A GAY teenager from California has been hailed a feminist hero after her high school yearbook quote has gone viral.

Caitlyn Cannon, 18, recently graduated from Oak Hills High School in California and used her yearbook quote as an opportunity to ridicule the absurdity of the gender pay gap.

The quote reads: "I need feminism because I intend on marrying rich and I can't do that if my wife and I are making .75 cent for every dollar a man makes."

Her photo was posted on Twitter on Tuesday by her close friend, Twitter user @casualnosebleed. It has since been retweeted over nine thousand times.

Caitlyn told The Huffington Post: "I was tired of seeing the same old quotes from popular books and movies and authors, and I wanted to call attention to a problem that women face."

"I've never really been ashamed to say that I am gay, so the LGBT aspect was simply who I am."