Why have the ‘Little Miss’ memes become a trend?

These days, you enter a social network and not come across one -or many- Little Miss memes. The first explanation for this is that it obviously became a trend. But it is also likely that its fame is due to the funny contrast generated by a tender childish image when used to express moods or personality characteristics from an adult perspective. The origin of a meme.

Where do Little Miss memes come from?

Little Miss is one of the characters in a series of children’s stories from the ’70s. Its creator, the British writer Roger Hargreaves, began publishing the books of Mr. Men in 1971 and ten years later added Little Miss. Each story shows a character, whose name has to do with a relevant aspect of his personality or special characteristic, such as Mr. Slow, Mr. Noisy or Mr. Clever. And later, Little Miss Shi, Little Miss Inventor or Little Miss Stubborn.

Although the memes have gone viral, the truth is that the stories from the ‘70s and the ‘80s have also been a success. After the death of its original creator, his son, Adam Hargreaves, continued the series of illustrated stories, which has 92 characters in total -both Mr. Men and Little Miss- and has sold more than 100 million copies in 28 countries around the world.

How did Little Miss memes go viral?

When looking for the origin of the Little Miss memes, two strong versions appear. One points out that, in April, a Twitter user posted “Little Miss smokes too much weed” and went viral. But there is another version that signals that an Instagram user posted several images of Little Miss and got several likes in a few weeks. And there are also rumors that the use of these images started on Tumblr.

Beyond how the trend originated, there are many users of social networks who chose the characters of Little Miss to express their mood or some peculiarity, but no longer with the moral teaching that original stories have, but simply to reflect current “problems” and see who else identifies, such as @littlem1ssss :

Also, to do some catharsis:

1. bambs  en Twitter: “love the mr men & little miss memes here’s mine https://t.co/VP83UICbs5” / Twitter

Or to be a super Bad Bunny fan:

There are even organizations or firms that have used these memes to promote or advertise with a twist of humor.

But, like everything on social media, there are people who don´t agree with the trend or find it superficial, like this Twitter user:

Or even think that the original stories were far better:

How do you make a Little Miss Meme?

One of the main attractions of these memes is that everyone can create the one they “need” to express how they are feeling on Tik Tok, Instagram or Twitter, through these charming creatures. However, there isn’t an app to create Little Miss Memes. Instead, you´ll have to use a photo editing program, like Canva, Photoshop or Phonto (free), and edit a picture of one of Little Miss or Mr. Men characters from Roger Hargreaves’ books. You can find them here.

Then, you´ll have to take a screenshot and paste it in the app or program you choose, and then add the black text with similar fonts to those already written on the image. And there you have your own meme to share on your social media accounts and be part of these trend… before it fades.