20-year-old meme “star” hits back after negative comments about her appearance

Ashley VanPevenage had no idea her photo would be turned into a meme, shared by thousands, subjecting her to a barrage of hurtful comments.

20-year-old Ashley VanPevenage posed for a photo taken by her make-up artist friend showing the dramatic difference that the make-up application had done to her acne-affected face.

Her friend then posted the before and after pics to her Instagram account.

“I lost my confidence”.

The seemingly good-natured tweet was favorited and retweeted hundreds of times.

The photo went viral and inspired copycats, BuzzFeed reports.

And soon people were reposting it with cruel messages like “This is why you need to take a girl swimming on a first date”, which led to the image being included on equally mean lists about women looking different with make up on.

What are your thoughts on the response video? “But when it’s actually you and you’re dealing with all the harsh comments?” As Buzzfeed tracked, it was picked up by one college student’s Twitter account with a new caption – “I don’t understand how people can do this and I can’t figure out how to hide a single pimple on my face” – and quickly spread, with every kind of ugly reaction and commentary attached. “I didn’t like going out in public without makeup or without having my hair done”.

“Some days I will read through the comments and just see how cruel people can be”, VanPevenage said in the video. I didn’t like going out in public without makeup or without my hair done, but I realized that that isn’t the person I am, and people’s opinions don’t matter to me, and they shouldn’t matter to anyone. ‘Everyone should feel lovely in their natural skin, and it doesn’t matter what is on the outside of your face. It wasn’t until she noticed the meme, and its nasty comments that she began to feel insecure. “The only thing that matters is who you really are”.