And this is that story.

My name is Laina Morris,

but you may know me as overly attached girlfriend.

This all started in 2012.

I was 20 years old in school to become a teacher.

I had actually just taken a break

and I was working part-time at a place

called Pack and Mail.

Just living with my college roommates,

going to work, life is pretty normal.

In the back of my mind,

like if I could have done anything,

I would have moved to L.A. and done acting

or writing or something like that.

But I wasn't confident enough

in that happening for me to really take that leap.

So I was in my apartment

looking online at just like,

you know, the daily Justin Bieber news as you do.

And I came across a contest that Justin Bieber was having.

He had a hit song at the time called "Boyfriend"

and he was releasing a new fragrance called Girlfriend.

So he asked fans to make a parody song

from the girlfriend's perspective.

So I got really excited

and started writing lyrics right away.

I wasn't Justin Bieber fan.

I mean keep in mind, I was 20 years old

and Justin Bieber was like a teenager.

I wasn't really like obsessed with him.

I think it was kind of fun,

like silly music that I enjoyed,

but it wasn't like a real obsession

like of people may think it was.

When it came up to the lyrics of the song,

I knew that I wanted it to be funny.

His original lyrics, I think are, I'll never let you go.

And so I just kind of took that and made it to the extreme

and that kind of took off from there.

♪ If I was your girlfriend, I'd drive you up the wall ♪

♪ Question who you're with ♪

♪ Yeah, I'd always call and call ♪

I wasn't actually speaking from experience.

The creepy face was definitely like a last minute decision.

So I was on like my fourth take of this song

and I realized that there's this really long

instrumental period of time at the beginning of the song

where I was just sitting there and not doing anything.

So I just sort of decided to stare straight into my webcam

and make the creepiest face I could make.

I had no idea how profoundly this would affect my life.

I posted the video to YouTube for the contest

the night of June 6th

and then I think like right after that,

I shared it to my Facebook page.

It was before I went to bed that night

that I knew people that I didn't know in real life

were watching it.

I remember my roommates and I were staying up

watching the numbers come in

and there was like 52 comments at one point.

And I knew that I didn't know 52 people

that would take the time to watch

and especially comment on the video.

And then I went to bed and then I woke up

and it was a lot bigger than it was the night before.

My first memory of that day

is walking out into my living room

and my roommate turning their computers toward me

and saying, "You're a meme."

And that's when I realized my face was everywhere.

All day, I was just getting like texts from my friends

and seeing comments online and I couldn't get online

without seeing my own creepy face

staring back at me.

Well, like my friends and I had thought

it was mostly just funny.

Like I feel like I'm really lucky that I was in on the joke.

I know that's not the case for a lot of other people

that kind of wake up and realize their face

is all over the internet and they've become a meme,

but there was no negativity at first.

It was just like all really, really cool, positive,

like what's happening?

This is crazy.

At the time, "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen

was really popular.

And so people were asking

for that very specific parody for me to do.

And I wasn't sure like if I should keep it going

or just like, let it be what it was.

I didn't want to milk it for too long.

I decided to go ahead and do it

and the second video blew up

and then the number one and number two top spots on YouTube

were both my videos.

That is kind of when I realized like,

okay, maybe I should kind of ride this wave

and go along with this, make it into something.

I was on YouTube.

Then I did a bunch of different like sketches,

interview type things and blogs.

I got to be on the red carpet at the American Music Awards.

I also got to go to Singapore

where I had a staring contest

on stage with Jessica Alba,

which is like simultaneously one of the coolest

and weirdest things that's ever happened to me.

I lost during the rehearsal, but I won the real thing.

And Jeremy Piven was playing a drum,

an important side note there.

I got asked by Delta to be in an airline safety video.

I was on set with all of these like meme

and internet people.

I think all of us were kind of thinking like, why?

Like why us, why this concept?

And after the video was posted,

I think for the entire internet

kind of wonder the exact same thing,

but it didn't take away from the fact that it was so fun.

But it was a cool experience to meet other people

that had kind of gone through similar things.

Anyone who's like become a viral meme,

we all have a very similar story

while also being like vastly, vastly different.

All of these like really cool opportunities were happening

and I was on YouTube and things were going really well,

but it did get to the point

after maybe about a year of doing this,

where I started to feel just like a ton of pressure

to figure out what the end goal was.

Did I want to pursue acting or stand up?

Did I want to write, did I need to move to Los Angeles?

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

and it was still really fun,

which I think is part

of why it was so difficult and confusing.

I know now looking back that I sort of landed myself

in this depression around like 2014,

especially is when it got really bad,

but I didn't know it at the time.

You know, like I kind of thought,

well, I have all these great opportunities

and I have this great life and I'm making money

and like, I am not depressed.

It's just, I'm stuck or I'm lazy or I'm not,

I can't find the motivation.

I was in therapy for about nine months

before I made the decision to try medication.

I had a tough time with it.

I remember when I first picked up my prescription,

I cried in the parking lot of the pharmacy

'cause I just didn't want to need it.

I didn't want to have to like rely on this pill

going into my body to feel better.

But at the end of the day,

like I knew that anything was better

than how I was feeling then.

And it worked for me.

And so it's important for me

to kind of get that message out there

that it does work for some and it doesn't work for others

and I think if that's something

that you need to do for yourself,

that it's really, really important that you remember

that all you're doing is taking care of you.

I kind of knew that if I ever walked away,

if I ever officially decided like,

okay, I'm done with YouTube.

I didn't want to leave without a goodbye video.

My story is a little bit unique, right?

Like not everyone becomes a meme,

but my mental health part of that story

is not unique at all.

And in fact, since posting my video,

what I've learned is it's actually incredibly common

for people to feel the way that I felt.

I'm still online, I'm still on Instagram and Twitter

and I still kind of look at the numbers

and care a little bit, but it's just not,

it doesn't take over my life,

I guess the way that it used to.

Looking back at everything that happened,

I'm super, super grateful.

My life in literally every possible way

changed completely overnight.

And there were so many highs and there were so many lows

and I look back at that time with a lot of fondness.

I'm very happy that it happened

and I think overly attached girlfriend

is like the best thing that's ever happened to me.

(upbeat music)