What The Overly Attached Girlfriend Is Doing Today
In June 2012, Laina Morris worked part-time at the Pack 'N' Mail in Denton, Texas, and studied to become a teacher (via Refinery29). Then 20 years old, she remembered hearing about a contest held by Justin Bieber — who has undergone a stunning transformation — to promote his perfume "Girlfriend." With the chance to win tickets to a concert and appear in the commercial, all you had to do was perform your own version of "Boyfriend" and upload it to YouTube. So Morris did just that, taking Bieber's lyrics "to the extreme" (via BuzzFeed) and uploaded the video under the title "JB Fanvideo."
The YouTube video got a fair amount of views initially, but it soon found its way onto Reddit, and the views skyrocketed into the millions. Soon after, the Overly Attached Girlfriend was born after someone took a screencap of Morris staring wide-eyed into the camera, with that all too familiar meme font put on top (via Know Your Meme). After finding herself unable to go anywhere without being recognized, Morris decided to take the meme in stride and became a YouTube star — which was very different from her life before the fame.
Laina Morris quit her day job to become a YouTuber full time
Following the stratospheric success of her first video, Laina Morris found herself inundated with requests to recreate the moment in other videos. It just so happened that around this time, Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" hit the charts, so Morris once again reworked the lyrics of the song and used it for her Overly Attached Girlfriend character (via YouTube). As a result, Morris dominated YouTube's most-watched list with both parodies in a matter of hours (via BuzzFeed YouTube).
With that amount of success in such a short space of time, it seemed almost inevitable that Morris would take on being a viral sensation full-time. Four months after "JB Fanvideo" took the internet by storm, Morris quit her job, dropped out of school, and hired a professional management team to guide her through becoming a dedicated YouTuber. Unlike others in her position, though, Morris wasn't as confident with her newfound fame. "I'm really just making this up as I go along," she told Refinery29 in 2016. "I don't know if this is going to 'work out.' Maybe someday this will just be a cool thing that happened to me, but I'll make videos as long as I enjoy it and people are watching."
The Overly Attached Girlfriend was featured on an airline safety video
2013 was a giant year for Laina Morris. She participated in a sketch on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," per Daily Dot, appeared on the American Music Awards red carpet (via BuzzFeed), and won a staring contest against Jessica Alba (via YouTube). A few years later, she was even featured in a Delta Airlines safety video in 2015 with other internet celebrities who were famous at the time (via YouTube). Yet, despite all this success, Morris was finding it hard for audiences to separate her from the Overly Attached Girlfriend character.
"Part of me wondered if I was supposed to just perform this character forever," Morris told Refinery29. It got to the point where Morris wondered whether she "should have created two separate accounts" — one for her sketches, vlogs, and Q&A videos, and another for her Overly Attached Girlfriend content. "A lot of people know the meme, but don't know about the videos," she added. "Or they know the original video, but don't know that I'm a real person making new ones every week."
Laina Morris struggled with the pressures of constantly creating content
Unsure of where her future was headed, Laina Morris felt "a ton of pressure to figure out what the end goal was," as she explained to BuzzFeed. She questioned whether she wanted to pursue a career in acting, standup, or writing. "I felt like really overwhelmed and stressed if I didn't have a video idea then I would just be like beating myself up about it every day, all day."
Slowly but surely, Morris started to post less and less on her YouTube channel. Her regular schedule started to slow down in 2017 and abruptly stopped in 2018 when she only posted one video for the year. By July 2019, she'd uploaded a video titled "Breaking Up with You ... Tube." In the 30-minute farewell video, Morris revealed that she'd been dealing with anxiety and depression since 2014. "I felt ashamed and I felt guilt for being stressed and overwhelmed in a world with a job and opportunities that were so great," she explained. "I didn't understand why I couldn't handle it for years."
Morris received help for her mental health in 2017, which helped her decide whether she wanted to continue with YouTube. However, her experiences with depression and anxiety weren't "the whole reason" for her decision to leave the platform. "I have also just grown up and life has changed and my priorities have changed," she said. She added that her relationship with YouTube "started to become more negative than positive."
If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.
The Overly Attached Girlfriend returned as an NFT in 2021
After a few years away from the limelight, Laina Morris slowly found her way back to social media. In April 2021, she made herself known in the NFT world when she listed the original meme image of herself on the live digital auction platform Foundation. With the help of Chris Torres, the creator of Nyan Cat, and Kyle Craven, the face behind the Back Luck Brian meme, Morris brought the Overly Attached Girlfriend to life in yet another medium. As she wrote on Twitter, "By owning the Overly Attached Girlfriend #NFT, you're guaranteed to never be alone again. Ever."
The NFT was quickly snapped up by Dubai-based music studio 3F Music, who bought item for $411,000 (via Decrypt). "You guys are INSANE," Morris said in response to the purchase (via Twitter). "Thank you to everyone who bid and special thanks to 3F Music. Truly, you have no idea how this is going to change my life. I mean it. I am so incredibly thankful and also still just so BLOWN AWAY."
Liana Morris has a special place in her heart for the Overly Attached Girlfriend
Following the successful sale of her NFT, Laina Morris has continued to remain active on Twitter and Instagram, but she isn't a regular poster. She has uploaded a few new posts in recent months, however, thanks to the 10th anniversary of the Overly Attached Girlfriend. She even returned to YouTube for a short video commemorating the everlasting legacy of her accidental meme, citing it as "an experience I'm more thankful for than you'll ever know." While she admitted that she doesn't "usually like overdoing it with the OAG content" on her Instagram post celebrating the milestone, Morris said she'll always "have love in my heart for the meme and the character that changed my life in so many ways."
On YouTube and Instagram, Morris again thanked her fans for everything they've done for her, "whether you've been here for 10 years or 10 minutes." While she doesn't post OAG content as much as she used to, you'll still see the character now and again during the sketches Morris posts to Instagram and TikTok.