She's goth, loves bearded dragons and just became the internet's favorite Girl Scout

A goth Girl Scout went viral this week — challenging some people's assumptions about what a Girl Scout "should" look like.

The official Girl Scouts Instagram account shared a post on Tuesday that has since amassed more than 84,000 likes, highlighting a Girl Scout named Sicilia's achievement of earning the highest honor in Girl Scouting — and her individual style.

For her Gold Award project, Sicilia created a series of educational videos about proper care for bearded dragons, aiming to help reptile owners access accurate information. She also gave presentations to younger Girl Scouts about responsible reptile ownership.

Sicilia, 18, told Yahoo that the inspiration for her project came from her own pet bearded dragon, Britney Spikes. (Yes, a tribute to pop star Britney Spears.)

Sicilia's portrait featured in the Instagram post showed off her dark hair, black lipstick and chunky spiked choker. It displayed a look that social media users weren't expecting but embraced as "iconic."

Positive comments poured in praising both her Gold Award achievement and her personal style.

"As a former girl scout who was the only goth in the troop, this is iconic 💅 and advocating for proper reptile care is even more iconic," one user commented.

Other users reflected on their own experiences and saw themselves in Sicilia. "I was bullied and ostracized in my own troop as a weird kid, and seeing this just healed something in me 🥹," one person commented. Sicilia responded to the comment, writing, "I'm so grateful for my troop they've made me feel so welcome and loved no matter how weird I am 💕💕💕"

The internet's response caught Sicilia completely by surprise.

"I did not expect any of this to happen at all," Sicilia told Yahoo. "On a random Tuesday morning, I look at my phone, and I'm on the face of Girl Scouts."

She said a previous post by her local council earlier this year had received some attention, but she was shocked by the scale of the reaction after Girl Scouts of the USA shared her story.

"At first, I was a little bit scared to look at the comments because, you know, it's the internet. People always have something to say," Sicilia recalled. "And then I was looking and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, how are there so many people who feel like so inspired by little old me?'"

Among the responses that really stuck with Sicilia were those from parents who wanted to show the post to their kids.

"Those really resonated with me because they did mention that their younger girls also wanted to dress like me. Every time I can pose as a role model to them, it warms my heart. It's my favorite thing ever," she said.

The Girl Scouts of the USA told Yahoo in a statement, "We are so proud of Sicilia, and all of the nearly 3,000 girls who earned the Gold Award this year. Girl Scouts gives girls the space to be unapologetically themselves — to discover who they are, explore what they care about, and build confidence along the way. No two Girl Scouts are the same, and we hope that when people see Sicilia — or any other Girl Scout — doing amazing things, they see a place for themselves here, too."

For Sicilia, the surprise many people expressed about her appearance says more about lingering assumptions than about Girl Scouts itself.

"People are very, very surprised when I tell them that I was in Girl Scouts for 11 years and I earned my Gold Award. Honestly, I usually use it as a two-truths-and-a-lie question because people don't guess it," Sicilia said.

Sicilia believes many outsiders still picture Girl Scouts as "very preppy" and "conservative," when in reality the organization includes girls from many different backgrounds and styles.

Amy Farrell, a professor of American studies and women's, gender and sexuality studies at Dickinson College who has written about Girl Scout history , said the viral reaction to Sicilia reveals how deeply those stereotypes remain embedded in pop culture.

"I think there's like a historic connotation of Girl Scouts as being kind of do-gooders and sort of being stuck in this kind of mold of safe femininity," Farrell told Yahoo.

"The reality is that Girl Scouts have always encouraged girls to be daring."

Sicilia's image appears as surprising only because it challenges those longstanding assumptions about Girl Scouts, she added.

"I think it sort of hits people where they are," Farrell explained. "This organization that we thought we knew about is actually encouraging more kinds of individuality and confidence than we thought."

That spirit has been part of the organization since its earliest days.

"The very decision to use the word 'scout' when Girl Scouting started in the United States was considered daring. The name was 'Girl Guides' in England," Farrell said. "The reality was, Boy Scouts were really upset about that. They said girls are trying to make sissies out of boys by using that term."

Farrell sees Sicilia as continuing the Girl Scout tradition, rather than living outside of it. "In a certain way, she is part of a long tradition of kind of trying to push the space that girls can take up," Farrell said. She added that the organization's promotion of her image suggests they're proud of who she is.

One reason the support has meant so much to Sicilia is that Girl Scouts provided a place where she felt accepted throughout her childhood and teenage years.

"Girl Scouts was the most empowering thing I could have been a part of growing up," she said. "Having at least one organization that really accepted me in full for who I was was so special to me."

Even though Sicilia has graduated from Girl Scouts and is in her first year of college, she said she made a promise to herself at her Gold Award ceremony to return to the Girl Scouts at some point in her life.

"I definitely will find a way to volunteer and get involved in Girl Scouts again in my future. I would love to be a troop leader, honestly."