If you're one of the over 20.6 million Americans who has a Twitter account, chances are you've stumbled across the official SoccerGirlProblems Twitter handle, @SoccerGrlProbs, at least once while using the popular social media networking site.
SoccerGirlProblems, a feed spawned by three New York-based athletes, is a Twitter handle dedicated to the true-life outrageous complaints about everyday life as a high school or college soccer player.
The simple concept was started as a joke, but it has grown to startling dimensions.
SoccerGirlProblems has over 148,000 Twitter followers, and its explosive popularity led to the creation of a spinoff blog, a well-known YouTube account, a custom-made T-shirt business, and an official website.
Since opening in the beginning of 2012, the SoccerGirlProblems YouTube account has racked up over 3.2 million video views, and T-shirts have been selling like hotcakes. The SoccerGirlProblems Twitter page is also busier than ever, as it gained 50,000 new followers between May and November.
Punch #SGP or #SoccerGrlProbs into the Twitter search box on any given day, and you'll immediately get a slew of hilarious tweets like "Took a long, hard stare at a pair of jeans this morning...Almost felt bad for neglecting them for so long. SWEATS IT IS," along with other comedic gems like "family dreads thanksgiving if...i'm not on their team for flag football. Come on people what's wrong with a little 'friendly' competition??"
With the SoccerGirlProblems brand finding so much success, one would expect the girls behind it to be household names by now, much like other Twitter/YouTube personalities like Jenna Marbles and Tay Zonday.
In fact, the founders of SoccerGirlProblems were afraid to reveal their identities until recently, as they feared retribution from conservative school administrators at their current school, Fairfield University.
The SoccerGirlProblems ladies believed that school officials from Fairfield would possibly find some of their hilarious tweets to be offensive or inappropriate. The founders did not want their tweets to bring negative exposure to their current or former schools.
It took over a year for the SoccerGirlProblems girls to reveal their identities publicly, but two of the three founders finally decided it was time to come out and detail how they became cult heroes via Twitter.
Carly Beyar, a South Hempstead, New York, resident and graduate of South Side High School in Rockville Centre, New York, along with Alanna Locast of Wantagh, New York, revealed that they are among the core group of tweeters handling the SoccerGirlProblems Twitter and YouTube accounts.
Locast, a graduate of Long Island's Seaford High School, was an attacking offensive option for Fairfield until her graduation in 2011, while Beyar is still playing for the Fairfield Stags.
"It is still a shock to us that all of these girls relate to what we are saying," Beyar said of her dedicated legion of Twitter followers in an exclusive online interview in May. "The soccer world is evidently a small one. It is comforting to know that we are not the only women soccer players out there dealing with these problems every day. Also, don't get us wrong, we love soccer and will do anything for it; sometimes you just need to complain to keep you sane. 'With training comes complaining.'"
Beyar and Locast, both standout high school soccer players on Long Island, think they can take SoccerGirlProblems to new heights due to the power of online marketing.
"I think it is easy to relate to our tweets when we are sarcastic and humorous," Beyar said. "We try to take bothersome problems every day and turn it into something to just sit back and laugh about. We appreciate all of the support that our fans have given us since August. They are the best fans any Twitter account can ask for. Originally, we made this Twitter account for fun. We wanted to make it a team-based thing where everyone would tweet a problem from our team to get a laugh out of it. Little did we know how powerful the Web can be."
Eric Holden covered the South Side Lady Cyclones girls' soccer team in the 2010-11 season and has reported on Long Island soccer events since 2009. Follow him on Twitter @ericholden.