Senior’s Tumblr reply gives her 15 minutes of Internet fame

A Doctor Who GIF Maddie Emery uses in her Tumblr post

Once upon a time, she was just an ordinary student. Then one day everything changed. Senior Maddie Emery logged on to Tumblr, a personal blog site, and five minutes and 40 words later, she leapt from the bottom rung of Internet obscurity to superstar status.

The story behind her stardom lies in the negativity and critical thinkers of those around her. During the holiday season, she was constantly pestered with tedious questions and comments such as “stop singing carols!” or “shouldn’t you be watching your weight?” After countless criticisms, she decided to go on Tumblr and post about her responses to these answers.

Her famous five words, “No I shan’t! It’s Christmas,” were meant only to silence the Christmas humbugs. Little did Emery know that her blog would soon make her Internet famous. Her post received more than 10,000 reblogs, copying the post onto their own page, prompting it to be one of the posts on the front page of Tumblr.

“It feels awesome to know people think I’m funny, even if they’re total strangers,” Emery said.

At first, her parents were concerned with her sudden rise in fame. According to Emery, when she first told her mom the news, she wasn’t too enthusiastic.

Not only have people reblogged and spread her stardom, but she has also been recognized by “strangers” at school as a Tumblr celebrity.

Fortunately, although her phrase is recognized all around Tumblr, she said her Internet fame has not gone to her head.

“It’s nice that people think I’m funny, but let’s be realistic: It’s a blog post; it’s not that big a deal in the long run,” Emery said.

Although Emery is a firm believer in real interaction over Internet, she claims that some people do chase stardom on the web, but Emery said that her Tumblr is only a tool to help her relieve stress.

She made it during her junior year during AP testing and she wanted an outlet for her stress … and a new way to procrastinate. She quickly discovered Tumblr and used it as a release from school and her real life.

“There are blogs out there that are set on gaining followers and dedicated to being popular humor blogs and they have thousands of followers. I just enjoy blogging for fun,” Emery said.

For Emery, she never intended any of this like others of fellow bloggers, but one fated day, she typed in five words that changed her Tumblr notoriety forever.

Although she appreciated the warm reception her post received, she admits that her popularity is fleeting along with the holiday season.

“It’s nice to feel appreciated, but I haven’t gotten any hype like that since. I think my 15 minutes of Tumblr fame are up,” Emery said.