor with the username u/xWavy discovered it on an old Photobucket page and posted it to the subreddit /r/funny with the caption, "Just a book owner's smile…" Soon after, Redditor u/plantlife added the now-iconic caption, "GERSBERMS. MAH FRAVRIT BERKS."

The text mimicked how someone like Shelly from South Park might exclaim, "Goosebumps, my favorite books!" The meme spread quickly from there, becoming a viral hit on Reddit and Tumblr during the Advice Animals era.

Who Is Maggie Goldenberger, and What's the Backstory to the Ermahgerd Meme?

Maggie Goldenberger grew up in Olympia, Washington, where she was raised as a total tomboy, playing sports and making other kids in her neighborhood laugh at her and her friends' antics.

In the late '90s, she and her friend Kaelyn often played dress-up and snapped silly photos using a Polaroid camera.

One night, Goldenberger raided their costume bin, slipped on a vest, pinched her hair into two pigtails and pulled a funny face with the first pile of books she got her hands on. That photo stayed on Kaelyn's fridge for years before she uploaded a copy of the photo to Facebook and MySpace, never expecting it to resurface.

In her Vanity Fair interview from 2015, Goldenberger mentions that she looked like a total geek on purpose. "We were just being goofy," she said. "It wasn't even Halloween."

She had no idea it had been scraped and posted elsewhere until 2012, when she was backpacking through India with her girlfriend. That's when her mom sent her a strange message about a "German meme" using her photo.

Hilariously, Mrs. Goldenberger had mistaken the stylized meme language for German, and Maggie dismissed her message as another case of parental internet ineptitude.

Soon after, someone from Maggie Goldenberger's high school told her that a guy they both went to school with had been reposting the Ehmahgerd meme for days.

Goldenberger texted him to ask why he hadn't asked her permission to repost her photo, because she's usually a good sport about these things.

Her old schoolmate was shocked. He had no idea that it was her. He'd just found the image on eBaum's World and thought it was funny. That’s when it finally clicked for Goldenberger — she had gone viral.

How Big Was the Ermahgerd Meme, and When Did People Realize It Was Maggie Goldenberger?

Ehmahgerd was seemingly everywhere online in 2012. The Nerdist made a parody video featuring Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams. A web designer created an Ermahgerd Translator that lets users garble regular text into Shelly-speak.

Someone also made an oil painting depicting Goldenberger, and other variations of the meme soon began popping off online, like this ecstatic pug going "EHMAHGERD TERNERSHBERL!"

As the meme's popularity grew, internet sleuths connected the dots and began linking the photo to Maggie Goldenberger. At one point, she considered doing a Reddit AMA to set the record straight, but she backed out after discovering that her brother's friend had been posting old photos of her and oversharing about her personal life.

He also outed her relationship with her girlfriend to the internet without her consent, which led to a wave of trolling and harassment. Goldenberger decided that she was done trying to link herself with the meme.

Did Maggie Goldenberger Ever Capitalize On Her 'Ehmahgerd' Fame?

Maggie Goldenberger told Know Your Meme that after the meme took off in 2012, people encouraged her to sue or profit somehow, but she didn't see the point, saying that the character felt distant enough from her real self that ignoring it was easier.

The only time she leaned into the meme was in 2015, when Vanity Fair published an interview with her. "I don’t want to be known as Ermahgerd Girl forever," she said, "but I also figured I might as well just tell the story."

Goldenberger's friends still bring it up, but she doesn't lead with it. In an interview with the New Statesman, she said that she avoids bringing it up, especially when it comes to dating. "I keep it on the DL," Goldenberger stated.

She also mentioned the one time she accepted an event invite tied to her meme status: A Furry party in San Francisco, where she met the Double Rainbow guy (Paul "Bear" Vasquez).

Goldenberger also suspects she may have accidentally ingested a mind-altering substance there, leading her and her friends to quickly skedaddle out of the event before the night got too wild.

What's Maggie Goldenberger Up to These Days, and Where Can I Find Her Online?

After returning from her India trip in 2012, Maggie Goldenberger earned her nursing degree. She now works as a cardiac nurse in Phoenix, Arizona.

She's kept a relatively low profile since her accidental brush with internet fame, preferring the kind of offline anonymity that most early meme stars now crave.

You won't find her promoting products or monetizing the meme, and she's just fine with that.

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For the full history of Ermahgerd, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information. To see the rest of our "Where Are They Now" series, you can find them all here. Stay tuned for next week's editorial!

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