Adrian Smith Realized He Is The 'Grayson' Meme, Years After He Went Viral

With billions of people connected to the internet, sharing just about anything imaginable, the internet holds many surprising things.

And this was experienced by Adrian Smith, a biologist from North Carolina, U.S..

One day, he was shocked to find that a photo of him as an eight-year-old had become an internet meme. He found his photo, made as a meme, when he was scrolling down on his Instagram feed. After some digging, he found that the post originated from a Tumblr post made in 2007.

In an interview to Slate, Smith said that:

"I started following the Teenage Stepdad Instagram, because he made a music video for one of my favorite Jeff Rosenstock songs. So I’ve been like following it because I liked what he did. And then I’m scrolling through my Instagram stories and my picture pops up, and I’m like, what? That’s my picture! At first I was like, 'Oh, maybe he just found it on the internet. It is a funny picture.' But then the text below referred to me as Grayson."

"I went and woke up my wife and showed it to her. She couldn’t stop laughing. We saw all the iterations of the meme. She was thrilled about it. She might’ve immediately went and got me a Grayson shirt and that might be all I’m getting for Christmas this year."

“Here’s a very 2020 thing I just learned about myself,” tweeted Adrian Smith.

Smith was amused by it, but admitted that as a child he would have found it "confusing and sad".

Smith then shared his reactions to Twitter, and his discovery has gone even more viral than the original meme.

Smith said that he has contacted the original creator of the meme, saying that he was happy that the creator didn't use his photo in a "mean spirit".

Creator 'Teenage Stepdad' offered Smith to kill the character off, but Smith said that he is happy for him to carry on with it if he wishes. After all, after years being on the internet and as Smith grew up beyond his teenage years, the photo was not anymore part of him.

"I had options - I could ignore it, I could get mad about it, or I could embrace it and make it part of my story now, and have it out there as an example of the chaotic randomness that happens with stuff on the internet that we put there," said Smith.

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Smith said that:

"The lesson is that what you put in the internet might last forever and have a life of its own, but also the internet doesn't define you, it doesn't have to be you."

"Figure out who you are first, and if the stuff out there is part of how you want to define yourself then use it for that, if it's not, then don't."

Smith said that the photo of him that was turned into a meme, was taken in 1992.

He said he remembered being very proud of the photo, saying he managed to find a top that matched the background, for which he had paid an additional $2.

"I'd like to say it's me pre-glasses, pre-braces, and 100% raw power as an eight-year-old," he said. "My grin in the picture is one of smug satisfaction."

The boy was made famous, and made with some interesting hairstyles and making some questionable decisions. But as the boy has grown to become an adult, Smith thinks that the fictional boy would also approve of his own career as an entomologist who "puts videos about bugs on YouTube".

"It’s a truly bizarre experience to bump into a disconnected version of yourself out there in the wild. Even weirder when it leads down a meme rabbit hole," he said.

Related: Mother Fights Back After Her Terminally Ill Toddler Became A Cruel Internet Meme