Star Behind Iconic Stan Twitter Meme Shares The Story Behind The Photo

JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor

Nov 29, 2023 11:00 AM EST

A picture is worth a thousand words. And so is the case with the iconic pic that became a staple of stan Twitter, featuring a young woman fitted up in 2015's best, giving a sassy pose that captured the internet's hearts. It soon became a blank canvas for all sorts of fan posting, where users would paste their favorite artists' merch over her outfit as a proclamation of their fandom. The image perfectly encapsulates the attitude of slaying and stanning, wordlessly.

The star behind the meme is Ariana Renee, aka @Arii aka @TheyLoveArii, who became a social media star in her youth in the 2010s. She's mainly known for her musical.ly career, where she churned out the kinds of iconic lip-sync videos we've come to associate with the bygone app. Now all grown up, she shared the story of the day she took that enduring photo.