It's Okay To Be Different

About

It's Okay To Be Different, also known as Stay On the Right Path, Even If You Have To Walk Alone, is an exploitable image macro that comes from a 2013 Adobe stock photo depicting a lone man traveling down their own path away from a group following each other. The image became associated with the catchphrase "it's okay to be different" in 2015, as well as "stay on the right path, even if you have to walk alone" in 2018 on Twitter. The meme received more attention in 2021 after rapper DaBaby used the photo for the cover of his single, "Lonely," featuring Lil Wayne.

Origin

In 2013, Adobe licensed the original stock image^[1] to their database, titling the image, "On the Crossroads." The image (shown below) is wider than its later iterations, which used a version of the photo that'd been transformed into a square ratio.

The photo was first posted with the catchphrase "it's okay to be different" on December 16th, 2015, by Imgur user ScntizL^[2] (shown below).

Spread

The motivational image circulated on the internet throughout 2015 and 2016. For instance, it was reposted to Reddit on February 4th, 2016, by Redditor banishaun88 in the subreddit /r/GetMotivated.^[3] The image received attention primarily in Christian and religious meme spheres, one example being this meme from a Christian blog post^[4] (shown below).

The image received its first ironic iterations starting in 2018. On March 1st, 2018, Instagram^[5] user @jiggab00j0nes posted the first known comedic use of the image (shown below, left). His post received 619 likes in one week and was the inspiration for a post (shown below, right) posted to the subreddit /r/OKBuddyRetard on February 16th, 2020, by Redditor TheRedCreeper. This Reddit^[6] post received roughly 24,000 upvotes in one week and inspired a repost^[7] to /r/Memes one month later.

On Twitter in 2018, the image became associated with the catchphrase "stay on the right path, even if you have to walk alone" due to a now-deleted tweet from Twitter user @makloubae. The tweet (shown below) prompted a response from Twitter user @minhaj3m who said in a reply, "But that's the left path."

DaBaby's "Lonely" Single Cover

On September 9th, 2021, hip-hop artist DaBaby released a new single called "Lonely," which featured Lil Wayne. People on Twitter were shocked to see that the musician chose to use the stock image from the "It's Okay To Be Different" meme and began posting about it online. Twitter^[8] user @tlologn, for example, tweeted about the coincidence on September 9th, 2021. The tweet (shown below) received roughly 186,000 likes and 14,000 retweets over the course of one day.

It should also be noted that DaBaby wasn't the first one to use the image for a cover image. Spanish author Carlos Martín also used the photo for the cover of his book Las Alas de las Hormigas^[9] back in 2014.

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References