and this is that story.

而這就是那個故事。

- I'm Barrett.

- 我是巴雷特。

- I'm Carter and this is Felicity.

- 我是卡特，這位是費利西蒂。

- So my best friend Carter and I

- 所以我最好的朋友卡特和我

run the account hellicity_merriman together.

一起運行賬戶hellicity_merriman。

We met about five years ago.

我們大約在五年前認識。

- We had the same job at the time

- 我們當時有同樣的工作

and one of the very first things that we bonded over

而我們最初結合的事情之一就是

was both having American Girl dolls growing up.

他們都有美國女孩的娃娃在成長。

- So we were spending a lot of time

- 所以我們花了很多時間

getting to know each other and our other coworkers

互相瞭解和認識我們的其他同事

largely through a series of personality quizzes

主要通過一系列的人格測驗

that we would find online.

我們會在網上找到的。

One of those was the Buzzfeed

其中一個是Buzzfeed的

Which American Girl Doll Are You quiz

你是哪一個美國女孩娃娃的測試

which she and I instantly bonded over

她和我立刻就聯繫在一起了

because we had both grown up with those dolls

因為我們都是在這些娃娃的陪伴下長大的。

and had read those books

並讀過這些書

and were really familiar with the characters.

並真正熟悉了這些人物。

- We not only took the quiz ourselves

- 我們不僅自己參加了測驗

but it became a bit of like a team building exercise

但它變得有點像一個團隊建設的練習

for basically our entire staff.

基本上我們的全體員工都是如此。

We all knew who everyone's American Girl doll was.

我們都知道每個人的美國女孩娃娃是誰。

It was a bit like being sorted into your Harry Potter house.

這有點像被分到你的哈利波特家族。

We knew who was a Ravenclaw

我們知道誰是拉文克勞的人

and we also knew who was a Josefina.

而且我們還知道誰是約瑟芬娜。

- We actually once went on a business lunch together

- 實際上，我們曾經一起去吃過一次商務午餐

to the American Girl doll cafe.

到美國女孩娃娃咖啡館。

It became kind of an in joke

這成了一個笑話

throughout the course of our friendship

在我們的友誼過程中

then in late 2021, we were living separately

然後在2021年末，我們分開居住了

in different cities and bonded

在不同的城市和保稅區

because we began seeing American Girl doll memes

因為我們開始看到美國女孩娃娃的備忘錄

from other creators on Twitter mostly

來自Twitter上的其他創作者大多

and we would send them back and forth to each other

我們會把它們來回寄給對方

and laugh together.

並一起大笑。

- And I think it was just very organic

- 我認為這只是非常有機的

in terms of coming up with our own ideas

在提出我們自己的想法方面

for things that would be funny

幽默的事情

featuring American Girl dolls.

以美國女孩的娃娃為主題。

In February of this year, after a few glasses of wine,

今年2月，在喝了幾杯酒之後。

I just kind of decided to take these ideas

我只是有點決定把這些想法

that we were coming up with and actually make an account.

我們正在想辦法，實際上是在做一個賬戶。

- Carter texted me one day and said,

- 有一天，卡特給我發簡訊說。

"I made us our own American Girl meme account.

"我給我們做了自己的美國女孩備忘錄賬戶。

The name is hellicity_merriman and here's the login details.

名字是hellicity_merriman，這裡是登錄的詳細信息。

I want us to do this together."

我希望我們一起做這件事。"

The first memes we ever made for the account

我們為賬戶製作的第一批備忘錄

were super stream of consciousness,

是超級意識流。

whatever we thought would be funny

任何我們認為有趣的事情

to see an American Girl doll doing.

看到一個美國女孩的娃娃在做什麼。

A lot of the original ones were like fake YouTube thumbnails

很多原版的就像假的YouTube縮略圖一樣

with like real YouTube titles.

與像真正的YouTube標題。

We had absolutely no intention

我們完全沒有打算

of this ever taking off in the way it has

這將是一個巨大的進步。

but we were dead wrong.

但我們大錯特錯。

- [Carter] And then we started to make the

- [卡特]然後我們就開始製作。

we need an American Girl doll who memes that really blew up.

我們需要一個美國女孩的娃娃，她的備忘錄真的炸開了鍋。

We were not the first account that actually posted

我們不是第一個真正發佈的賬戶

we need an American Girl doll who X, Y, Z

我們需要一個X、Y、Z的美國女孩娃娃。

but it was sort of a meme format

但這是一種備忘錄的形式

that we had seen once or twice.

我們曾經見過一兩次。

One day, I just had like a bunch of ideas,

有一天，我就像有了一堆想法。

posted them on the account

把它們貼在賬戶上

and very quickly, the comments started rolling in.

很快，評論開始滾滾而來。

- People started sharing those on TikTok

- 人們開始在TikTok上分享這些

and in their stories all over the place

並在他們的故事中到處可見

and it really exploded from there.

它真的從那裡爆發了。

Carter and I both have a background working in politics

卡特和我都有在政治領域工作的背景

and we're both very involved in politics

而且我們都非常參與政治

so that was inevitably going to be a big part

是以，這不可避免地會成為一個重要的部分。

of what we wanted to communicate through these memes.

的是我們想通過這些備忘錄來溝通的內容。

A lot of our followers will note

我們的很多追隨者會注意到

that one of the first big memes

那是第一個大的備忘錄之一

that brought them to the account

把他們帶到賬戶上的

was our reaction to Roe versus Wade being overturned

是我們對Roe versus Wade被推翻的反應。

back in June of 2022

早在2022年6月

and there's actually a funny story

而且實際上還有一個有趣的故事

that goes along with that.

與此相伴的是。

- At the time, I was actually on a mountain

- 當時，我實際上是在一個山上

with no cell service and had kind of told Barrett

在沒有手機服務的情況下，我曾告訴巴雷特

do whatever you want with the account while I'm offline.

當我不在線時，你可以對這個賬戶做任何事情。

She posted a meme about this news.

她就這一消息發佈了一個備忘錄。

- Because we had commented on it in the past

- 因為我們過去曾對它進行過評論

in the lead up to this announcement

在本公告發布前的準備階段

that our followers would be looking to us

我們的追隨者會看向我們

to say something else now that it had been made official.

既然已經成為官方，那就說點別的吧。

I mocked up something really quickly,

我很快就模擬出了一些東西。

shot it over to her and said, this is what I have.

把它拍給她，說，這是我的東西。

I'm gonna post it if you can't respond to me

如果你不能迴應我，我就把它貼出來

but I really want your feedback.

但我真的希望得到你的反饋。

- Later that day, was driving down the mountain

- 當天晚些時候，正在開車下山

and started getting pings on my phone.

並開始在我的手機上收到ping。

- Very serendipitously,

- 非常偶然的是。

she was just coming down off the mountain and she texted me

她剛從山上下來，就給我發了簡訊

and she was like, "oh my God, this is wild but I love it.

她說："哦，我的上帝，這太瘋狂了，但我喜歡它。

Go ahead and post it."

去吧，把它貼出來。"

- It's one of those moments

- 這是其中的一個時刻

that I will always kind of remember like what I was doing.

我將永遠記得我在做什麼。

Where was I when the Taylor Swift

當泰勒-斯威夫特（Taylor Swift）事件發生時，我在哪裡？

Look What You Made Me Do music video dropped.

看看你讓我做了什麼》的音樂視頻發佈。

What was I doing when we found out this news

當我們發現這個消息時，我正在做什麼？

that Roe Wade was getting overturned?

羅-韋德案被推翻了？

I was driving down the mountain

我在山下開車

and I found out about it from a meme on my own meme page

我是從我自己的備忘錄頁面上的一個備忘錄中發現的。

and realizing that this meme

並意識到，這個備忘錄

about this decision was blowing up.

關於這個決定的消息被炒得沸沸揚揚。

- That got us like 40,000 followers in the span of one day.

- 這讓我們在一天之內得到了大約40,000名追隨者。

Over a million people saw the post.

超過一百萬人看到了這個帖子。

It started getting printed out and taken to protests.

它開始被打印出來並被帶到抗議現場。

We saw photos of that sign

我們看到了那個標誌的照片

at protests in the New York Times.

在紐約時報的抗議活動中。

It was all very bizarre and surreal.

這一切都非常詭異和超現實。

We haven't had any direct contact

我們沒有任何直接接觸

with the American Girl doll brand.

與美國女孩娃娃品牌。

That being said, a lot of their employees

雖然如此，他們的很多員工

have actually reached out to us.

實際上已經與我們聯繫了。

Obviously, our content

很明顯，我們的內容

may be not the most child friendly in the world

可能不是世界上最適合兒童的地方

but they're very much aware of the account

但他們非常瞭解這個賬戶

and they love it a lot.

而且他們非常喜歡它。

Since we started this account in 2022,

自從我們在2022年開始這個賬戶以來。

a midterm election year

中期選舉年

and because some of the political content we were making

而且因為我們正在製作的一些政治內容

did so well, Carter and I felt like it made sense for us

我們做得很好，卡特和我覺得這對我們來說是有意義的。

to use this account to do something that we care about a lot

用這個賬戶來做一些我們非常關心的事情

which is getting young people to the polls.

這就是讓年輕人去投票。

- Talking about it in a way

- 以一種方式談論它

that feels like we're talking to our peers

感覺像是在和我們的同齡人交談

and we're not reading off some stuffy messaging

我們不是在宣讀一些枯燥的資訊。

that I think really just doesn't work.

我認為這真的是行不通的。

One of my favorite things about the account

我最喜歡的賬戶之一

is that it really has felt like a growing community.

是，它真的感覺像一個成長中的社區。

People send us a ton of things,

人們給我們寄來了一大堆東西。

tons of stories, lots of pictures.

大量的故事，大量的圖片。

- Honestly, at this point, we would've expected

- 坦率地說，在這一點上，我們會期望

everybody to have unfollowed the account

所有人都取消了對該賬戶的關注

but we're still growing a little bit every day.

但我們仍然每天都在一點點地成長。

(calm music)

(平靜的音樂)