What the picture shows
Two young women stand almost cheek to cheek. On the left is singer JoJo (Joanna Noelle Levesque), leaning toward her companion’s ear and covering her mouth with one hand, clearly sharing a secret. On the right is actress Emma Roberts: her mouth is wide open, her eyebrows are raised, and her gaze is turned to the side, a classic pose of extreme surprise mixed with delight.
The photo appears to have been taken on a red carpet or at a joint photo shoot, judging by the soft studio backdrop and both women’s hairstyles. The open, friendly pose, with JoJo’s arm resting on Roberts’ shoulder, suggests a casual setting rather than a staged movie scene.
Origin and source
No consistent, reliable data exists on when or at what event the photo was taken. Russian-language meme catalogs give a rough date of around 2011 without linking it to a specific event. JoJo and Emma Roberts co-starred in the teen movie Aquamarine (2006), which made them a recognizable pair to fans of both actresses, but there is no confirmation that this particular photo is connected to the film’s promotion.
So, strictly speaking, the year and occasion of the photo have not been established. It could have been taken at any joint entertainment-industry event in the early 2010s, and it entered internet circulation already detached from its original context as a standalone reaction image.
How the photo became a template
Roberts’ expressive face, with her wide-open mouth and wide eyes, reads in two ways at once: as shock and as an awed “wow.” That ambiguity is why social media users began using the frame on its own, captioning it with text about receiving unexpected information, juicy gossip, or simply a funny piece of news.
The format took off first on the Russian-speaking internet (Runet), where the caption is usually written as a dialogue: on the left, the line JoJo is “whispering”; on the right, the reaction attributed to Emma Roberts. This makes the meme easy to adapt to any topic, from everyday situations to politics or show business.
Typical captions and examples
In most versions, the line attributed to JoJo sits on the left, and a short remark conveying how shocking the news is sits above Roberts’ head. A typical caption might read: “Did you know he still owes you from your last paycheck?” “WHAAAT,” with the word of surprise placed right above Roberts’ open mouth.
Another common variant drops JoJo’s dialogue entirely and uses the whole picture as a metaphor. A caption such as “when a friend tells you what happened at her job interview” captures the act of passing on an interesting story without separate speech bubbles.
The meme’s place in reaction-image culture
The photo belongs to the broad category of so-called reaction pictures: stock images with recognizable facial expressions that people use as emoji-style emphasis in messages or comments. Unlike many such templates that feature a single character, this one centers on a pair, a “storyteller and listener” dynamic, which widens its uses: it works equally well as an illustration of gossip and as a joke about a whispered secret at an important event.
Because both celebrities are so recognizable, the image periodically resurfaces in “best reaction memes” roundups. As far as is known, however, neither JoJo nor Emma Roberts has publicly commented on this part of their careers.
