Ryan Reynolds Responds To a Heartbroken Fan Who Photoshopped Him Into Her Prom Photos

At last, a news item that combines the two most universally beloved genres of showbiz reporting: “Celebrities extending kindness to un-famous teens by acknowledging them through the internet” stories and “Ryan Reynolds getting into mischief again!” stories. We live in wondrous times, friends, where a skillful Photoshop job and a moment’s tweetings can get a bona fide movie star into your orbit — and change the trajectory of your life forever.

That’s what happened to high school senior Gabi Dunn earlier this week. A few days after her last prom as a student, her boyfriend went splitsville on her, leaving Gabi with a hard drive of prom photos she didn’t want to look at. She decided to salvage them by digitally inserting noted actor Ryan Reynolds into her photos as her date; as you can see from the tweet below, it’s pretty impressive work:

She tagged Reynolds in the tweet, but had no idea he would respond to her and, in doing so, set the Gabi Dunn self-esteem engine in motion. Reynolds stood by his woman, and responded wth the tweet below:

The #DontMessWithGabi movement is bigger than Gabi, Reynolds, and bigger than all of us. This story has a happy ending, too. After a few days’ worth of soul-searching, Gabi Dunn proudly announced that she has grown and come out of the other side of this trauma as a stronger, more self-possessed woman.

While Ryan Reynolds did not Tweet “You go, girl!” in response to Gabi’s declaration of selfhood, we may safely presume that he at least thought it.