“French Girls” is rapidly becoming the most popular promoter of selfies since snapchat. The app’s slogan, and description of its purpose, is “Take selfies. Get drawings.” The award winning app has taken its name from Kate Winslet’s famous line in The Titanic: “Draw me like one of your French girls.”
“French Girls” has the user take a selfie and then a stranger will anonymously draw an interpretive portrait which is based on the “selfie” sent by the user. The wacky, and typically mocking, portraits are hand-drawn. The top ranked app allows users to take photos, draw portraits, and observe the work of other users’ “selfie” artworks.
On the recent success of the app, Appek chief Adam Ceresko has stated: “Passing a million is exciting, but we’re just getting started. There is such a uniqueness to the content on French Girls. And how the community is evolving is what makes the future bright. People can express themselves visually on French Girls in ways that are easily understood yet extremely powerful, and we feel that we’ve only touched the surface of what’s possible through this new type of communication.”
The quality of the selfie interpretation varies greatly. Many drawings are impressive pieces of graphic art while others are merely juvenile doodles. Some of the self-proclaimed “artists” base their work on the entire picture while others focus on a single feature of their subject. Thus far, the app has been mostly popular amongst teenagers, however younger adults are certainly trying it out as well.
The app was first released in Jan. 2014. Recently, it has hit over a million downloads. NFL football player Larry English, singer Christina Milian, and entrepreneur Kristopher Jones are among the company’s investors.
