Woman Creates Justin Bieber-Inspired Email Signature at Age 12; at 26, Faces 'Mortifying' Reminder It's Still There (Exclusive)

• Jessica Stahle first became obsessed with Justin Bieber in 2010 when she was 12 years old
• At that time, she decided to dedicate her email signature to the "One Less Lonely Girl" singer
• As the years passed, she kept the signature for nostalgic reasons, only deleting it when the email wasn’t significant. But this year she learned the signature didn’t disappear as easily as she thought after her manager called her out for it
• In September, she posted about the situation on TikTok, and the video went viral, garnering more than 300,000 views

Jessica Stahle has been a massive Justin Bieber fan for as long as she can remember. The Los Angeles native was first introduced to the pop star on True Jackson, VP, and from there, she says she fell down a rabbit hole of his YouTube videos and music videos, becoming "obsessed."

So, it only made sense that in 2010, at just 12 years old, Stahle decided to dedicate her email signature to the "One Less Lonely Girl" singer.

"Justin had that iconic bowl cut/flip hairstyle when I first became a fan. Then, one day, he got it trimmed and couldn’t do his famous flip anymore. I was floored," Stahle, now 26, tells PEOPLE exclusively. "Around the same time, AOL and Gmail chats were super popular, and everyone had fun signatures at the end of their messages."

"I wanted to have my own signature, and when Justin got that new haircut, I had to let everyone know how I felt about it. So, I updated my signature to ‘~I’m in love with Justin Bieber’s new haircut!!!’ " she continues. "As a 12-year-old, I wasn’t sending many important emails, so it just kind of stuck."

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As the years passed, Stahle kept the signature for nostalgic reasons, only deleting it when the email wasn’t significant. But what she didn’t realize was that the signature didn’t disappear as easily as she thought.

Earlier this year, Stahle sent her manager a quick email about a scheduling change, also including a coworker in the email chain. She sent the email from her laptop, but once it was sent, she realized she hadn’t deleted the signature. She got nervous and texted the coworker she'd CC'd, asking if she should acknowledge it or just ignore it.

"She told me I should acknowledge it, or it would look more unprofessional," Stahle adds. "So, I quickly replied, saying, ‘Please disregard the auto signature on my last email.’ ”

Stahle thought it was a one-time, embarrassing slip-up and figured it would be water under the bridge, especially since the manager she sent the email to was someone she didn’t see often. But two weeks later, the situation came back to haunt her.

While doing some administrative work with another manager and a few coworkers, they were making small talk when her manager suddenly said, "You know what I love, Jessica? Your cute little signature at the bottom of your emails!"

"At that moment, I completely froze," Stahle says. "I didn’t think anyone knew about the email I sent to my other manager, but I thought maybe that manager had told her. So I still had hope that it was a one-time situation."

As she stood there in shock, her coworkers kept asking what her manager was talking about, and she replied, "Yeah, at the end of all of Jessica’s emails, she writes something about Justin Bieber’s hair."

Stahle’s coworkers began laughing, and she asked her manager if the first manager had told her about the email. Her manager replied, "No, I’m CC’d on most of your emails. It’s on every single one of them."

Stahle was floored. She had almost always made sure to delete the signature. When she got home, she decided to investigate. Upon reviewing her past emails, she discovered that the signature had appeared in every single email sent from her laptop. While drafting an email, the signature didn’t show up, but once the email was sent, it was there — hidden under the three-dot menu.

"That’s when I reevaluated everything," she says. "I started to wonder if important people had seen that signature at the bottom of my professional emails. I lost sleep over it, questioning all the possible outcomes. It was pretty mortifying."

Even though she’s embarrassed by the mistake, Stahle has learned to laugh about it now. "I guess I’ll have to update my signature — this time, with something a little more professional."

In September, Stahle decided to share the story on TikTok. She felt that her experience might help others feel better about their own embarrassing moments. To her surprise, the video went viral, garnering more than 300,000 views. The comments section, she says, made her "crack up," as it was flooded with people sharing their own stories.

"I hope my videos teach people not only to check their email settings, voicemails and ringtones, but also to help them feel better about their own lives and make them laugh," Stahle says. "I also hope it brings a sense of community because, at the end of the day, even though we’re adults now, a lot of people my age can relate to the fact that we were all obsessed with some male star back in the 2010s. We’re still 26-year-old fangirls at heart."

"I would like to add that to everyone who saw my signature and didn’t tell me about it — it's okay, I forgive you," she continues. "And I’d also like to add that I’m still a huge fan of Justin Bieber and his family. Just because I no longer have the signature and his haircut has changed doesn’t mean I’m any less of a fan. Belieber 4 lyf."