Rebecca Black is all grown up.

Nine years ago, she appeared on YouTube, at the age of 13, with her music video ‘Friday’ – an ode to all of the things you do at school on a Friday, like seeing your friends, picking a seat in a car, and then party and party and yeah!

Fun, fun, fun, fun…

It wasn’t all fun and games for Black, though, who quickly learned that going viral isn’t always a good thing.

On February 11, the anniversary of the song’s release, she tweeted about the experience, and included a recent image of herself.

Here’s what she wrote, via DAZED.

“Nine years ago today, a music video for a song called ‘Friday’ was uploaded to the internet. Above all things, I just wish I could go back and talk to my 13-year-old self who was terribly ashamed of herself and afraid of the world. To my 15-year-old self who would get to school only to get food thrown at her and her friends. To my 19-year-old self who had almost every producer/songwriter tell me they’d never work with me. Hell, to myself a few days ago who felt disgusting when she looked in the mirror!”

Black continued: “I’m trying to remind myself more and more that every day is a new opportunity to shift your reality and lift your spirit. You are not defined by any one choice or thing. Time heals and nothing is finite. It’s a process that’s never too late to begin. And so, here we go! This might be a weird thing to post but the honesty feels good if nothing else.”

‘Friday’ went viral, has been viewed over 140 million times, and was voted ‘the worst song ever” by Yahoo Music.

The internet is dark and full of terrors, so instead of just having a chuckle at the silliness of a 13-year-old girl, she was dragged, mercilessly, online.

It’s not all bad, though. Things worked out in the end.

Three months after the release of “Friday”, Black starred in the video for Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night”, and has since gone on to carve a successful music career.

“My dream has always been to perform and do music,” she told Dazed, “so I just had to see (“Friday”) as a glitch in the road and I had to, one way or another, get through it, because I wouldn’t let that stop me from being where I wanted to be.”

Check out the music video for her song ‘Sweetheart’:

Good for you Rebecca.

Now, one more time with feeling:

May you ‘party and party, and yeah!’ all the way through to next week.

[source:dazed]