Insane Reality Leaks

Back to the Future actor Matt Clark has died aged 89

13 years ago, a 20-year-old woman came home from her part-time job, changed into a crumpled green t-shirt she found on her bedroom floor, sat in front of her webcam, and recorded a video that would follow her for the rest of her life. Laina Morris had entered a fan contest run by pop star Justin Bieber. He’d asked fans to record their own version of his song “Boyfriend” from a girlfriend’s perspective. Morris decided to make hers as unsettling as possible. She wrote lyrics about taping a recording device under her boyfriend’s sleeve and stealing the key to his house. To fill time before the song started, she stared into the camera without blinking, eyes wide open, with a fixed smile. She didn’t win the contest. But a friend screenshotted her face from the video and uploaded it to the internet. By the next morning, her expression had become one of the most shared memes in the world: “Overly Attached Girlfriend.” People added captions like “Took you 15 minutes to get home. Google Maps says 12. Who is she?” Morris leaned in. She built a YouTube channel, landed brand deals with major companies, appeared on late-night television, and turned the meme into a full-time career with over a million subscribers. Then in 2019, she posted a video called “Breaking Up With You…Tube” and walked away. She said she’d been battling depression since 2014 and had been keeping it a secret. “I felt ashamed and I felt guilt for being stressed and overwhelmed with a job and opportunities that were so great. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t handle it.” She’s 33 now. Lives quietly with her dogs. In a recent interview, she was asked if the meme still follows her on dates. She said one date ended early after the person realised who she was, spent the rest of dinner texting people about it, and left saying, “I can’t believe I just went on a date with the Overly Attached Girlfriend.” What’s something from your past that people still associate with you, even though you’ve moved on?