Everyone is obsessed with this powerful photo of a little girl staring at the portrait of Michelle Obama

© Provided by Business Insider Inc national portrait gallery - The internet is obsessed with photos of a little girl at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

- She was awed by Michelle Obama's portrait.

- The photo, first shared by Ben Hines on Facebook, has gone viral.

- The portrait artist Amy Sherald responded to the photos.

- The little girl is 2-year-old Parker Curry.

People are obsessed with photos of a little girl awed by Michelle Obama's portrait.


Ben Hines, a 37-year-old from North Carolina, snapped the quick photo while at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC on Thursday.

Hines told BuzzFeed News that the girl was excitedly staring at the photo.

"It was so touching and uplifting for me to see this beautiful child looking at a beautiful portrait of a powerful woman," he told BuzzFeed. "I was so delighted to have been in the right place at the right time."

The internet was emotional.

The little girl is 2-year-old Parker Curry. Her mother, Jessica, told BuzzFeed that she took Parker and her 1-year-old sister Ava to see the Barack and Michelle Obama's portraits.

"I was trying to get her to turn around so I could take a picture, but she wouldn't cooperate," Jessica said. "She just wanted to stare at it. She was fascinated."

The portraits were unveiled in February. Artist Amy Sherald, who painted Michelle's portrait, shared a photo on her Instagram of Parker staring and was overwhelmed with emotion. She recalled her own childhood when a painting impacted her.

"There was a painting of a black man standing in front of a house. I don't remember a lot about my childhood, but I do have a few emotional memories etched into my mind forever and seeing that painting of a man that looked like he could be my father stopped me dead in my tracks," she wrote. "I knew I wanted to be an artist already, but seeing that painting made me realize that I could. What dreams may come?"