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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Rosaleen Fenton

'A photo of me with Rihanna became a meme - people claimed she fat-shamed me'

Imagine you're scrolling through social media one night, and you suddenly spot a photo of yourself.

But it's not just a photo of yourself that a friend has taken - it's a meme.

The shock that accompanies this realisation is huge - especially if you have no idea on how it happened.

This happened to Sammi Smith, 21 - a content creator who works alongside influencers.

On social media, she explained how a photo of her posting with Rihanna as a child had inexplicably become a meme.

She had won tickets to go see the superstar perform in New York at Madison Square Garden - and sweetly decided to bring the popstar's favourite chocolate bar.

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As she was staying in a hotel with her mum, nine-year-old Sammi found a Snickers bar from the fridge, and brought it to the concert.

But in 2015, she was baffled to discover the photo resurfaced as a meme.

The caption said: "I met Rihanna and she took my Snickers away from me & said 'you don't need this fatty'.

"I smiled but inside I was screaming."

Sammi said: "While this is funny, it's not true. That seems obvious to me but a lot of people still ask me if it is."

In a YouTube video, she elaborated on the moment she found out that it was a meme.

She said: "It was my freshman year of high school and it was the night before the first day of finals [exams]."

"I was trying to study and I'd put my phone away and I was struggling so much to focus.

"I could hear my phone buzzing and buzzing and buzzing and [I thought] I'm not that popular, like people don't text me and constantly text me and call me.

"So I decided to take two seconds to check my phone and make sure everyone's alive.

"I opened it to all these texts and people were tagging me in things on Instagram and I had no idea what is going on.

"I went on Instagram to find out that the picture that I had taken with Rihanna had been made into a meme.

"I hadn't seen this picture since I met her because I was young and I didn't have Instagram or any social media.

"I think I'd printed it out and brought it into school to show my friends but I didn't have a phone or computer.

"I kind of forgot the picture existed."

But to Sammi's shock, it had inexplicably made its way onto social media and become a meme.

She said: "The main caption is 'I met Rihanna and she took my Snickers away from me and said you don't need this fatty. I smiled but inside I was screaming.'

"So that did obviously did not happen. And I don't find this offensive at all, I think this is the funniest thing ever."

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