I personally am not someone who cares about Instagram “aesthetic”, but back in middle school I sure did care about how my MySpace profile looked. MySpace had tons of features for it’s users to choose from to make their profile unique. You had a default picture, a song or playlist, an “About Me” that you literally had to learn computer coding if you didn’t want it to look boring, Top 8 Friends box, and more information boxes. You could change the outline of the boxes and font colors so everything was exactly what you wanted.

Behind all the boxes was a background picture which was sometimes frustrating because all the boxes covered the majority of the picture. It seemed pointless to make your background an actual picture with people because hardly anyone could see it. Ashley Qualls was also frustrated by this and began designing background layouts for MySpace.

Ashley was talented in art and graphic design. She started a website called “WhateverLife” where she sold her layouts. She was passionate about creating these designs and was even compensated for it at the young age of 14. Her designs weren’t photos, but patterns she created. It didn’t matter if some of the profile boxes were covering the image.

Ashley made tons of different designs that would match the personality of any person using MySpace. She didn’t just target males or females, or people who love sports versus people who love music, she created layouts for every type of person she could think of.

Her business grew rapidly. The website was receiving 7 million visitors per month. Soon, Verizon Communications, a company traded on the New York Stock Exchange, wanted to buy WhateverLife for $1.5 million. Ashley refused because she was passionate about her work. She was making enough money and wanted to continue what she was doing.

Today, there isn’t much of a need for MySpace layouts. Ashley adapted and still continues to make graphic designs for other social media purposes. Her website is still visited frequently.