Some people go viral for their talent. Others become famous for scandals. Sara Jane Isbister unexpectedly gained notoriety for her mugshots.
When Sara was in her 20s, she turned into an unlikely internet obsession and was dubbed the “mugshot beauty” following a string of crimes in Brevard County, Florida.
Now 34 years old, the woman shared her story with details about her “bad girl” era.
Sara Jane Isbister unexpectedly gained a fan-following for her string of mugshots
Image credits: sarajaneiz
“I was just so reckless. I just wanted to be the baddest of the baddest,” Sara said while reflecting on her past.
Calling herself a “troubled teen,” the woman said she got involved with the “wrong crowd” and got hooked on illicit substances in the wake of her father’s passing.
“He was like my best friend,” she told The Sun about losing her dad to cancer.
“It was traumatising for me,” she continued. “When my father passed away, I just didn’t really care anymore.”
Image credits: sarajaneiz
The overwhelming grief pushed her towards substances, and there has “never been anything good that has stemmed from that.”
For her very first job, she was hired at Hooters and wore the chain’s infamous skimpy uniform while waiting tables as an 18-year-old.
It was a steady “downward progression” from there, as she began taking up other waitressing jobs serving cocktails to men wearing “hardly anything,” she said.
“I was just so reckless. I just wanted to be the baddest of the baddest,” Sara said while reflecting on her past
Image credits: Brevard County/Florida Arrests
The drive to make a quick buck made her “numb” to her surroundings. She found herself turning into a slightly darker and more jaded version of herself with every new job.
“When I was using dr*gs and str*pping, the future was not the first thing I was thinking about,” she said. “Every day is what’s going on right in front of me, which is a very dangerous way of living.”
Image credits: Brevard County/Florida Arrests
The period also included a string of run-ins with the law, with her first arrest being linked to reckless driving and a failure to pay her speeding fine.
In 2011, she was arrested a total of six times, with charges against her ranging from suspicion of theft to suspicion of possessing dr*g paraphernalia.
Other arrests over the years included suspicion of driving on a suspended license, giving a false ID to a law enforcement officer, and various probation violations.
Sara was reportedly arrested a total of six times in the year 2011 alone
Image credits: Brevard County/Florida Arrests
As her “bad girl” era unfolded, Sara didn’t know that she was quietly gaining attention online for her mugshots.
Her images became the subject of numerous articles and social media posts, making her known in the nooks and crannies of the internet.
Image credits: Brevard County/Florida Arrests
Blogger Perez Hilton compared a 22-year-old Sara to Angelina Jolie and asked how someone so photogenic could be so “bad at following the law.”
“Is this a booking photo or a headshot for ‘90210?’” he asked.
Maxim magazine included her in a spread titled “The Bad Girl Club” when she was 23 years old.
Bloggers like Perez Hilton made the woman the subject of their content and fueled her notoriety online
Image credits: Brevard County/Florida Arrests
The viral curiosity about her led to false allegations, including claims of her being arrested for ending the life of a “house pet.”
“I was livid and upset,” she said about the absurd claims made about her.
“I had no idea how much this was going to screw things up for me,” she continued. “This is all people are going to know me for now.”
But she “kept doing stupid things” and didn’t realize people would “string them together and make articles out of it,” she told the outlet.
Image credits: Brevard County/Florida Arrests
Sara felt compelled to address the fame she never asked for, sharing a YouTube video at the age of 24.
Admitting she had a “sh*tty” past, she said in the video, “I went through a little bad girl phase for a little bit longer than I’d like to admit. But these are the consequences that I have to face and I’m fine with that.”
“For all the crimes that I committed, I paid my debt to society,” she added.
The now 34-year-old said she has paid the price for the crimes she committed
Image credits: Brevard County/Florida Arrests
The woman said she committed the crimes because she was “unhappy with [her] life” and not to gain any kind of attention.
“I was sad, I was broken, I was dumb, I was naive, I was young, and I was really lost and I was hurt inside,” she said.
Sara described herself as a normal girl, just like everyone else, with hobbies and dreams.
As she grew older, Sara consciously distanced herself from the internet’s gaze and now lives her life completely differently. Her focus remains on her art and her writing, both of which she wished she had focused on when she was young.
Image credits: Brevard County/Florida Arrests
While speaking to The Sun, Sara recalled how the repercussions of her online fame led to an unexpected fan-following of prisoners as well.
She would receive fan mail from even convicted k*llers, who saw her mugshots and decided to put pen to paper from the solitude of their prison cell.
Sara spoke about having an unexpected fan-following of prisoners as well
Image credits: florida.arrests.org
“There was one m*rder guy who was really cool to be honest,” she said, noting how the man included a picture of himself with his letter.
“You don’t want to live this life while you’re young, just get out of it, otherwise you’ll end up like me,” she recalled the “nice and encouraging” felon telling her.
A letter from another inmate allegedly took a more threatening tone, with the man claiming he had hired a private investigator to find personal information about her.
“He wrote at least five letters to me, and then he would get really angry at me when I didn’t write him back,” she said, describing the man as a “creep and a weirdo.”
“It was scary because these people were sending the mail to my home, so they knew where I lived,” she added.
“Regardless of everything, you are not a permanently bad person,” one commented online
