Silvia Bottini is one of the few accidental internet memes who always hoped to be famous. The theater actress became one of the 2010s' most recognizable and topical memes as the crying woman of "First World Problems," yet unlike other viral figures, she saw no payday, no conventions and no second career in internet fame.

So in 2015, she took matters into her own hands and left a career as an actress in Milan to move on to the big leagues in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Here's what she's been up to ever since she became one of the most well-known image macros and Advice Animals memes way back in 2011.

What's The 'First World Problems' Meme?

When people say "first-world problems," they're usually referring to petty complaints that only exist in wealthy, industrialized societies.

While the exact slang phrase can be traced back to a time before the '90s, tongue-in-cheek memes mocking trivial inconveniences only began gaining traction online in the late 2000s.

A Tumblr blog called The Real First World Problems launched on November 26th, 2008, while a 2009 Something Awful Comedy Goldmine thread titled “#firstworldproblems” flooded with hashtagged gripes.

By mid-2011, after the hashtag "#FirstWorldProblems" saw record usage on Twitter, a New Zealand survey aptly found "slow internet access" to be the most popular First World gripe.

The most enduring representation of the meme emerged online that same year: A close-up of a crying woman, her hand pressed to her face in mock despair.

Captions paired her melodrama with throwaway complaints, such as, "The bottom of my foot itches, but it tickles when I scratch it," "I'm thirsty, but all I have is water," and, of course, "Microwave is broken, have to use pots and the stove like an animal."

Who is Silvia Bottini, the woman behind the First World Problems meme?

The woman in that stock photo is Silvia Bottini, an Italian actress and model who was in her late 20s when the image was taken. Acting was always the goal for Bottini, having trained as a stage actor in Italy for most of her early teens.

Modeling, on the other hand, came through a less joyful route. Her then-boyfriend, a stock photographer whom she described in a 2021 interview with Know Your Meme as "devious."

Dating him meant living camera-ready. Bottini wore light, unbranded clothes, kept her makeup consistent, and posed endlessly for his Microstock shoots, all totally unpaid.

In 2008, he persuaded her to travel with him to Shanghai to explore the job market there.

Bottini translated, assisted and modeled while he pursued his career. One afternoon, they visited a temple, where he staged a series of portraits: Bottini meditating peacefully, wandering serenely and crucially, crying on cue.

She later dismissed the shot as unflattering, complaining that her boyfriend had over-retouched her nose. But the crying close-up would become the internet's shorthand for bourgeois melodrama just a few years later.

How Did Silvia Bottini First React To Learning That Her Photo Was A Meme?

The photo sat unnoticed in stock libraries for a few years until, in 2011, it exploded online as the face of the First World Problems format.

Silvia Bottini only found out because the person she hired to fix up her website forwarded her a copy. At first, she had no idea what a "meme" even was.

"I would have never known about the meme if it wasn’t for the compassionate gesture of an insider," Bottini told us. "It happened to be the webmaster of my first website. He sent me the pic of the first meme ever (that’s what I like to think). My initial reaction was, 'What is it?!'"

But her initial reaction was far from delight. By then, she and her ex were no longer together, and she had no control over his images.

He had grown wealthy from his stock photo business and felt no reason to intervene, while Bottini dealt with "sinful, dirty messages on my born-and-raised Catholic, innocent face" in good humor.

So, she threw herself into her work and picked up a number of acting gigs back in Milan, like this Reel that shows her portraying "Italian Amy Winehouse."

As for being recognized or ridiculed for the meme, Bottini thinks she got off easy. Not many people recognized her from the close-up shot, but that also meant that she had a hard time monetizing on her "fame."

Did Silvia Bottini Ever Come Around To Embracing Her Meme Fame?

While Silvia Bottini never cracked the meme-to-riches code some other early internet legends had pursued, that didn't stop other people from making money off her image — like the time she was gifted a board game with a picture of her crying on it, and debated whether to play it or burn it.

Despite her quips about "totally incapable of making money" from her accidental fame, Bottini still learned to adapt to fame in unexpected ways. "Survival, I guess," was her response when asked about her shift in attitude.

Eventually, the meme did serve some utility. When she moved to Los Angeles in 2015, she cited her meme as one of her "extraordinary abilities" to secure a long-term work visa and make her foray into Hollywood and comedy.

By 2019, she was ready to fully embrace the meme. She joined up with a group of creatives to launch First World Problems, a short film and YouTube series in which she plays the role of an actress caught in a rut after realizing she can only land jobs by imitating her viral meme.

That same year, Domino's Spain tapped her for an ad campaign that referenced the meme, the joke being that the size of 'za was the only thing that could fix up her mood.

Despite the budget being comically thin (she had to buy the pizza herself and record a bite on camera), it marked a rewarding instance where she was finally appreciated as part of the phenomenon she accidentally launched.

What's Silvia Bottini, The 'First World Problems' Woman, Up To Today?

Now in her early 40s, Bottini continues to work in Los Angeles both on and off the camera. She's married to cinematographer Matteo Ghidoni, is signed to Eris Talent Agency and even has her own IMDb page.

Bottini also runs Rebelòt Theater, which puts on shows in English and Italian for both children and adults. She named the company after a word in Milanese Italian that translates to "chaos," which sounds apt for the exciting and chaotic life she's had this past decade.

You can find Bottini on her Instagram @silviabottini_, where she often posts photos hobnobbing with celebrities at various Hollywood mixers, and you can also follow her theater company, @rebelottheatre, to keep up with her passion for the arts.

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For the full history of First World Problems, 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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