Here’s How the ‘Christian Girl Autumn’ Women Responded When They Learned They Were the Subject of the Meme

In the wake of the “Christian Girl Autumn” meme spreading across the internet, the two women who unwittingly became the subject of the joke have shared their take on it.

After Twitter user @lasagnabby, a 19-year-old college student named Giovanni, posted a now three-year-old photo of lifestyle bloggers Emily Gemma and Caitlin Covington with the caption, “Hot Girl Summer is coming to an end, get ready for Christian Girl Autumn,” on Friday, the tweet quickly racked up nearly nearly 51,000 likes and 13,000 retweets.

“I saw a bunch of jokes about the Megan Thee Stallion phrase ‘Hot Girl Summer‘ and decided to poke fun at it with a Christian white girl spin! I literally googled ‘fall scarf outfits‘ and ‘cute church outfits’ and saved the photos from there as memes,” Giovanni told NBC News.

But while the tweet was earning plenty of replies poking fun at what some people on the internet consider the stereotypical connotations of Gemma and Covington’s appearance — liking pumpkin spice lattes, asking to speak to the manager, etc. — the pair was getting in on the fun.

“This photo is nearly 3 years old, and I’m reading comments and cracking up laughing,” Gemma told NBC News. “And let’s be honest these are dated outfits.”

“If all of Twitter is gonna make fun of my fall photos, at least pick some good ones!” Covington added in a tweet. “Super proud of these. For the record, I do like pumpkin spice lattes. Cheers!”

However, Gemma and Covington were adamant that they don’t fit the bill of the negative comments people were making implying they are homophobic, racist or intolerant.

“That’s not me at all,” Covington told Buzzfeed. “I’m a nice person and I love everyone and I’m accepting of everyone.”

“I’m white and Christian but none of the tweets were accurate,” Gemma added. “I laughed at all of it but…none of it’s true. We don’t ever want to speak to the manager!”

Gemma went on to say that she thought the discourse surrounding the tweet had a positive impact. “If anything it’s brought everyone a little bit closer,” she said. “People started realizing, ‘Oh, these girls are real. They’re not whatever we thought they were.’ They assumed we were anti-LGBT, but we’re not at all. I’ve got friends who are trans and gay…I think people realized that not all white girls who love fall fashion and pumpkin spice are what we’re all categorized to look like.”