Ashley VanPevenage's Makeup Transformation Photo

Overview

Ashley VanPevenage's Makeup Transformation Photo refers to photographs of Tacoma, Washington resident Ashley VanPevenage taken before and after her makeup was applied by a professional artist. After the photographs were posted to Instagram in January 2015, they were widely circulated across parody Twitter accounts and Facebook feeds, where many mocked VanPevenage's skin.

Background

On January 16th, 2015, makeup artist Andreigha Wazny posted photographs of her friend Ashley VanPevenage before and after having her makeup done (shown below). Within the first nine months, the post gathered upwards of 560 likes and 180 comments.

Notable Developments

On February 9th, 2015, Twitter user @virtuallyvivi^[2] tweeted the photograph, expressing feelings of incredulity with how to properly conceal blemishes. The following day, @virtuallyvivi's tweet was reposted by the parody account @SoDamnTrue,^[3] receiving over 12,000 favorites and 8,900 retweets in the next eight months.

On February 15th, Twitter user @H_Menace^[4] reposted the image with the caption "The reason why you gotta take a bitch swimming on the first date." In the coming months, versions of the @virtuallyvivi tweet were reposted by various parody accounts. On July 9th, British DJ Samy Irssak reposted the photo on Facebook,^[5] where it gathered upwards of 345,000 shares, 126,000 likes and 23,400 comments in the next three months.

VanPevenage's Response

On October 6th, 2015, VanPevenage uploaded a video titled "My response to my viral meme," in which she revealed how reading negative online comments about her appearance damaged her self confidence (shown below).

On October 8th, BuzzFeed^[6] reposted the video along with a detailed history of the image's online spread. The same day, the Western Washington state news station Q13 Fox aired an interview with VanPevenage, who described her experience with online bullying (shown below).

Search Interest

Not available.

External References