Photo by

Joana Fontinha for The Reykjavik Grapevine

Aside from the endless waterfalls and geothermal springs, life in Iceland can sometimes be downright brutal. From the high bills when eating out to the weather that induces seasonal depression (no matter what time of year), the reality of life on this “rock in the middle of the Atlantic” is far from the perfect picture often painted.

The creator of the anonymous Instagram account “Original Sleepy Girl” captures the ups and downs of life in Iceland with a mixture of sarcasm, self-irony and an unfiltered insider perspective – in the form of memes.

I’m a snowboarder. I grew up skiing and snowboarding and worked in the ski industry for a long time before I ended up here five years ago. I make art and have always been a creative person. The site came about when I felt like social media was showing me the same thing over and over again – just run of the mill stuff about Iceland.

I love it here, but it’s not perfect. Every joke I make is out of love for Iceland – I love the people here and there’s no other place like it, but I don’t think it’s perfect. I’m just opening up this discussion.

At the beginning, I had a lot of trouble with immigration here and I felt like no one talked about the challenges of living here. My friends talked about it, of course, but from the outside, the content I got through Instagram was just “Iceland is perfect. You have to come here if you want a better life.” That wasn’t realistic.

I started joking with people about the things that make life so hard here. That’s how it started – a community of people talking about what it’s like to be here. It helps people feel less alone and just laugh about their experiences.

The Birth of Original Sleepy Girl

I had a personal account with about 1,000 followers where I just posted snowboarding stuff or something. I didn’t focus on that. Then I just renamed it.

I suffer from narcolepsy, hence the name. There are different degrees of severity, in my case the illness is not so bad that it really disables me, but I have phases of sleep in which I am really tired. Basically, I can fall asleep anytime and anywhere.

There were people who followed me before and knew who I was, but they probably stopped following me because those things wouldn’t make sense now – I don’t think the jokes make sense unless you live in Iceland or have spent some time here. Other than that, I don’t tell people who I am. The reason I like to keep it anonymous is because I personally wouldn’t be able to be as creative and make jokes as I do if everyone knew it was me. I would worry about what people would think. Since no one knows it’s me, I have no problem doing riskier things. I don’t worry about that and I can be free to create whatever I want. I also don’t see the point in it – now everyone’s face is on the internet. It’s a meme page and it doesn’t need a face. But I also believe that there is no mystery left in the world or on the internet. It’s fun to have a bit of mystery. I’ve heard people talking about the “Original Sleepy Girl Memes” but no one knows it’s me.

Stay realistic

I started looking at funny things on Instagram and then showing them to a friend and saying, “Oh, that’s what it’s like when something like that happens in Iceland,” and they laughed. I just started posting them and it took off immediately.

I have a marketing background so I know what to do to get views. I use trending content when there’s a video going around that fits what I’m talking about or sometimes I’ll use a hashtag about Iceland. Other than that, I don’t really do trending stuff because I find most of it pretty embarrassing, like when it’s about a dance or people selling travel guides to Iceland. You can do whatever you want but I definitely don’t want to do that kind of thing. I just want to talk about my experiences. I don’t make money from it and I don’t plan on making money from it unless I’m trying to sell art or something tangible. But I will never sell a travel guide or try to make money that way. I think we have enough people doing that.

Delivered by Original Sleepy Girl

Brands have contacted me asking for product placements or to make memes for them. But I won’t post any of that on my page and I haven’t done any of that. I did one for Deig Bakery for free because I like that guy – he’s a friend. I want to stay away from that because I think the people who follow my page do it because it’s not. If I tried to monetize it for some reason, that would defeat the purpose of the account – which is to be authentic and discuss how hard it can be here sometimes.

I approach it quite spontaneously. I’ll just go for a walk and think of something funny, or if I see something funny online, I’ll see if I can turn it into something that fits with what I’m thinking. I don’t take it too seriously and I don’t spend too much time thinking about anything. It’s more of a creative outlet.

Or if I’m really angry, like “Oh my God, Hlemmur is totally exhausted. I can’t take the bus anywhere,” I could just make a joke and say how exhausted Hlemmur always is. That’s kind of therapeutic for me too.

I’ve heard it’s best to do things in advance and have a schedule, but that’s just not how I work. It depends on whether I’m in a fun mood or not. Sometimes I’m in a bad mood and just don’t post anything.

Meme-worthy effect

I have met many talented, great people and made many more contacts and friends through my site. Some people I have been talking to for a long time I have met in person. Most of them I have not met, but we are still online friends.

I found it really hard to make friends here at first, especially because I didn’t speak any Icelandic. The account made me feel a lot less alone. People tell me they feel the same way because of my page. They feel less alone here and can identify with some of the things I post.

A lot of Icelanders follow me, but also a lot of people who have moved here from other countries. I think 90% of my followers are In Iceland. It’s probably mostly people who have moved here, but Icelanders definitely get it; we all have the same problems – housing, taxes and so on. One time Bubbi Morthens liked and commented on one of my videos. That was one of my best achievements because he’s so amazing and a national hero.

I get a lot more positive feedback than negative, but I definitely get some too. I’m a very sensitive person, so at first I was like, “Oh, I’m not going to post anymore.” But the more you get, the easier it gets. You just push through and get to the point where you just keep going no matter what. Now it doesn’t bother me as much.

I get a lot of messages from people like, “That’s really cool,” “You’re making a difference,” “I really appreciate that.” I try to focus on those things and not the negative things.

binder

I’ve been thinking about what else I could do with my page. I’ve tried TikTok a little bit, but I feel kind of too old for it. I still use it a little bit, but TikTok’s algorithm works in a way that pushes content that I don’t want to create. I’ve been thinking about other options: maybe create a website, maybe try organizing meetups or selling art. It would be cool if it could actually bring people together and people could actually form friendships, since a lot of people from the page already talk to each other.

The page has already exceeded my expectations. I don’t measure (success) or worry about getting to a certain number of followers. I just wanted to get to a point where I feel like I’m doing something positive. Even if sometimes that happens in a negative way, like complaining, it’s still an outlet for people. When the first person commented, “This helped me,” I realized I had achieved my goal. Now I’m trying to figure out what the next step is. My goal was simply to make people laugh and feel better. I think I’ve accomplished that.

For your daily dose of memes follow @originalsleepygirl on Instagram.