Chapter 1

Sunday, August 29, 2010



Chapter 1

On April 2006, the then fifteen-year-old Boxxy created an account on the popular anime-based message board Gaia Online with the rather inconspicuous user name MoldyLunchBoxx.

Following a year-long absence, she returned in late 2007 and notified everyone, via much posting, that she had come back.

At the end of the first week in 2008, the sixteen-year-old was given the nickname Boxxy and began uploading her first two YouTube videos onto the channel BoxxyBabe.

The first was entitled “FOAR 4DD1 FRUM BOXXY.” The Addi in question was a shortened version of the user name 4DM1RALAWESOME, i.e., Admiral Awesome: an online friend of Boxxy and a fellow Gaia Online user.










The video came about as the result of a promise she had made to him and was intended to be a simple and amusing shout-out using her extremely hyperactive onscreen persona Boxxy.

Indeed, Boxxy stated in the video, which was punctuated with much stammering, that she'd make a video just for him. She also mentioned, albeit playfully, that she loved Addi because he's fun to talk to.

The remainder of the video consisted of Boxxy talking at some length about the way she and Addi interacted online, the fact that she overused black eyeliner, and that if she knew anyone else on Gaia, all they had to do was ask and she make a separate shout-out video for him or her.

The offer was clearly accepted by another Gaia Online user who wished to be called Ant, as shown in Boxxy’s second video, entitled “FOAR ANT FRUM BOXXY."



In this video, she more or less discussed many of the same things she did in her other video; however, she revealed that Ant was the first person she had ever met on Gaia Online while noting that she had been friends with him for a while and described him as a wonderful guy.

She digressed to describe how Ant and others frequented the notorious site 4chan, how Ant’s avatars were very interesting to look at, and even drew an angry cartoon face with black and red markers to be a depiction of Ant.



Boxxy's original YouTube channel, BoxxyBabe.
Note the change in hair and skin tone in the second video.

This was the video where another of Boxxy’s friends was mentioned, Pocky. She gossiped in an indiscreet manner about Ant and Pocky’s relationship and that it had ended.

This same Pocky later became a source of interest to various members of 4chan and was again referenced in Boxxy’s third and currently final video.


Boxxy's friend Priyanka, a.k.a. Pocky.

In close examination of her first video, Boxxy is clad in a black, short-sleeved T-shirt with the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Mooninite characters Ignignokt and Err, on the front, with a gold chain prominently displayed around her neck. Her dark brown hair is cut in a shoulder-length pageboy bob with the edges flipped out; a barely discernible, black Alice band keeps her parted bangs from falling on her face. Along with fairly heavy makeup applied to her pale complexion, thick lines of kohl encircle her eyes. What makes her stand out even more was that she is seated in what appears to be a darkened, cluttered office, as evidenced by the printer in the background to her left, with the glow of the computer screen being the only light source. This has the peculiar effect of drawing attention to her face, the eyes in particular.

In her second video, Boxxy wears a white cotton T-shirt with a silver necklace and pendant around her neck. Her bob is suddenly a lighter brown, and her skin tone changed from pale to a distinctive shade of buff. Even though it is still winter in many parts of North America, the fact that Boxxy is suddenly sporting both a lighter hair color and a darker skin tone seem to indicate that she lives in a state which still receives large amounts of sun and heat.

The two said videos were uploaded onto the YouTube channel BoxxyBabe. Records indicate that her last login on both Gaia Online and YouTube took place between the months of February and April 2008.

On December 27, 2008, after sitting undisturbed on her channel, the first video was embedded onto the unremarkable site I-Am-Bored.com by an anonymous user.



The embed on I-Am-Bored.com.

Within twenty-four hours, the comments page was filled with over 175 comments across eight pages. Only adding to the intrigue already surrounding Boxxy, the embed then strangely disappeared without a trace or explanation.

Screen shots of the video began appearing on the well-known image board 7chan coupled with fervent discussions and debates as to who the girl was and if she was afflicted with any ailments such as Attention Deficit Disorder or Tourette’s Syndrome, based upon her hyperactive and jerky manner.

An anonymous user then included a link to the video on the near-identical site 4chan. It was posted at the top of an endurance test thread on the random /b/ board: the birthplace of many of the Internet’s most famous memes. Those who could sit through the whole thing and not flip out in a fit of annoyance or simply give up were labeled as experts. Many present at that time described the whole escapade as "the most insane display we've ever seen on YouTube" and "the cutest girl you've ever seen." This adoration would soon mark the genesis of the Boxxy phenomenon.




By Anonymous