Selfie Kid from Justin Timberlake’s Halftime Performance Is from Massachusetts, Of Course
A thirteen-year-old from Hingham snapped a photo during the Super Bowl break.
Photo via AP/Charlie Neibergall
If you think finding good lighting to snap a selfie is stressful, try searching for the right angle with more than 100 million people watching.
Thirteen-year-old Ryan, a seventh grader at Hingham’s Derby Academy, went viral on Sunday night after he captured an iconic photo with Justin Timberlake during the Super Bowl halftime show. Toward the end of Timberlake’s set, the star left the field for the stands, and Ryan, sensing the ephemeral nature of this most Instagram-worthy moment, reached for his phone to shoot his shot.
AND HERE IT IS.#SelfieKid with @jtimberlake!#HalftimeSelfie#SuperBowlSelfie#SuperBowl #PepsiHalftime pic.twitter.com/y7Hrvy3K9L
— ABC News (@ABC) February 5, 2018
“I got to be on TV with Justin Timberlake! It’s crazy,” Ryan, who requested to only be identified by his first name, told ABC News. “I just jumped in there. I’m not going to get that opportunity again, and I just went for it.”
During an otherwise underwhelming halftime show, Ryan’s shock, awe, and photographic instinct transcended the Super Bowl to immediately catch fire online. He told Good Morning America that his phone died almost instantly as he was flooded with texts, Snapchats, and more than 8,000 new social media followers.
Twitter ran with the image of Ryan staring at his phone and quickly turned him into a meme. The seventh-grader told ABC he “couldn’t even believe it. I was speechless.”
— Rahul Kothari (@rahulk013) February 5, 2018
“I thought you said Justin Bieber” pic.twitter.com/HLJYfr7e9y
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) February 5, 2018
— Max Grossman (@GrossmanMax) February 5, 2018
I think all of us are the #selfiekid in 2018 #SuperBowl pic.twitter.com/Z4Kn6F12zC
— Andy Thompson (@The_AndyT) February 5, 2018
Congrats on an Instagram post that’s sure to pull in a ton of likes, Ryan. Oh, and congrats, also, on getting to breathe the same air as one of the most famous and talented pop stars on Earth while he performed on one of the nation’s biggest stages. That’s vaguely cool, too.
