One Girl's Picture Day Fail Made for This Year's Best Class Photos

Thanks to the internet, there is no shortage of class photos that are so absolutely priceless, they make us wish we hadn't already graduated college. As fall rolls in and students everywhere are adapting to new schedules and getting their grasp on more homework and papers to write, it's becoming every parent's favorite time of the year: picture day.

I distinctly remember picture day growing up. It wasn't as fun as it might have been for my non-uniformed peers who got to wear their favorite outfits and immortalize their youthful sense of fashion with academic backdrops of chalkboards and children's books. But believe me when I say that the year I rocked braces and glasses was priceless enough, both for my memory all these years later and for my parents who received proofs of my ugly duckling "phase" in the mail.

And while I just shudder to think of those photos and whether my family even purchased any that year, other students are delighting the world — or at least, the internet — with their creative, hilarious, and inspiring attempts at picture day.

Addison's class photos went viral when her mom, Laura Pyle, posted about them on Facebook.

She wrote: 

Y'all. THIS IS THE BEST [SCREW] UP I HAVE EVER DONE. 

I let Addison pick her dress out for picture day. She picked a green dress. I didn't think anything of it... Until I received the email with her proofs in it.

THERE ARE 87 STYLES. I NEED THEM ALL. 

I originally ordered the purple.

And Laura even shared a sneak peek into these 87 ingenious pictures.

It's not exactly obvious from these headshots what makes the photos so incredibly unique and priceless, but if you've read about Addison's outfit carefully, you might be able to imagine what's coming.

Yup, that's right. Her favorite dress, which Laura told Distractify "is currently a sparkly green number," blended perfectly into all the academic and pastoral settings the photographer switched out for the green screen backdrop the class photos were taken against. 

"I told her she could choose her picture day outfit and that's what she asked to wear," her mother told us.

So imagine her surprise when she opened an email attachment from the school and realized just how incredible her daughter's class photos were:

I mean... WOW. It doesn't matter if the photo's shot in landscape or in portrait, with a backdrop scene of foliage or a patriotic American flag. It's sheer perfection that actually only gets better the more class pictures of Addison you see.

My personal favorite part of these pictures is how her dress shimmers no matter what color it turns into.

I asked Laura how she felt about her daughter's sartorial choices, down to the beautiful necklace she chose to pair with her green dress. Laura says the necklace was one her "mother selected for [Addison] when she was a baby, before passing from cancer."

As for the photos? "I was completely surprised," she told Distractify. "I wasn't thinking, and it never crossed my mind that her photographer might use a green screen."

Come to think of it, this might be a modern technique, because I'm pretty sure school photographers brought their own classic blue-white-ish seamless that they rolled out and placed on a stand before asking us all to say "cheese."

"I posted a few screenshots on my page to give my friends and family a laugh at my mom-brain fail, and only made it public when a few asked to share," Laura continued. "We still find her photos hilarious, we laugh every time we see them." 

To be honest, so do we. Especially at that impressive shimmer. As for Addison's reaction to going viral? 

She is "loving all the wonderful comments she received from all over the world," gushed her mom.

The pictures are absolutely priceless, and I hope she keeps enough of them to be able to tell her kids how she became internet-famous at such a young age.

"We all have a healthy sense of humor, so we absolutely love them," said Laura of the Pyle family. "And I love that so many people are getting a chuckle from my screw-up."

We commend Addison for her incredible foresight, which led to the most hilarious class photos to unintentionally grace the internet. 

I even asked the mom if Addison would keep her personal green-screen trend going up until high school graduation, as that would make for an amazing photo album over the years. 

"She already asked me if she could," she replied. "Now that she knows what happens." 

Keep up the viral fame, Addison! We look forward to your photos next year.