Confused Black Girl

About

Confused Black Girl is an image macro series featuring a teenager with an incredulous expression on her face. The overlaid text generally centers around a frustrating or confounding situation. The meme gained attention when the subject of the photo supposedly sued Instagram when she realized the photo had become a meme.

Origin

One of the earliest incidents of the photo used as a meme was on April 30th, 2014, when 9Gag^[3] posted the photo with the title “New meme incoming: Confused Black Lady.” As of July 2014, the photo has gained over 80 points.

Spread

On May 11th, 2014, a Facebook page^[1] titled “Confused Black Girl Meme” was launched. As of July 2014, the page has gained over 68,000 likes. Another Facebook page^[2] dedicated to the meme titled “Confused Black Girl,” was launched on June 22nd, and gained over 26,000 likes in less than two weeks.

Instagram Lawsuit Hoax

On July 1st, 2014, radio station site 101.9 Online^[4] reported that a 16-year-old from Birmingham Alabama, Kiesha Johnson, was the face of the meme and was suing Instagram for $500 million because the photo was originally taken by and posted to a friend’s Instagram account before it spread online. Johnson explained her anger about the unflattering photo becoming a meme saying:

" “My face looked ugly like I was about to throw up.. I look nothing like that in real life… Im really a bad b*tch!”

The lawsuit was covered the same day by WordOnDaStreet^[5] and RomanceMeetsLife^[6], though both sites seemed skeptical that the story was true. The following day it was covered by larger sites, including The Source^[7]. On July 3rd, PetaPixel^[8] traced the source of the story to the satire site Odosogossip^[9] which posted the hoax article “Confused Face Meme Girl Sues Instagram for $500 Million Dollars Because People Keep Using Her Picture” on June 30th.