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Barbie's awesome new career is a welcomed sign of the times.

Barbie's had a multitude of jobs in her lifetime. Her latest career is inspiring kids to dream of a future in STEM.

She's been an architect and a teacher. She's been a firefighter, a lifeguard, and a presidential candidate. She's even been a Canadian Mountie.

But there's one thing that Barbie hasn't been ā€” a robotics engineer. Mattel's newest doll is changing all that.

Barbie's latest iteration has an important goal: Get young girls to grow an interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

While the doll has some cool accessories right in the box ā€” goggles, a laptop, a cute little robot toy ā€” its most meaningful feature is a suite of coding lessons targeted toward teaching kids how to use logic and critical thinking to solve problems.

Mattel has also partnered with Black Girls Code, an organization that's focused on exposing girls and young women of color to the "digital space" in order to transform them into the leaders of tomorrow. The toy manufacturer will be providing the org with a grant of support and enough dolls to give away at robotics expos hosted by Black Girls Code around the country.

Photo via Mattel.

Inspiring young women to explore careers in STEM is more important than ever.

Although more and more girls are becoming interested in working in the tech sector, women and other marginalized groups are still greatly underrepresented in the field.

According to recent stats, women make up 47% of the workforce in the U.S. but only hold 24% of jobs in STEM. And though women make up almost half of all college graduates, only 25% hold degrees in STEM fields, a problem that's less about "career choice" and much more about the fact that young women haven't been traditionally as encouraged to pursue degrees in tech as young men.

As two girls point out in a new ad campaign for Barbie: "If girls can't see women doing these jobs, how will we know we can?"

The doll will be available in four different ethnicities ā€” so "as many girls as possible see themselves," according to Lisa McKnight, Barbie's general manager and senior vice president ā€” and her fashion choices will authentically mirror what an actual engineer would wear while on the job . That means jeans and sneakers as opposed to slinky evening gowns and high heels.

Kids are already loving the new doll.

Speaking to CBS, 15-year-old Kimora Oliver, who's been working with Black Girls Code, gushed over the fact that the new doll looks like her and shares her interests.

"I remember when I was younger and I used to have Barbies and they used to have a purses and dogs. I would be like, 'I want to be just like that! I want to get this purse and everything,'" Oliver said. "I think other girls will see this and be like, 'I want to get in tech too!'"

Let's hope that excitement for STEM spreads through young girls worldwide!

We were not compensated to write this article ā€” we'd tell you if we were! ā€” we just really loved this doll and what it stands for.

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5 ways people are going "All In" this week

From the silly to the sentimental, there are so many ways people like to go ā€œall inā€ on something. Here are our five favorite examples this week.

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When you hear the words ā€œall in,ā€ what do you think? You might picture a color-coordinated, fairy-themed surprise proposal that took months to create, or maybe you think of a singer who went on stage and nailed the perfect high note in front of everyone (like this girl). Whatever you picture, the idea is the same: Going ā€œall inā€ means doing something with total commitmentā€”literally giving it your ā€œallā€ and going completely over the top. No second guessing, no holding backā€”just full-throttle enthusiasm with some creativity and flair thrown in. Thatā€™s how we get those viral internet moments we canā€™t stop watching.

When people decide to go ā€œall in,ā€ something special usually happens as a result, and weā€™re here to show you how. This week, weā€™ve found the very best examples of people going ā€œall inā€ across the Internetā€”moments where passion, creativity, and commitment take center stage. Follow along and feel inspired.

Hamilton superfansĀ 

@itz.unique POV: You seen Hamilton the first night in theaters #hamiltonmusical #fyp #relatable #hamilton ā™¬ original sound - Uniii šŸ˜œ

You already know we love a good Hamilton reenactment. This past weekend, though, Hamilton fans took their love for the musical to a whole other level. As theatres released the filmed stage production in honor of the musicalā€™s tenth anniversary on Broadway, theatre kids everywhere showed up in costume and belted out every single word (itā€™s okay to sing in the theatre this time, by the way! Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda totally said we could). Some theatres sang along quietly, some chimed in loudly at the emotional parts, and some theatres truly went all in, staging elaborate reproductions of the scenes in the aisles, in time with the music. A bunch of theatre kids totally nerding out together, having fun, and celebrating good art? We love to see it.

Everyone's love of Pumpkin Spice Lattes

@deangelodbyrd Itā€™s hereeee šŸ˜‚šŸ‚ #pumpkinspicelatte #fall2025 #funnyvideo #silly #funnydance @Starbucks ā™¬ original sound - DeAngelo

You know it's fall when you start seeing those plastic cups everywhere. That's rightā€”it's Pumpkin Spice Latte season. Everyone is drinking them. Everyone is posting about them. Everyone is figuring out the perfect PSL pairing, whether that's pumpkin spice matcha lattes or just drinking a PSL curled up on the couch watching some spooky movies. (How about all of the above?)

Here's our recommendation: Pumpkin spice lattes pair perfectly with All In snack barsā€”specifically the Madagascar Vanilla + Almond option. It's got honey, it's got pumpkin seeds, and it's even got tons of fiber so you're getting some nutrition along with all the deliciousness. Don't take our word for it, though: Click here to try it yourself (for free).

This rendition of the Happy Birthday song

@kamoramakaylee Happy 84th birthday to our dad #tbt ā™¬ original sound - Kamora

Thereā€™s singing the Happy Birthday song, and then thereā€™s singing the Happy Birthday song. This group of sisters did the latter. For their fatherā€™s birthday, they presented him with a cake (aww) and then launched into an embellished musical production of the last two lines that would put Whitney Houston to shame. The girls truly went all in, but perhaps the best part of this entire video is their dad,sitting wide-eyed at the table and gritting his teeth until the performance is over. (ā€œHeā€™s fine,ā€ someone said in the comments section. ā€œHe lost his hearing ten birthdays ago.ā€)

Llama costumes

@kristeninmn Some of the costumes from the Minnesota State Fairā€™s 4-H Llama-Alpaca Costume Contest! #minnesotastatefair #mnstatefair #exploremn #onlyinmn #stpaulminnesota ā™¬ Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra

Every year at the Minnesota State Fair, the 4-H Llama-Alpaca Costume Contest steals the show. In it, participants dress their llamas in wildly imaginative costumesā€”everything from a sea anemone to a bucket of popcorn to Buzz Lightyear from the movie Toy Storyā€”and transform the livestock barn into a whimsical runway. Every glittery cape, hand-painted prop, or themed outfit is a testament to their creativity, their time and effort, and most importantly their love for animals. All of it is on full display and itā€™s seriously impressive work. You can tell when it comes to their animals (and creativity), Minnesotans donā€™t hold back.

This dog who's totally faking it.Ā 

@binkythechichi2

The king of drama

ā™¬ original sound - cass

Okay, you have to give this guy some respectā€”he really doesnā€™t want his owner to go to work and heā€™s found an absolutely genius way of showing it. As soon as her alarm goes off in the morning, TikTok creator Cassidy Butler shared that her chihuahua Binky runs to the front door and actually starts faking injuries to get her to stay home with him (and sometimes, she admits, it works). Binky is absolutely committed, holding up his paw as though it were injured, plus shivering and even squinting one eye to show just how injured he is. Heā€™s almost perfectly convincingā€”until Cassidy offers to take him outside to play and he momentarily breaks character. Oops! Still, we respect his dedication to the craft.

Snag your free (!!) snack bars here while this deal lasts. Just pick up a box at Sprouts and text a pic of your receipt to get it for free. Enoy!

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A hundred years ago, everyone wore hats. In 1960, they suddenly stopped. Here's why.

Old footage from the '50s shows men, women, and children wearing hats everywhere they go.

via Warmbru Curiosity/YouTube

When did everyone stop wearing hats?

It was everywhere. Men, women, and even children did it every time they left the house. If you see old newsreel footage of men in the office or on commuter trains from the advent of the motion picture camera to the early ā€˜60s, nearly everyone is wearing a hat. Hats were just as common for women in that era. For a woman to go out without a hat in the first half of the 20th century was akin to going out without clothes.

The funny thing is that everyoneā€™s headgear is so similar in the old-timey footage that it makes previous generations look like big-time conformists. Then, in the early ā€˜60s, everything changed, and men and women started to go out in public with their hair exposed. Why did such a big aspect of fashion seem to change overnight?

Warmbru Curiosity investigated the question recently in a popular YouTube video. Warmbruā€™s channel is a lighthearted look at some of the more unusual people and events from our history and how they have influenced the world in which we live.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Why did people stop wearing hats?

Warmbru says fashion changed dramatically after World War II, when people in developed countries began to care less about expressing their social status. ā€œThis was especially true among the younger generation the rise of youth culture in the 1950s and 1960s emphasized rebellion against traditional norms, including formal dress codes,ā€ the YouTuber says.

Mad Men, Don Draper, Jon Hamm, hats, mens fashion, men's hats, 1950s Don Draper from AMC's "Mad Men" Image via "Mad Men" AMC

Another big reason for the change in fashion was technology. Cars became the preferred mode of transportation for many after World War II and indoor environments became more hospitable. ā€œPeople spent far less time exposed to the elements as people increasingly moved to urban areas and started using cars,ā€ Warmbru says. ā€œThe practicality of wearing hats diminishes. Hats can be cumbersome in cars and on public transport, improvements in heating and air conditioning reduce the need for hats to provide warmth.ā€

Warmbru adds that President John F. Kennedy, elected in 1960, rarely wore a hat and his decision to go bareheaded became associated with modernity. Further, in 1963, the mop-topped Beatles proudly flaunted their hatless heads as they shook them while singing, ā€œWooooo.ā€ Hat-wearing among women began to decline around the same time as the restrictive and complex headgear clashed with the burgeoning womenā€™s liberation movement.

Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, hats, men, men's fashion, 1960's, 1950's John F. Kennedy with his family Image via Wikicommons

The decline in hat purchases meant that manufacturers closed and the headgear became harder to come by. This reduced availability further contributed to the decline in hat-wearing. As fewer people wore hats, there became a greater demand for high-quality hair products and services. ā€œWhy spend a fortune at the hairdressers or the barbers just to cover the end result with a hat?ā€ Warmbru asks.

Ultimately, there were many reasons why people stopped wearing hats. It appears that it was a combination of technology, influential people such as Kennedy and The Beatles, and the overwhelming mood of change that swept most of the Western world in the 1960s. But if one thing is true about fashion, it goes in cycles. So, it seems that hats may be ready for their big comeback.

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

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How humanitarian parole programs help migrant families in crisis

Through her work as a humanitarian parole sponsor, Sandra McAnany has helped uplift more than a dozen Latin American migrants and changed lives in the process.

Sandra visiting Eā€™s family in Georgia (2023)

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Levi Strauss Foundation

Sandra McAnany isnā€™t one to sit on the sidelines. A 58-year-old grandmother from Wisconsin, McAnany spends her days teaching soft skills classes to adults and spending time with her family. Outside the classroom, however, sheā€™s taken on a role thatā€™s helping people in a big way: serving as a humanitarian parole sponsor and personally taking on the financial responsibility of supporting families fleeing from persecution, violence, and instability.

Since 2023, McAnany has welcomed 17 migrantsā€”11 adults and six children through the CHNV humanitarian parole program, which allows individuals and families from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to live and work temporarily in the United States with the support of an approved sponsor.

ā€œEveryone has their own views and perspectives, but every person I sponsored is thriving and doing well here,ā€ McAnany said.

McAnany didnā€™t know any of the parolees before sponsoring them, but she had a commitment to helping families from Venezuela specifically, hoping to reunite them with their families who were already living in the United States. After ā€œpraying a lot along the wayā€ and communicating with the applicants through WhatsApp, she decided to apply as a sponsor and help them settle into the United States.

ā€œI have a bedroom and a bathroom in my basement,ā€ McAnany says. ā€œMy door is open and will always be open for any of the people I sponsored, if they ever have a need for housing.ā€

Sandraā€™s granddaughter, Eā€™s daughter, and another friend at an indoor park (July 2025)

At the time, McAnany decided to volunteer as a sponsor to make friends and help other people through hardship. Now, her mission has grown: Seeing how humanitarian parole programs have changed her parole beneficiariesā€™ livesā€”as well as her ownā€”for the better.

Humanitarian parole: A long history

Humanitarian parole programs are nothing new. Since 1952, both Democratic and Republican administrations have used humanitarian parole to provide a safer, lawful pathway for noncitizens to enter and live temporarily in the United States. In recent years, through different programs, people from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti, and other countries have been able to come to the U.S. to escape urgent crises in their own countries, such as political instability or war.

Coming to the United States through humanitarian parole is no easy feat. The process has its own strict criteria and involves extensive applications and vetting for both beneficiaries and their sponsors. Parolees donā€™t need to qualify for any other immigration benefit like asylum, but they need to meet the standard for humanitarian parole and successfully pass vetting requirements.

According to Refugees International, 532,000 people have been granted parole through the CHNV program.

A life-changing experience

From the moment she met her first parole beneficiaries at the airportā€”two families ā€”McAnany already knew it would be a life-changing experience. ā€œIt immediately felt like family, like we were lifelong friends,ā€ she said. But she could also sense that it was a culture shock for the parolees. On the way home from the airport, McAnany pulled into a nearby McDonald's and encouraged them to order dinner. Hearing the word ā€œBig Mac,ā€ the families smiled in recognition.

Despite the culture shock, McAnanyā€™s parole beneficiaries had to adapt quickly to life in the United States. Once they were settled, McAnany worked ā€œnonstopā€ to help the families acclimate to their new lives, answering questions about school and vaccinations while also helping them create resumes, search for jobs, and find English classes online.

It was through this process that McAnany realized just how resilient people could be, and was amazed ā€œnot only how hard it was for individuals to leave their loved ones behind, but the amount of work they did to come to the country and remain here.ā€ McAnany also realized how fortunate she was to have her own family living nearby. ā€œI canā€™t imagine any one of us leaving a country and being apart for an unknown length of time,ā€ she said.

Eventually, and as circumstances changedā€”one of the parolees found a new job in another city, for example, and was able to move out. But no matter the length of time they spent with each other, McAnany says that with every parolee they formed a bond built for life. One woman, who she refers to as ā€˜E,ā€™ has even become ā€œlike an adopted daughter.ā€ McAnany has traveled to Georgia, where E now lives, three times to visit her.

Uncertain ground: Whatā€™s next for humanitarian parole programs

Despite being a critical part of immigration policy in the United States for the last 73 years, humanitarian parole programs are under threat. Immigrant justice nonprofits Justice Action Center and Human Rights First are currently suing the federal government to protect humanitarian parole programs and allow parole beneficiaries to remain in the country for the duration of their parole. McAnany is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

One of the ladies Sandra sponsored from Venezuela and her partner during Sandraā€™s first visit to meet her (December 2023)

Participating in the lawsuit has only further bolstered McAnanyā€™s belief in and support for humanitarian parole programs. She hopes the lawsuit will be successful, she says, so that parole beneficiaries and their families can finally have some stability.

ā€œWe donā€™t know what the future is,ā€ she says, ā€œbut I want to be optimistic and hopeful that every person I sponsored will be able to stay here safely in the U.S. and continue to thrive.ā€

This article is part of Upworthyā€™s ā€œThe Threads Between U.S.ā€ series that highlights what we have in common thanks to the generous support from the Levi Strauss Foundation, whose grantmaking is committed to creating a culture of belonging.


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Parenting

Boomers often forget what it's like having young kids. Millennials call it 'gramnesia.'

"You never had tantrums when you were little!"

@millennialmomtherapist/Instagram, Photo credit: Canva

Millennials, are you victims of "gramnesia"?

If there's one thing we're really good at in 2025, it's giving specific phenomena a catchy, viral name. Itā€™s funny how once a sort of abstract experience gets a name attached to it, it suddenly becomes much easier to understand and relate to. The Internetā€”and primarily TikTokā€”has been great for that. Sure, things get out of hand quite easily (like the overuse of ā€œtherapy speakā€), but there has also been quite a lot of validation and meaningful conversations that have spawned from these overnight buzzwords.

Case and point: ā€œGramnesia.ā€

ā€œGramnesia,ā€ which combines the words ā€œgrandparentā€ and ā€œamnesia,ā€ has been popping up on Reddit discussions for a while now, though the coiner of the term seems unknown. But only recently has it been really gaining traction.

Back in June of 2024, Maryland-based therapist and mom Allie McQuaid, really brought ā€œgramnesiaā€ to the forefront of the conversation when she made an Instagram video all about it.

ā€œI just heard this term called ā€˜gramnesiaā€™ when grandparents forget what itā€™s really like having young kids and I canā€™t stop thinking about how accurate it is,ā€ she said in the clip.

In her caption, McQuaid shared how so many of her clients would get ā€œslammedā€ by their parents about how different (i.e. ā€œeasierā€) raising kids was for them whenever they brought their own children around.

These hyperbolic memories are, as McQuaid put it, so ā€œridiculousā€ that they've clearly ā€œforgot[ten] what it was really like in those early years of parenthood.ā€

Some examples of ā€œgramnesiaā€ statements could be:

ā€œYou never had tantrums when you were a kidā€

ā€œI potty trained you before you were oneā€

ā€œYou were always happy to eat whatever we fed you.ā€

ā€œYou were spanked and turned out fine!ā€

Clearly, McQuaidā€™s video struck a chord, because it wasnā€™t long before people begin chiming in with their own stories of gramnesia:

ā€œMy MIL, over the years, loved to act like her children were perfect growing up. I love to tell the stories of her son (my hubby) getting into all kinds of trouble as a kid - oh the shock.ā€

ā€œ*Baby makes any kind of noise* Grandma: "Oh they must be teething!" Me : "Umm she's 4 months old, She isn't teething yet - just has feelings and is you know - A BABY" grandma: ā€˜well my kids had all their teeth by 4 monthsā€™ šŸ˜šŸ¤Øā€

ā€œ5 months old and not sleeping through the night? Did you try rice cereal? Baby not walking ? Rice cereal. Baby not in college yet? Have you tried rice cereal?ā€

ā€œUgh my dad literally just said this to me last weekā€¦ ā€˜I donā€™t remember you guys having this many tantrumsā€™ā€¦ šŸ™„ right after my boys were upset.ā€


parenting, conflict, kids, parents, gramnesia These moments may be harder to remember. Image via Canva

McQuaid posited some theories as to why gramnesia exists in the first place.

One is that it could simply be the natural tendency to have a cognitive bias which puts past experiences in a more positive light than they actually were, aka having ā€œeuphoric recall.ā€ As she told Huffpost, we tend to have a ā€œfoggier memory of how things truly wereā€ as we get older, ā€œespecially if the experience we had was particularly difficult or even traumatic.ā€

Plus, the first few years of parenthood are often such a blur anyway. McQuaid herself admitted that ā€I even have a hard time remembering the first year of motherhood, and that was only four years ago.ā€

In addition, McQuaid theorized that gramnesia exists because previous generations ā€œwere not given space to express emotions or indicate that they were struggling to adjust to motherhood.ā€ Honestly, a sound hypothesis.

And for the frustrated folks itching to confront their boomer parents about this, McQuaid suggests picking your battles.

ā€œCheck your capacity if you have the space or energy to even consider bringing up your frustration with your parents,ā€ she told Huffpost. ā€œYou are likely in the throes of parenting right now, and maybe all you can do is smile and nod after hearing for the 100th time how ā€˜you were never like this.ā€™ā€

However, if you are determined to bring it up and set the record straight, McQuaid suggests to actually keep it centered around you and how the situation makes you feel, rather than combating their memories. So, instead of saying, ā€œThatā€™s NOT how it happened!ā€ try something like, ā€œWhen you said that I never did X when I was Yā€™s age, it makes me question how well Iā€™m doing as a parent.ā€ Probably easier said than done, to be sure.

And while this sore spot might never come to a full resolution for a lot of millennial parents, at least take some solace in knowing that youā€™re not crazy, nor are you alone.

parenting, parenting life, parents, babies, having children You'll probably forget the stress of these days too. Image via Canva.

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

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Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman shares 'really weird' trick to fall asleep in five minutes

There's an easy way to trick your brain into calming down.

via Jamesbrianbounds/Wikimedia Commons and Canva/Photos

Andrew Huberman and a woman sleeping.

There is nothing worse than lying in your bed, with your mind racing, and you canā€™t fall asleep. The longer you lie in bed, the more anxious you get about falling asleep, which makes it even harder to catch some ZZZs. You've tried clearing your mind, but canā€™t. Youā€™ve tried counting sheep but reached 100. What do you do now?

On a recent Real Time with Bill Maher, neuroscientist Andrew Huberman made an off-the-cuff remark about a sleep hack that he swears by, and it's based on brain research. Huberman is a Stanford University neuroscientist and tenured professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology. He's also the host of the popular podcast Huberman Lab, which focuses on health and science.

How to fall asleep fast

ā€œIn fact, if you wake up in the middle of the night and you're having trouble falling back asleep, try just doing some long, extended exhales. And get this, this sounds really weird, but it has a basis in physiology. Keep your eyes closed and just move your eyes from side to side behind your eyelids like this, back and forth,ā€ Huberman told Maher as he moved his eyes from side to side as if he was surveying a vast landscape. ā€œDo some long exhales. I can't promise, but I'm willing to wager like maybe one pinky, that within five minutes or so, you'll be back to sleep.ā€

- YouTube youtu.be

Andrew Hubermanā€™s hack is based on neuroscience

Huberman explained the exercise in greater detail on Mark Bell's Power Project podcast. In his appearance, he discussed the interesting connection between our eyes and their connection to the amygdala, an almond-shaped part of the brain that controls our emotional response. ā€œEye movements of that sort actually do suppress the amygdala [to] make people feel calmer, less fearful,ā€ Huberman said. He adds that when we are on a walk, we move our eyes from side to side, to analyze the terrain ahead of us, and the amygdala calms down.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

ā€œBut for most people who are sighted, moving your eyes from side to side for 10 to 30 seconds is going to calm you down," Huberman said. "And this makes really good sense because, from an evolutionary perspective, an adaptive perspective, we've always been confronted with interpersonal threats and animal to human threats. Forward movement is the way that you suppress the fear response."

Americans arenā€™t getting enough sleep

Hubermanā€™s video is important because many Americans need to get more sleep. A 2022 Gallup poll found that only 32% of Americans said they got ā€œexcellentā€ or ā€œvery goodā€ sleep; 35% described their sleep as ā€œgoodā€; and 33% said their sleep was ā€œfairā€ or ā€œpoor.ā€

Sleep is essential to maintaining good health. Getting at least seven hours of sleep a night is great for your memory, focus, emotional regulation, appetite, muscle recovery, and tissue repair. It also reduces the risk of chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Itā€™s great that Huberman shares his hack, which few people would have come up with without a background in neuroscience, to improve their sleep. Itā€™s also another exciting way to show just how interconnected the body is, from eyes to brain and beyond. Sweet dreams.

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Folks on 'left' and 'right' share one thing they respect about one another. It's giving hope.

As one person wrote, "This is the most mature comment section Iā€™ve seen."

Courtesy of Ashley Rankin @gynaminte_/TikTok

Looking at the positives of the other side makes it a lot harder to hate.

The United States feels on edge right now, with passions running high and partisanized rhetoric ramping up in the days following Charlie Kirk's assassination in Utah. For non-extremists, it's disheartening to see people on both "the left" and "the right" being painted in sweeping brush strokes filled with vitriol.

Most of us don't live like this in our everyday lives. Most of us don't live at extremes and are capable of nuanced thought. We acknowledge that the world's problems are complex and know that we aren't always going to agree on every solution. While we may disagree, sometimes vehemently, we don't paint half of our fellow Americans as the enemy.

america, united states, polarization, political division, partisanship Political polarization is out of control. It doesn't have to be this way. Photo credit: Canva

A woman in Utah, Ashley Rankin, was feeling overwhelmed and confused about the state of the country when she decided to make a video plea for compassion and understanding. "While recording, I zoned out for a second and my face perfectly captured how I felt in that moment," she tells Upworthy. "I dropped the words and thought, rather than telling people to spread love, hope, and compassion, I want to see what they will do, when presented with the opportunity."

So she overlayed her few-second video with "If you lean left, tell me something you respect about the right. If you lean right, tell me something you respect about the left," adding, "Let's spread hope." She asked viewers to fill her comments with positivity, and in a miraculous flip of the script we so often see online, people delivered exactly what she asked for.

@gynamite_

Please fill my comments with positivity! I live in Utah and things feel heavy here. #bridgingthedivide #HopeInHumanity #BetterTogether #UtahCommunity #positive

The comments filled up with people leaning one way or the otherā€”sometimes even pretty far to the left or rightā€”expressing their respect and admiration for various characteristics and beliefs of the "other side." It's truly a beautiful outpouring that demonstrates how much closer we are than we think:

"I am conservative, but I appreciate the left's fight for free lunches and universal healthcare. I don't believe anyone should starve or be denied medical care because they can't afford it."

"Left here: I respect how the right heavily advocates for the farm and rural communities. We really do need to send more resources out to them and respect our farmers more."

"Lean right - love the passion of the left and how they always want to speak up for the smallest person in the room."

"Straight blue voter here. I do appreciate the conservative principle of fiscal responsibility for the govt. We may disagree how our tax dollars are spent, but I donā€™t disagree that govt is wasteful."

Season 19 Episode 10 GIF by The Simpsons Giphy

"More conservative, but I love how the left advocates for preserving our earth, mental health, and resources for those who NEED them."

"As a Democrat I appreciate republicans patriotism and love for country and support for our troops and veterans. I just wish their representatives would vote to support those things that most of their constituents want to support."

"Iā€™m more right than left, but I respect the left for their belief that you donā€™t have to be a traditional family to have family values. I actually agree with that."

"Leftist here šŸ¤˜šŸ¼ I live in a deeply conservative, rural area. Whenever Iā€™m in need, thereā€™s help. Fresh baked bread randomly, the mechanic giving me free advice/discounts, fresh farm eggs cheaper than the storešŸ„¹"

"Iā€™m mostly conservative. I appreciated the level of anger and ongoing fight regarding the undoing of roe v wade."

"Extremely left here, I appreciate how fiercely the right stands up for the working people; farmers, etc. I also am with them on getting violent criminals off the streets."

farmer, conservatives, liberals, right and left, politics People on the right tend to support rural life.Photo credit: Canva

"Iā€™m conservative. I do truly respect that the people on the left wanting gun control have good hearts and genuinely want the gun violence to end."

"Dear Left-leaning people, Thank you for your fight for immigration rights. I may not 100% agree with how we get there, but, everyone deserves the right to come into the country and to have a chance for a better life."

"By far the BEST comment section I've ever seen. I lean left heavily but I've always admired how persistent Republicans are at pushing legislation and the change they want to see."

Perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not, there was a ton of love for John McCain and Barack Obama coming from opposite sides of the aisle in the comments.

"My family was always conservative, but everyone voted for Obama twice. Sometimes we have to accept that labels are for soup cans and vote for the person better qualified to lead."

"Iā€™m a lifelong Democrat. I really loved John McCain! I thought he was such a well-rounded example of a true American patriot!"

"I lean more right, but Obama was the last president I felt like we all respected."

"I donā€™t 'lean' left: I am left. However, I think John McCain also conducted himself with so much integrity. I think he tried to do a good job and actually cared about the people in this country."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

"I am very Liberal and Canadian BUT when John McCain defended Obama against Muslim/ Arab attacks at his town hallsā€¦. I literally cried."

"I lean right, but I think the last time we had any dignity in politics, and I felt secure as a nation was when President Obama was in office. I think heā€™s an incredible leader, and he was the last time I trusted the person in power."

"I respect how John McCain stood up for Obama at one of his rallies and how he silenced the boos during his concession speech. Truly miss that kind of politics. Where we could disagree on issues but didnā€™t tear other down."

Mostly, though, people were just relieved and delighted to see how genuinely kind and heartfelt the comments were.

"This comment section glued a tiny piece of my heart back together."

"These comments are not what I expected to see. It gives me hope that we are not as divided as politicians and media wants us to believe."

"Reading all these comments makes me realize that we should be fighting extremists (both left and right) instead of each other."

"This is the most mature comment section Iā€™ve seen. This is the dialogue I want to see. Itā€™s easy to speak to each other when we do it in a respectful way rather than resorting to name-calling and oppressing others."

We really do have more in common than the online discourse and political rhetoric from many politicians would have us believe. Social media algorithms may reward extremism, but videos like this and the responses they're receiving are far more indicative of the reality most of us live in. Rankin's video has accumulated over 10,000 comments and they are overwhelmingly positive.

"I posted the short video hoping a few people would have genuine and respectful words, but was not expecting much," Rankin says. "I had NO idea the impact it would have on me and so many others. The comments were exactly what my weary heart needed. I'm finally proud to be an American again."

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Gen Xers and Millennials share childhood memories that would 'destroy' today's kids

The '70s, '80s, and '90s were a different time.

Photo credit: Canva

Nobody wants to relive this.

When adults compare themselves to ā€œkids today,ā€ two somewhat opposing views tend to happen at once. There's both rose-colored nostalgia (ā€œthe '90s were a simpler time!ā€ ā€œletā€™s go back to before we had screens!ā€) and a sense of superiority when it comes to facing challenges (ā€œkids today are soft!ā€ ā€œI had to walk to school uphill in the snow both ways!").

Regarding the latter, perhaps a lot of that can be attributed to a cultural shift thatā€™s more child-centered. This has led to a quantifiable increase in the number of ā€œshelteredā€ kids, according to a new Harris Poll. Kids who never walked along in a grocery aisle, talked with a neighbor without their parents, walked/biked somewhere (without a chaperoneā€¦certainly nothing like the childhood many of us '70s/'80s/'90s kids grew up in.

This sparked a conversation among Gen Xers and Millennials on TikTok when someone asked, ā€œWhatā€™s something we survived as kids that would absolutely emotionally destroy todayā€™s kids?ā€ Woo boy, did folks deliver. Dodgeballs flying at their face, handwriting words in cursive for hours on end, waiting weeks to get back terrible picturesā€¦no one today could handle that. And those are just some of the examples. Keep reading for more.

1. "Going all day at school without a water bottle. We might get a small drink of water from the water fountain at recess, thatā€™s it. Take away a younger personā€™s water bottle today for five minutes, and they act like theyā€™ve been in the desert for three days without a drop of water and will die of dehydration."

Summer Water Spongebob Squarepants GIFfrom Summer Water GIFs

2. "Having to talk to people to get your questions answered. For everything." ā€” meanwhile, I've seen today's kids have full-blown panic attacks simply about having to ask a waiter, "May I please get a cheeseburger?"

3. "No binge mode. If you wanted to watch The X-Files, you had to be in the house every Friday night while everyone partied. For four years."

"If you missed your episode, you might never see it."

3. "Having to encounter everything 'by chance.' Favorite song on the radio, favorite movie on TVā€¦ made it so much more rewarding, but weā€™ll never experience that emotion again. Like running into a friend out in the wild."

4. "Munching on snacks at 1 am watching Faces of Death."

For those unfamiliar, Faces of Death is a 1978 American horror film that shows scenes of gruesome deaths from around the world, both real and re-enacted. Fun, right?

gen x, millennials, gen z, gen alpha, boomers generational humor, tiktok, generational differences This movie earned 45% on Rotten Tomatoes. Amazon.com

5. "Dodgeball. I just played gaga ball with a bunch of Generation Alphas and omg, these kids are not gonna be okay."

What is gaga ball, you ask? A variation that's gentler, faster-paced, and more accessible. Itā€™s Dodgeball Lite, essentially. And honestly, it's a legitimate improvement from the needlessly savage original.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

6. "Having to write everything in cursive from third grade on in pen. Writing by hand the rough draft, then the 2nd rough draft, then the final draft."

Man, lots of thoughts about handwriting, actuallyā€¦

"Having to write a research paper while properly citing sources in the required format using only books, newspapers or microfiche from the library. And having to find all that by using the Dewey Decimal System. Also, no spell or grammar check to find our mistakes for us."

"Having to write a rough draft, having a classmate mark it up with errors, re-write it for the teacher to review with more mark-ups, and then having to write the final draft in pen, sometimes in cursive lol."

"That bump on the side of your middle finger from handwriting everything."

7. "Being bored. Kids today donā€™t know what real boredom is."

More specificallyā€¦

8. "Driving with your parent with NO FORM of entertainment. Just look out the window."

Even worseā€¦

9. "Being trapped in the car with your smoker parentsā€¦ with windows up. And of course, zero functioning seat belts."

10. "Babysitting infants and other small children when you yourself were only 12."

11. "Not being able to see the photographs before they get developed when using disposable cameras/rolls of film in the little black tubes."

12. "Dial-up internet and how it disconnected when someone else made a phone call."

Internet Internet Down GIFfrom Internet GIFs

13. "Driving without using GPS."

"Or when MapQuest was a thing and we had to print out directions to follow! I drove cross country with twenty pages of directions hahahaha."

14. "Trying to follow makeup tutorials that were just blocks of text in Cosmo magazine. No visuals. šŸ¤£"

15. "Forgetting your key and having to wait from 3:45 pm until 6:00 pm when your mom finally gets home. No snacks, no water."

16. "Eating whatever is served, regardless of whether you like it or hate it. There was no asking what we wanted to eat for dinner or what sounded good to us. Nasty pot pie with peas? Eat it. Liver and onions that smell like absolute death? Eat it. And you ain't getting down from the table until your plate is clean ā€” and they meant it. It could be all the way until bedtime. You not getting down. Period. My sister fell asleep face-first into her plate once."

17. "Having to find a library book through the card catalog to know its location."

18. "Calling your friendā€™s house and talking to their parents first when they pick up the phone. Small talk and communication skills in general have taken a huge hit."

19. "Pooping without a phone."

20. "The TV used to cut to nothing at night. literally the TV would just show the flag 'til the next dayā€¦ Good night, America."

21. "You only got three lives in a video game, and when you died, you had to start from the very beginning!!"

22. "Blowing and smacking Nintendo games to make them work or not glitch."

23. "Having homework from all classes due the next day! šŸ˜‚"

24. "Having to rewind a cassette tape with a pencil after being unraveled inside the cassette player, hoping it doesnā€™t twist while rewinding."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

25. ā€œThose metal pedals on our bikes, hitting your shin cause you missed the pedal or riding with no shoes on."

26. "Having to cover all textbooks with paper bags from the local grocery store. The paper bags had outlines on how to cover your textbooks. Hated this for years. It eventually stopped in high school, possibly 11th grade."

27. "Actually going to a potential employer to ask if theyā€™re hiring and for an application."

28. "The loud ticking of the massive analog clock on the wall during a test. The whole room silent. But the ticking of clock as loud as a rock concert. Every second click click click. I can still hear it in my nightmares. You know yā€™all younginz canā€™t tell time unless itā€™s digital."

29. "When I was in elementary school, lunch was still paid for with cash UNLESS you were a poor kid with free lunch. Then, they gave you a bright yellow laminated card and everyone in your class knew you were poor. šŸ˜"

30. "Blackouts. They will NEVER survive blackouts the way we did back then."

31. "Chickenpox!"

32. "Not knowing if The Blair Witch Project was real or not."

Abell46s GIFfrom Abell46s GIFs

33. "Roman candle fights."

Ah yes, pointing fireworks at each other. What could possibly go wrong?

- YouTube www.youtube.com

34. ā€œClimbing and falling off six-foot monkey bars onto plain concrete."

35. "The merry-go-round...pure steel in the summer."

36. "The threat of pulling 20 to life for my LimeWire bootlegs. The media had me feeling like young Capone."

37. "Thinking the world will end when Y2K comes."

38. "Computer crashing while just putting the finishing touches on your school report and you didnā€™t hit save."

39. "Having to manually change the channel on the TV and if the knob broke looking frantically for pliers!!! Donā€™t get me started on the aluminum foil on the TV antennas!"

40. "I was home alone in the morning and got myself fed, dressed and walked myself to afternoon Kindergarten."

41. "Non-stop bullying was normal. šŸ˜©"

Respeto GIFfrom Bully GIFs


42. "Riding in the back of a pickup truck down the highway."

43. "A dentist that doesnā€™t numb your gums before jabbing you with a needle."

44. "Having that ONE copy of the video you and your friends made, greatest memories ever, and then your dad tapes over it for a 90-second Tyson fight."

ā€¦and lastlyā€¦

45. "The Challenger Explosion, and no trauma counseling after. We were expected to just move on to the next class and go about our day."

That said, we can probably all agree that in reality, kids today endure plentyā€”we didn't exactly have to contend with active shooter drills, cyberbullying, etc.ā€”and are incredibly resilient in their own way. This was more lighthearted than anything else. Or, at the very least, a fun and traumatic romp down memory lane for us olds.

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