In March 2012, 23-year-old Maggie Goldenberger was in the middle of a six-month trip to India and the Philippines with her then-girlfriend. They were travelling from India’s southern tip and heading north for Rajasthan, stopping in at Internet cafes around once a week, for 15 to 30 minutes at a time, just to check in with family and friends.

At one such Internet pit stop, in Hampi, Karnataka, Goldenberger received a message from a friend in the U.S., who wanted to draw her attention to an image she’d spotted on Facebook.

It was a picture of Goldenberger when she was much younger, around 11 years old, wearing unfortunate pigtails, an ugly vest, and a grotesque expression: eyes wide, eyebrows pitched sharply skyward, chin drawn inward, mouth agape, and retainer-clad teeth bared like a hissing harpy or cat. In her hands, she proudly displayed three books from the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine, in their original 90s editions: Monster Blood III, It Came from Beneath the Sink!, and Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes.

The picture had been captioned, in characteristically thunderous Impact font:

ERMAHGERD GERSBERMS

“I had no idea at this point how widespread it was,” said Goldenberger, speaking recently with exactly the kind of composure and articulacy not associated with “Berks,” as the girl in the meme was popularly known.

Three years after first becoming an unwitting meme star, Goldenberger, who works as a nurse in Phoenix, still occasionally experiences the surreal, stupefying jolt of being ambushed by her own face online. “My eyes just get wide and I say, out loud, ‘This is so fucking weird.’ ”

Goldenberger’s friends delight in revealing her online identity to strangers at every opportunity. “Then there’ll be a 30-minute session of them looking at every single version of it. I have to fake-laugh as if I haven’t seen them all before,” said Goldenberger. “I just can't believe this is my 15 minutes of fame—I was hoping it would come in another form. But I guess you have to take what you can get.”

By the time Goldenberger glimpsed the meme for the first time, it had already gone viral, spawning into the multifarious mutations that outdo all but the most potent memes.

There are the ones with the original image plus new captions in “Ermahgerd” speech (“TWILERHT AINT GOT SHERT ON GERSBERMS,” “DIS WERS MAH FACE WEN AH READ DA SCURREH PERT”). Some used the same image with other objects Photoshopped into Goldenberger’s hands—everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd records (“ERMAHGERD LERNERD SKERNERD”) to instant mashed potatoes (“ERMAHGERD MERSHED PERDERDER”).

A whole subcategory of animal-reaction shots and expressions emerged: a pug reacting in amazement to a tennis ball (“ERMAHGERD TERNERSHBERL”), a cow (“ERMAHGERD MMMERRR”). Pictures of celebrities and others captured in awkward freeze-framed expressions got the Ermahgerd treatment too—practicing memesmiths pouncing. Game of Thrones’ Daenerys Targaryen has become a popular target, though no one can quite agree on the correct and proper spelling for “drergerns.”

Before long, there was a BustedTees T-shirt and a Nerdist music video, while the Ermahgerd category on Etsy continues to feature prints, stationery, MacBook and car decals, key chains, clothes, and cross-stitch patterns (“Welcerme Ter Mah Herme”) for sale. A Santa Barbara software engineer developed an Ermahgerd language translator and at least one Brooklyn-based artist has rendered the pixels in paint. Naturally, Ermahgerd girl was a popular choice for Halloween that year.

The most consistently popular genre of Ermahgerdism, however, involved 11-year-old Goldenberger being transposed into different scenes and situations. Goldenberger’s face has been inserted into Jurassic Park (“ERMAHGERD VERLERCERERPTERS”), the Starbucks logo (“ERMAHGERD KERFER”), France (“ERMAHGERD THE ERFL TER”), wildlife photography (“ERMAHGERD BERBER HERPERPERTERMERS”), and onto the Kool-Aid Man (“ERR, YERRRRR!!”), just for starters. She has graced several Photoshopped movie posters, including for The Gerdferther, The Nertberk, and Blerk Swern.