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8 photos that flip the script when it comes to stereotypes about black women.

Black women are beautiful, complex, and worthy of love. It sounds so simple, and yet here we are. While representations of black women have increased on television and movies, it’s still an exercise in extremes. It’s easy to scan from well-worn negative tropes and stereotypes like the “angry black woman,” or “the baby mama,” or…

By

Erin Canty

Black women are beautiful, complex, and worthy of love. It sounds so simple, and yet here we are.

While representations of black women have increased on television and movies, it’s still an exercise in extremes. It’s easy to scan from well-worn negative tropes and stereotypes like the “angry black woman,” or “the baby mama,” or the “hypersexual black Barbie” to the powerful leading ladies of “Hidden Figures,” “Being Mary Jane,” or “Black-ish,” but there are few stops in between.

What have you done to support Viola Davis today? Double it! Photo by  Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures.

In fact, according to a 2013 report in Essence, negative depictions of black women appear twice as often as positive ones. These representations are demoralizing, and, speaking from personal experience, exhausting and embarrassing. Thankfully, we can look beyond television and film for positive representations in pop culture.

Mickalene Thomas brings bold, powerful representations of black women to fine art.

Based in New York, Thomas is known for her large-scale paintings of domestic interiors and multi-textured, rhinestone-covered portraits of women. Her work is colorful, vibrant, and affirming. Her paintings of women appear as collages, with small pieces accenting and challenging each other. Each woman is more than the sum of her colorful, mystifying parts. Time passes quickly as you attempt to “figure her out,” but you can’t. Therein lies the beauty.

Mickalene Thomas, “Racquel Leaned Back,” 2013. © Mickalene Thomas. Courtesy the artist; Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong; and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Thomas’ photography series, “Muse,” seeks to challenge norms of black beauty.

In the series and book, “Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs,” she portrayed black women in highly stylized, fantastical portraits.

Mickalene Thomas, “A Moment’s Pleasure #2,” 2007, from “Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs” (Aperture, 2015). © Mickalene Thomas. Courtesy the artist, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

With each photograph, Thomas redefines black beauty for herself, pushing back on tired stereotypes and outdated norms. Each one is a stunning act of resistance.

Mickalene Thomas, “Calder Series #2,” 2013, from “Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs” (Aperture, 2015). © Mickalene Thomas. Courtesy the artist and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Thomas drew inspiration from portrait photographers like James Van Der Zee (who beautifully documented the people of the Harlem Renaissance with his pioneering tableau portraits) as well as pro-black modeling campaigns from the 1970s featuring stars like Beverly Johnson.

Mickalene Thomas, “Remember Me,” 2006, from “Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs” (Aperture, 2015). Courtesy the artist; Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong; and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Instead of using professional models for her series, Thomas’ muses include her mother, sisters, lovers, and friends. These visually stunning portraits are a truly shared effort between Thomas and the women who’ve had an impact on her.

Mickalene Thomas, “I’ve Been Good to Me,” 2011, from “Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs” (Aperture, 2015). © Mickalene Thomas. Courtesy the artist, Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

In addition to “Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs,” released in 2015, Thomas has exhibited her work in galleries around the country.

Through March 12, 2017, “Muse” is on display in the Meyerhoff Gallery at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Thomas also curated  a companion exhibit of photography, called “tête-à-tête,” which is also on display at MICA.

Mickalene Thomas, “La Leçon D’amour,” 2008. © Mickalene Thomas. Courtesy the artist; Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong; and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Representations and depictions of black women are vital.

It’s still too easy for little black girls to grow up seeing few positive depictions of black women outside of their families. It’s easy to grow up feeling less than or unworthy when women with curly or kinky hair, women with full lips, and women with rich, dark skin don’t make it to your picture books — or your history books, for that matter.

Mickalene Thomas, Din, “Une Très Belle Négresse #1,” 2012, from “Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs” (Aperture, 2015). © Mickalene Thomas. Courtesy the artist, Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

That’s why we need to shout out and celebrate black women as the superheroes they are.

Black women write laws, start businesses, make art, explore the natural world, build towers, save lives, and teach at local schools. Yes, we are strong, but we are also tender, loving, and vulnerable. Black women are the embodiment of balance and resilience, holding down families, communities, and nine-to-fives, while pushing back against racism, sexism, and privilege. It’s hard work. It breaks you down. But black women, for better or worse, keep grinding.

There is beauty in our strength, but you don’t get to see that. Not nearly enough. And that’s why black representation matters, why black art matters — it’s a love letter to our persistence.

Mickalene Thomas, “Negress With Green Nails,” 2005. © Mickalene Thomas. Courtesy the artist; Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong; and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

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  • Mark Twain’s timeless advice on how to become a critical thinker is still wise over 100 years later
    Photo credit: Canva/Wikipedia – Mark Twain shared his advice on critical thinking.
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    Mark Twain’s timeless advice on how to become a critical thinker is still wise over 100 years later

    Twain explained the simple way to improve critical thinking.

    Emily Shiffer

    Mark Twain is one of the most celebrated authors in American history. Throughout his long career as a writer and lecturer, he instilled his wisdom about life to others through masterpieces (such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) and journal entries alike.

    Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, consistently put down thoughts and ideas to paper that continue to inspire people today, decades after his death in 1910. His quotes encourage people to steep and mull ideas over in their minds, a skill necessary for critical thinking.

    Twain’s works challenged readers to become critical thinkers, and one famous Mark Twain quote on critical thinking remains particularly relevant.

    What is critical thinking?

    Merriam-Webster defines critical thinking as “the act or practice of thinking critically (as by applying reason and questioning assumptions) in order to solve problems, evaluate information, discern biases, etc.”

    It also notes an additional example from First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt: “Today, what we call the Socratic method is a way of teaching that fosters critical thinking, in part by encouraging students to question their own unexamined beliefs, as well as the received wisdom of those around them.”

    The root of critical thinking is to analyze ideas and opinions, taking nothing at face value. It’s something Twain lived out in his own life.

    “Mark Twain was not afraid to reject values he had once accepted, and he thought long and hard about how these transformations happened—or failed to happen,” said Stanford Magazine writer Shelley Fisher Fishkin in 2007.

    Mark Twain’s advice on critical thinking

    According to Twain, this is how one becomes a critical thinker:

    “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

    This quote is cited in Mark Twain’s Notebooks and Journals, Volume II: 1877-1883. According to the University of California Press, it is a conglomeration of 12 of Twain’s notebooks from 1877-1883.

    During this time, he documented three milestone trips he took that deeply impacted him: one to Bermuda, an extended tour of Europe, and his return to his roots on the Mississippi River. 

    For Twain, this quote challenges people to dig deeper about their convictions and popular opinion. While he does not convey a negative connotation towards mainstream (the majority) thinking, he encourages people to use critical thinking through quiet contemplation.

    In his essay titled “Corn-Pone Opinions,” Twain once again challenged conformity. In the essay, Twain “argues that people generally conform their opinions to those held by the majority in their community rather than thinking independently people’s opinions,” per Scribd.

    How to become a critical thinker

    Critical thinking is a practice, and Steve Pearlman, Ph.D., founder of the Critical Thinking Institute, shared his insights in a 2025 Tedx Talk on four steps to help you become a stronger critical thinker.

    “You cannot engage in problem solving at all without making a detailed observation of factors that might matter to the problem, formulating a correct and complex, insightful question about that problem, weighing out different pieces of information as they relate and impact your conclusion to that problem, and ultimately drawing a complex conclusion,” he says.

    1. Analyze and observe
    The first step of critical thinking is not an action at all, but a posture: to analyze and observe what a person sees, hears, and is presented with, according to Pearlman.

    2. Question and clarify
    Rather than making assumptions, Pearlman notes the next step is to ask questions and look for clarity. It’s important to pay attention to any biases or opinions.

    3. Evaluate and examine the evidence
    Next, take a deeper look at evidence and variables. What represented facts can be supported (or not)? Compare, examine and question evidence, notes Pearlman.

    4. Consider alternatives and draw conclusions
    Finally, come to a conclusion. But in that process, he adds that it’s key to weigh alternatives (other possible explanations or viewpoints), using reason-based judgement to come to a decision.

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  • Humans used to have a ‘first sleep’ and ‘second sleep’ at night. Here’s why that changed.
    Photo credit: Fritz Zuber-Buhler/Wikimedia Commons – A painting of a woman waking up.
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    Humans used to have a ‘first sleep’ and ‘second sleep’ at night. Here’s why that changed.

    People relished having an extra two hours in the middle of the night to do chores, pray, or hang out with their loved ones.

    Tod Perry

    One of the unquestioned pieces of health advice we’ve heard for decades is to get eight hours of sleep every night, with the assumption that it should be as close to consecutive as possible. However, a fascinating discovery by historian Roger Ekirch in the early 1990s found that, as far back as recorded history and up until the Industrial Revolution, human beings slept in two distinct phases every night: “first sleep” and “second sleep.”

    The wild thing about Ekirch’s study was that the evidence of biphasic sleep was staring us in the face the whole time; we just turned and looked the other way. Ekirch was researching a book on human nighttime behavior when he came across a 1697 legal document in a London record office. In a deposition by a nine-year-old girl, she revealed that her mother left the house after “first sleep” and was later found dead.

    woamn sleeping, sleep, sleep mask, bed,
    A woman sleeping. Photo credit: Canva

    The first glimpse at “first sleep”

    “I had never heard the expression, and it was expressed in such a way that it seemed perfectly normal,” Ekirch told CNN. “I then began to come across subsequent references in these legal depositions, but also in other sources.”

    Further research revealed that first and second sleep routines date back as far as the 8th century B.C.E.

    Historically, humans flopped onto their beds sometime between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. and slept until around 1 a.m., followed by a period of wakefulness known as “the watch,” which was an incredibly productive time.

    “[The records] describe how people did just about anything and everything after they awakened from their first sleep,” Ekirch told the BBC.

    What you did during the watch depended a lot on your social status. Peasants would take the time to tend to their livestock or perform domestic chores. Religious people took the time to pray and practice their faith, as they would face fewer distractions than during daylight hours. The watch was also a great time for people to relax and talk to one another; for couples, it was the perfect time for intimacy. 

    Two sleeps a night is completely natural

    A 1992 study by Thomas Wehr from the National Institute of Mental Health took a group of volunteers and removed all natural light from their lives so they could live like humans before the discovery of fire. Within weeks, every participant settled into a biphasic sleep pattern. Wehr measured their hormones during the wakeful period in the night and found that the participants produced elevated levels of prolactin, the same hormone released during meditation and after orgasm. This wakeful period wasn’t just a change in their sleep-wake cycle, but it was another state of consciousness altogether.

    Why did human sleep patterns change?

    So what happened? How did we switch from centuries of biphasic sleeping to sleeping in one long, uninterrupted chunk (unless, of course, you have insomnia)? One reason was that in major cities of the industrialized world, street lamps and other lights began to be installed in the 1700s to improve public safety, encouraging people to stay out later at night.

    street lights, germany, lampost, sunset, birds
    Lanterns on the forecourt of a pier at sunset in Germany. Photo credit: Dietmar Rabich/Wikimedia Commons

    The Industrial Revolution also brought about changes in modern work schedules.

    “The answer is really to follow the money,” Ben Reiss, author of Wild Nights: How Taming Sleep Created Our Restless World, told CNN. “Changes in economic organization, when it became more efficient to routinize work and have large numbers of people showing up on factory floors, at the same time and doing as much work in as concentrated fashion as possible.”

    The invention of the alarm clock in 1787 also had a big effect on the average worker’s sleep schedule.

    Ultimately, the history of biphasic sleep shows how much of humanity’s natural patterns have been disrupted by modern technology. One wonders what would happen to our collective mental and physical health if we returned to the way we slept before the Industrial Revolution.

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  • A customer screamed “finish my sandwich” at a Subway employee. Their perfect response went viral for all the right reasons.
    Photo credit: Canva – A cashier rings up a customer.
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    A customer screamed “finish my sandwich” at a Subway employee. Their perfect response went viral for all the right reasons.

    “You need to respect me.”

    Adam Albright-Hanna

    A woman walked into a Subway and left without her sandwich. Not because they were out of bread, or because the restaurant closed. Because the employee behind the counter decided she didn’t deserve one.

    TikTok user Charlie (@charlie_kincade) happened to be in the store when it happened and captured the whole thing on video. It has since been viewed millions of times.

    The clip opens mid-argument, with a woman in a pink and white striped shirt demanding that an employee finish making her sandwich. The employee’s response was simple and direct: “No, I won’t finish it because you need to respect me.”

    @charlie_kincade

    I felt so bad for the server. She was doing her job and this woman started yelling at her. #KarenGoneWild #SheWasHangry #RespectYourServers #TheAudacityOfThisWoman #ThisIsSadAF

    ♬ original sound – Charlie

    The customer escalated. “Well, you need to respect your customers. I’ll tell them you don’t respect your customers. Would you finish my sandwich?”

    The employee said nothing. Instead, she turned to Charlie and asked what she’d like to order. A cold cut trio. While that sandwich was being made, another employee greeted the next customer in line. The woman in the striped shirt stood there, increasingly incredulous, shouting “Finish my sandwich!” into a store that had simply moved on without her.

    She demanded they call a supervisor. Nobody called a supervisor. Eventually she walked out.

    “I felt so bad for the server,” Charlie wrote in her caption. “She was doing her job and this woman started yelling at her.”

    The comments disagreed with the “felt so bad” framing — they were mostly thrilled. “Ms. Subway, that was the best ignore job I’ve ever seen in my life! She couldn’t believe it,” wrote one viewer. “I used to be a fast food worker and politely ignoring rude customers works every time,” added another. “It takes two to argue. They eventually just leave.”

    Others noted the employee had found something more effective than any confrontation: she stated her position once, clearly, and then simply declined to have the argument the customer wanted to have. There was nothing left to escalate against.

    Rude customer behavior in food service has been well documented since the pandemic. A 2021 survey found that 62 percent of restaurant employees had experienced emotional abuse or disrespect from customers, and a separate poll found that 39 percent of food service workers had quit specifically due to customer hostility and harassment.

    The Subway employee in the video did not quit. She finished making Charlie’s sandwich.

    You can follow Charlie (@charlie_kincade) on TikTok for more lifestyle content.

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  • Jennifer Garner worked as a restaurant hostess at 22. Her confession about how seating decisions were made is uncomfortable to read.
    Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons and Canva – Jennifer Garner and a recording studio.
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    Jennifer Garner worked as a restaurant hostess at 22. Her confession about how seating decisions were made is uncomfortable to read.

    “If we put a circle next to their name, they got seated in Siberia.” Jennifer Garner just confirmed what a lot of us suspected about restaurant seating.

    Adam Albright-Hanna

    Before Jennifer Garner was a household name, she was a 22-year-old hostess at a restaurant in New York City. She was seating people, managing waits, and doing something else she’d kept quiet about for a long time.

    On the Dish Podcast with broadcaster Nick Grimshaw and Michelin-starred chef Angela Hartnett, released March 4, Garner finally laid it out. “You put the beautiful people at certain tables,” she said. “You put celebrities at certain tables. And if somebody even mildly famous walked in…”

    The system had a name for the people who didn’t meet the standard. When Garner and her colleagues wrote down reservation names, some of them got a circle next to them. “If we put a circle next to them, they got seated in Siberia,” she said.

    Hartnett confirmed this wasn’t unique to Garner’s restaurant. In high-end dining establishments, she said, the word “Siberia” is industry shorthand for the section where less desirable customers are quietly deposited — away from the windows, away from the room’s natural center of gravity, and away from the diners the restaurant actually wants other people to see.

    One of Garner’s clearest memories involves Steve Martin, who was a regular and had a very specific preference: table five. If someone was already sitting at table five when Martin arrived, Garner had to move them. Mid-meal, mid-date, mid-whatever they were doing.

    “I would have to go to those people and say, ‘I am moving you to the bar, and I’m going to buy you some calamari and that’s going to be on me,’” she said, describing the awkwardness of being a 22-year-old telling a couple on a date that they were being relocated because someone more famous had shown up.

    Garner called the whole practice “merchandizing” the restaurant — treating the dining room the way a retailer treats a window display, positioning the most appealing elements where they’d be seen.

    Grimshaw’s response, on hearing the Siberia detail for the first time: “I’m going to rethink every restaurant I’ve ever been in.”

    The phenomenon isn’t just anecdotal. A 2016 Channel 4 documentary investigation called Tricks of the Restaurant Trade sent groups of models into three upscale London restaurants. In each case, the models were seated at prime front-of-house tables. When co-presenter Adam Pearson, who has neurofibromatosis, a condition that causes visible tumors on the face and skin, attempted the same exercise, he was seated in a corner at the first restaurant, initially ignored at the second, and turned away entirely at the third.

    Research has also found an appearance premium for the servers themselves. One study found that attractive servers earn roughly $1,261 more per year in tips than unattractive ones.

    Garner, for her part, said her hostess days were more psychologically taxing than almost anything that came after. “I’ve had more nightmares about my days as a hostess than I have had actor’s nightmares,” she said. “And I’ve had a lot of actor’s nightmares.”

    You can follow Nick Grimshaw (@nicholasgrimshaw) on Instagram for more celebrity content.

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  • Why do breakups hurt so much? Researcher put people in MRI scanners to find out. Her answer explains everything.
    Photo credit: Canva – A neurologist looks at brain scans.
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    Why do breakups hurt so much? Researcher put people in MRI scanners to find out. Her answer explains everything.

    “Romantic love is an addiction — a perfectly wonderful addiction when it’s going well, and a perfectly horrible addiction when it’s going badly.”

    Adam Albright-Hanna

    Helen Fisher spent decades asking a question most scientists avoided: what is love, exactly, and what is it doing to your brain? By the time she died in August 2024 at 79, she had an answer, and it turns out heartbreak makes a lot more sense once you understand it.

    Fisher was a biological anthropologist and senior research fellow at the Kinsey Institute, best known for pioneering the use of brain imaging to study romantic love. She noted early in her research that love appears in every human society ever studied, and across 170 cultures, there is no example of a society without it. What varies is the expression. What doesn’t vary is the experience.

    To understand what love actually does to the brain, Fisher and her colleagues scanned 17 people who described themselves as newly and madly in love. When shown photographs of their partners, a specific region deep at the base of the brain lit up: the ventral tegmental area, or VTA. This is the area that produces dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with wanting, motivation, focus, and craving. It is, Fisher noted, the same region that activates during the rush from cocaine.

    Romantic love, she concluded, is not an emotion. It is a drive — a chemical push toward another person that functions like an addiction when it’s working, and like withdrawal when it isn’t.

    Then she scanned the people who had been dumped.

    All 15 showed activity in the same VTA. The drive, the craving, the wanting was all still there. But two additional regions also lit up. One was associated with calculating gains and losses, the part of the brain that runs obsessive post-mortems, asking what went wrong and whether it could be fixed. The other was associated with deep attachment. In the recently published obituary in The Telegraph, Fisher’s research was described as showing activity also in areas linked to physical pain, risk-taking, obsessive-compulsive behavior, and anger. All of this, running simultaneously, in someone who just wants to stop thinking about a person they no longer have.

    “Romantic love is an addiction,” Fisher said. “A perfectly wonderful addiction when it’s going well, and a perfectly horrible addiction when it’s going badly.”

    One person who found Fisher’s framing genuinely useful was Dessa, a Minneapolis-based rapper. She had tried and failed to get over an ex-boyfriend and was frustrated by her own inability to move on despite wanting to. “It really bothered me that, no matter how much effort I tried to expend in trying to solve this problem, I was stuck,” she told NPR. Fisher’s explanation of the VTA gave her a new angle. “That you could objectively measure and observe ‘love,’ that had never occurred to me before.”

    Dessa went on to try neurofeedback, a technique in which participants learn to consciously alter their own brain wave activity. A study published in Neuron found that participants trained to modulate their VTA activity were eventually able to do so without any external stimulus, effectively learning to turn down the volume on the craving.

    It isn’t a cure. Fisher was careful about what she claimed. But understanding that the pain of heartbreak is neurologically structured, that it has a physical location in the brain and follows identifiable patterns, at least makes it feel less like a personal failing and more like a process that, with time, tends to resolve.

    Fisher finished the manuscript for her final book five days before she died.

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  • She thought the waiter was just bringing a birthday dessert. What he said when he relit the candles made her sob.
    canva.com/photosA waiter brings a woman a piece of birthday cake.
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    She thought the waiter was just bringing a birthday dessert. What he said when he relit the candles made her sob.

    He didn’t know her story. He got it exactly right.

    Adam Albright-Hanna

    Upworthy Staff

    Jada Jones hadn’t planned anything special. She was at a restaurant in Los Angeles with her friend Shikha, having a casual meal and a casual conversation with their waiter, Phae’l, who had recently moved from Jamaica. She mentioned she was an actor. She mentioned her birthday was in two days.

    That was enough.

    Phae’l brought out a birthday dessert with candles. Jada smiled, made a wish, and blew them out. Then he relit the candles and paused.

    “Red is for who you lost yesterday,” he said. “Yellow is to celebrate your birthday as bright as the sun today. And green is what you are about to prosper in the world.”

    Then: “You are about to be the best actor in the world.”

    Jada started crying.

    She shared the video on Instagram on March 30, 2026 under her handle @jadajonesss, and the caption explained something Phae’l hadn’t known when he chose those colors. Red was the color associated with her partner Chris’s mother, who had recently passed away. Red was even in her username. The family wore red to her funeral, which took place on Jada’s birthday.

    kindness, birthday, restaurant, grief, viral video
    A woman blows out her birthday candles. Photo credit: Canva

    He hadn’t known any of that. He was a stranger who had listened to a few minutes of conversation and offered something back that happened to land exactly where she needed it. Past, present, and future, bound up in three candles at a restaurant table.

    “What I thought was just a free birthday dessert,” the on-screen text in her video reads, “turned out to be a moment I will never forget.”

    Jada said she couldn’t stop crying, kept thanking him, and hugged him before she left.

    For more delightful content, follow @jadajonesss on Instagram.

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  • Man on Delta flight ‘forced’ to babysit stranger’s kid for four hours. He earned major karma.
    Photo credit: Canva Photos – A guy said he found himself sitting next to a young boy on a plane and had no choice but to babysit.
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    Man on Delta flight ‘forced’ to babysit stranger’s kid for four hours. He earned major karma.

    He wasn’t happy about it, but he did the kind thing.

    Evan Porter

    Not a week goes by where we aren’t treated to a story of a fare-paying airline passenger being asked to change seats with a parent who’s trying to sit next to their kids. People take sides. Outrage builds. The parents are labeled entitled and thoughtless, while the people who refuse to yield the seats they paid for sometimes get harassed for their perceived unkindness.

    Meanwhile, it’s the kids who are stuck in the middle, seated away from their parents and surrounded by strangers for hours at a time. One recent story with this familiar start took a surprisingly heartwarming, if frustrating, turn.

    Man pays extra for aisle seat before mom asks him to switch

    A social media user took to a Delta discussion subreddit to share his story, aptly titled “What would you have done?”

    The 30-year-old man describes how he had paid extra for an aisle seat due to his size. When he sat down, however, he was surprised to find a small boy seated next to him in the middle seat.

    planes, airplanes, airport, travel, etiquette, culture, kids, parenting, controversy, debate, plane etiquette, airport etiquette, reddit
    A man on a Delta flight was surprised to find a young boy sitting next to him without a parent. Photo Credit: Canva Photos

    At first, he was excited. Kids don’t take up much room and he wouldn’t have to share the armrest. In air travel terms, that’s a win.

    Then, a tap on the shoulder. “His mom was a few rows back also in a middle seat,” the man wrote. “She asked me to swap seats with her so she could sit next to her son.”

    The poster says he politely declined, and no one could blame him. However, that left everyone involved in a pretty uncomfortable position. The cost of the man keeping the aisle seat he paid for was having an unaccompanied boy (around 5-8 years old, he says) sitting next to him for the duration of the four hour flight.

    Kind stranger steps up—even if he wasn’t happy about it

    The man says he didn’t raise a stink when the mom then asked if he could show the boy how to use the seatback display with movies and games.

    And help him order snacks.

    “I basically ended up having to babysit the kid for 4 straight hours, endlessly begging me to play games with him on the screen and constantly begging for more snacks , food etc. and then he just slept on my shoulder the last 60-90 minutes ish.”

    “I tried to be the nice guy so I never said anything, just made my flight experience horrible honestly … We got that boy 4 rounds of snacks and played every single game on the screen.”

    He adds that the mom thanked him for his kindness at the end of the flight.

    Commenters give kudos for kindness

    Though the OP was frustrated with having to grin-and-bear the experience, plenty of commenters chimed into applaud him for doing exactly that:

    “thank you for being kind to the boy”

    “You were truly a good sport!”

    “You are a good man. As a parent I appreciate how you handled it. It’s easy to judge the mom but you never know the circumstances that lead to them being on that flight and separated.”

    It no doubt meant the world to the boy to have a friendly face next to him, with his mom seated several rows away. It’s unfortunate that the man’s own flight wasn’t as relaxing as he had planned, but he earned himself major good karma points by stepping up and making the young boy comfortable throughout the duration of the flight.

    Why is this still happening in 2026?

    While some commenters opined that the mom was at fault for the mix-up and even may have somehow “arranged it” to get a free babysitter, the idea is laughable.

    No parent wants their 5-year-old sitting next to a random man they’ve never met. And, like any human, parents sometimes have to book last minute or find themselves with surprise seating arrangements courtesy of an airline blunder.

    The more important question is why minor children continue to be seated away from their parents on many flights.

    The U.S Department of Transportation has recommended and encouraged all airlines to adopt better policies in this area. The DOT urges airlines “to guarantee that young children are seated adjacent to an accompanying adult without charging any additional fee.”

    However, according to the agency’s own dashboard, only about half of the major U.S. carriers offer such a guarantee. Delta is one notable name that still allows young children to be placed in seats away from their guardians. That’s why the DOT has proposed to make the “strong suggestion” into a formal law that would carry penalties for airlines that don’t comply.

    It’s important to remember that people, kids or otherwise, don’t necessarily end up getting stuck in middle seats by themselves because of laziness. Airlines do a lot of sleight-of-hand in how they categorize seats. “Basic Economy,” the most affordable option, sometimes means middle-seat only. The new proposal, if enacted, would put an end to the confusion.

    The proposal, though, is still just that: a proposal. It will need Congressional approval to be enacted into law.

    In the meantime, we can only count on two things: families planning ahead as best they can, and a little kindness and empathy from passengers like the man who shared this story. As frustrated and annoyed as he was by the whole ordeal, he did the right thing, and deserves a little kudos for so admirably stepping up to the plate.

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  • Hero principal crowned prom king after he was shot tackling school shooting suspect
    Photo credit: GoFundMe/Braheem Alchalabi – Pauls Valley High School Principal Kirk Moore.
    ,

    Hero principal crowned prom king after he was shot tackling school shooting suspect

    Oklahoma principal Kirk Moore earned his crown.

    Emily Shiffer

    A true hero was crowned prom king in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. Kirk Moore, principal of Pauls Valley High School, was recognized by his students for his heroism in stopping a suspected school shooter just a few weeks prior.

    On April 7, 20-year-old Victor Hawkins, a former student, entered the school with a gun and intended to carry out a mass shooting inspired by the Columbine school shooting, according to court documents reviewed by KOCO-TV. However, he was stopped by Moore, who courageously tackled Hawkins and held him down in a feat of strength while wrestling the weapon from his hands.

    In the process, shots were fired, and Moore was hit in the leg. He was treated at a local hospital and released two days later.

    In a statement released shortly after the shooting, Moore expressed gratitude to his community and supporters.

    “Words alone cannot begin to express my gratitude for the outpouring of love and support I have received from the Pauls Valley community,” he said. “I am forever grateful for the support I am receiving from those close to me, as well as new friends who have wished me well in their prayers. This support is the reason I am healthy and recovering today.”

    He added, “Like so many educators around the country, we prepare for these events through training and careful assessment of the threats. I am grateful that my instincts and training, as well as God’s hand, were available to me.”

    Pauls Valley Police Chief Don May also acknowledged Moore’s courage.

    “It doesn’t surprise me the actions that he took, but it is amazing, the actions that he took,” May said, according to NBC News. “There’s not a doubt in my mind that he saved kids’ lives.”

    To help cover his medical expenses and rehabilitation, a GoFundMe campaign was started for Moore.

    Principal Moore crowned prom king

    In a video shared on TikTok, Moore receives a hero’s welcome after being announced as prom king. The DJ tells the crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen, our king…Kirk Moore!”

    @cbsnews

    Principal Kirk Moore, the high school principal who tackled a gunman in an Oklahoma school’s lobby and stopped a potential mass shooting was crowned prom king by the students, who voted to honor him for his heroic actions. #Oklahoma #schoolshooting #highschool #principal #prom

    ♬ original sound – cbsnews

    The DJ plays “Hero,” Nickelback’s fitting hit, as Moore enters the frame, and his students go wild with cheers and applause. He high-fives them as he walks by, and a crown is placed on his head.

    His students are ecstatic, jumping up and down and screaming for him. Moore appears emotional and hugs the prom queen as they pose for photos together.

    @oz11201

    #principalhero #PaulsValley #hero #promking #KirkMoore

    ♬ original sound – Oz

    Viewers react

    The emotional video also had a deep impact on viewers, who sang Moore’s praises:

    “Because of him… ALLLLLLLLLLLL the kids were able to attend!!!!”

    “That’s awesome his kids obviously love him! Outfitting, considering the circumstances!”

    “The Pauls Valley High Student Body has spoken! Prom King Legend…Kirk Moore.”

    “And THIS is how legends are made! ❤️”

    “This is hopecore 😩🥹❤️”

    “Yes sir!!! So deserving. Absolute HERO.”

    “What a beautiful way to honor a beautiful man! I’m sitting here crying, can’t imagine what his students and their parents are feeling!!”

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