Insane amount of money woman behind ‘disaster girl’ meme made from iconic picture taken 20 years ago

The woman who became an overnight internet sensation after being snapped in front of a burning home, has made bank since 2005.

Zoë Roth, who became the ‘Disaster Girl’ viral meme at four years old, has sold the original photo for a large amount of money.

The image was taken of Roth by her father in front of a burning house in Mebane, North Carolina, where firefighters had intentionally set it alight as part of a controlled fire.

Now 21, she made the choice to sell the snap to Ben Lashes, an NFT, (non-fungible token) guru who has bought Nyan Cat, Grumpy Cat, Keyboard Cat, Doge, and other famed memes.

Having earned herself a large amount of money, Roth says she’ll use the funds to pay her college tuition, as well as donate funds to charity.

Zoë Roth was four when the image was taken (Zoë Roth)

But how does she feel about being a social media meme for so long?

She told the New York Times: “The internet is big. Whether you’re having a good experience or a bad experience, you kind of just have to make the most of it.”

Now that she’s sold it, she has some thoughts on how people become famous online, unintentionally.

She said to Raleigh News & Observer: “Nobody who is a meme tried to do that, it just ended up that way. Is it luck? Is it fate? I have no idea. But I will take it.”

As for how much she made in the sale, she sold her image for $473,000.

The sale went through on April 17, which would amount to 180 Ethereum cryptocurrency.

It began when Christie’s in New York auctioned a JPG digital file made by Mike Winkelmann for $69.3m.

The buyer of the image is only known as 3FMusic, who people have speculated is Farzin Fardin Fard, chief executive of a Dubai music production company.

In a statement to Gizmodo, the meme buyer said the deal was made ‘in cooperation with some highly knowledgeable and experienced art advisers, who believe that we must grow with technological movements that help us to not only promote our business but also to support artists and the art market’.

Roth made nearly $500,000 in the sale (Zoeroth/Instagram)

While Roth can now enjoy her new funds, the background of her image was given much more depth when her dad, Dave, explained to Refinery 29, how it came about.

“There was no danger or stress in the situation at all,” Dave said. “The kids and I walked around to see the fire from different angles. It was cool — something you don’t see every day.”

Dave, who was an amateur photographer, took around 20 or 30 photos before going back home.

But it wasn’t until three years later he uploaded it to Zooomr and titled it Firestarter.

“I guess because I knew the whole backstory, I’d overlooked the expression on Zoe’s face until then,” he said. “But someone with a blank slate has to make sense of the fire in the background and then the little girl with a creepy half-smile. It’s like something out of a horror movie.”

In November 2007, Dave then entered the image in a JPG Magazine ‘Emotion Capture’ photo contest and won $100, a subscription to the magazine and a February/March 2008 issue.

“My dad handed me a magazine, and I started flipping through it,” Roth remembered. “Then I saw the picture of me — and I flipped out! I took it to school the next day and showed everyone.”

Little did she know how it would take off.