On Monday, Caitlyn Jenner became a viral sensation after debuting her new look on the cover of Vanity Fair.
But it's not easy to surprise the world with an image or a story these days, and the magazine went to great lengths to keep the cover from leaking ahead of Monday's big reveal.
A Vanity Fair representative revealed to Mashable the extreme measures that were taken during the Annie Leibovitz cover shoot and subsequent printing process:
The magazine was concerned about leaks and took security measures 'every step of the way,' including on the photo shoot, in the VF editorial office and at the printing plant for the upcoming issue. The story and pictures were done on a single computer that was never connected to the Internet, with the assets put on a thumb drive every night and then deleted from the computer. The story was even hand-delivered to the printer.
Additionally, Mashable reports, "The magazine hired security for the shoot and forced people to give up their cell phones to prevent anything from leaking."
But the extra precaution was worth it.
After Vanity Fair's "Call me Caitlyn" cover was released Monday, the image and story went completely viral. #CallMeCaitlyn became the top trending topic on Twitter.
After joining Twitter, @Caitlyn_Jennerbroke President Obama's record to 1 million followers, and her first tweet— the Vanity Fair cover — has been retweeted more than 229,000 times.
And Caitlyn wasn't even compensated for the cover.
"Vanity Fair does not pay for interviews," a rep for the magazine told Business Insider.
SEE ALSO: Here's why Caitlyn Jenner was not paid for the Vanity Fair cover
MORE: Caitlyn Jenner's family and celebrity friends had great reactions to her Vanity Fair cover
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