Kiren Rizvi, Morris Hills senior, became an Internet sensation after she Tweeted a picture of her presentation, “Crimes of Western Imperialism” for her AP Art history class on January 2nd.   The Tweet showed a picture of her during the presentation that ended with the slide, “In conclusion: I am bitter.”  It went viral gaining over 13,500’s retweets on Twitter in under a week. The Tweet currently has 17.6K retweets and 20.7K favorites on Twitter.

“I didn’t expect it,  to be honest, “ Kiren said.  “ I didn’t think it was that funny, so I thought it was really weird that people liked it so much.”  @pakistanyewest, as she is known in the Internet world, currently has 2,425 followers on Twitter, due to the fact that she was retweeted by famous Twitter accounts including @CommonWhiteGirl who has 5.9 million followers and @FirstWorldPains who has 695K followers.  “ A lot of famous activist accounts retweeted it which left me starstruck,  so did a lot of Middle Eastern activist accounts that I  already recognized,” Kiren said.

Shortly after taking Twitter by storm,  Kiren also began circulating around on other social media like Tumblr, Facebook and BuzzFeed India  She currently has her own article on BuzzFeed India which goes into depth about how she became a Twitter sensation and presents the reader with screenshots of her reactions as well as replies to other people’s comments. It’s no surprise that friends and peers began to recognize Kiren from seeing her on  their phones and computer screens.

“I didn’t know what peers might think about it, not just the ‘I’m Bitter’ part but the political and historical context behind it,” Kiren said.  In her presentation Kiren connected a piece of artwork to Colonialism and its effects.   Kiren included a photograph of her father and his comments on Western Imperialism in her presentation.  As a result, her father too is getting recognition.    

While it is entertaining that a peer has become an Internet sensation, Kiren Rizvi has also brought light to a more important matter.