Editor’s note: This article was first published in December 2014, as a news item: the woman’s age (29) and the viral figures reflect that month, and the suggestion that the story may come with a sequel dates from then. Grumpy Cat died in 2019.
We knew cats were popular on social media, but I never imagined they would cause this much of a stir. In fact, do you want to become a multimillionaire? Forget all the advice we’ve given you so far; forget working hard, saving, investing, starting a company… All you need is a cat.
Tabatha Bundesen is a 29-year-old woman from Arizona who until recently worked as a waitress, until one day she posted a photo of her cat. The cat has a rather peculiar face because it suffers from a form of dwarfism, which makes it look angry; in fact, it has been nicknamed “Grumpy Cat”.
The cat’s photo quickly went viral on Reddit, rapidly becoming a meme, and was picked up by BuzzFeed and CNBC. On Imgur alone, the photo was viewed more than a million times in just 48 hours.
And so fame soon followed.
Bundesen says her phone hasn’t stopped ringing since then, with offers from every kind of media outlet and even book deals and a modelling career, according to The Telegraph. It is estimated that she, having quit her job as a waitress, has made more than 100 million dollars since then.
Grumpy Cat seems to be an unstoppable phenomenon, and there may be a sequel, because the cat has a brother.
Who said getting rich was hard?
See also: 15 people who became millionaires before the age of 20
Featured image: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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