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Check out Time magazine's Person of the Year cover: 'The Silence Breakers.'

On Wednesday, Dec. 6, Time magazine revealed its Person of the Year.

Toward the end of each year, the distinction draws curiosity and intrigue for weeks, but 2017 maybe brought on more speculation than usual. On Nov. 24, Trump falsely claimed he turned down the possibility of becoming the Person of the Year on Twitter, fueling speculation about who'd receive the honor.

Photo by Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images.


This year, like in other years before, the "person" of the year was actually a whole group of people.

Time's Person of the Year went to "The Silence Breakers: The Voices that Launched a Movement."

Ashley Judd, Susan Fowler, Adama Iwu, Taylor Swift, and Isabel Pascual — all survivors who bravely came forward about their experiences with sexual harassment or assault, often at the hands of powerful abusers — grace the cover.

But Time isn't solely acknowledging its cover models; a long list of other notable names has been included in the magazine's Person of the Year feature.

Names like Rose McGowan, Lindsey Meyer, Lindsey Reynolds...

GIF via Time magazine/Twitter.

Sandra Muller, Sandra Pezqueda, and Megyn Kelly...

GIF via Time magazine/Twitter.

And many others, including noteworthy men who've come forward, actor Terry Crews and Blaise Godbe Lipman.

2017 marked a watershed year for survivors of sexual abuse.

"All social movements have highly visible precipitating factors," Aldon Morris, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University, told Time. "In this case, you had Harvey Weinstein, and before that you had Trump."

In the past year and a half, 13 women have come forward alleging Trump sexually harassed or assaulted them following the infamous 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape, in which the former reality TV star admitted to groping women. Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein — an abuser identified by multiple Person of the Year recipients — used a media network of enablers and case settlements to silence dozens of victims for decades.

Out of the rubble of so many disgraced, powerful men burst the #MeToo movement — an online wave of survivors speaking out in solidarity. First coined by activist Tarana Burke years ago but given new life on Twitter by actor Alyssa Milano, #MeToo has been used online millions of times in at least 85 countries.

It's a rallying cry that's not going away.

"There's something really empowering about standing up for what's right," said Fowler, who took on sexual harassment in tech. "It's a badge of honor."

Read more on Time's 2017 Person of the Year feature.

A Korean mother and her son

A recently posted story on Reddit shows a mother confidently standing up for her family after being bullied by a teacher for her culture. Reddit user Flowergardens0 posted the story to the AITA forum, where people ask whether they are wrong in a specific situation.

Over 5,600 people commented on the story, and an overwhelming majority thought the mother was right. Here’s what went down:

“I (34F) have a (5M) son who attends preschool. A few hours after I picked him up from school today, I got a phone call from his teacher,” Flowergardens0 wrote. “She made absolutely no effort to sound kind when she, in an extremely rude and annoyed tone, told me to stop packing my son such ‘disgusting and inappropriate’ lunches."

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Photo by Egor Vikhrev on Unsplash

Let's talk about what makes people read articles.

The adage, "If it bleeds, it leads," refers to the media's tendency to headline stories involving death or violence, but it can also be used to point to people's negativity bias. Simply put, people tend to pay more attention to negative news stories than positive ones.

A new study seems to reinforce this idea. And much to our surprise, it's centered on headlines used in Upworthy stories.

Using a public archive of Upworthy headlines and traffic data from 2012 to 2015, two separate teams of researchers analyzed whether people's click tendencies changed with negative or positive words in headlines. In those olden days of Upworthy, a handful of headlines for a single story were tested on the website to see which one would receive the most clicks. The research teams analyzed those results and found that negative words in headlines led to more people clicking on a story (2.3% more), and positive words in headlines led to fewer clicks (1.0% fewer). They also found a preference for headlines that express sadness over those that express joy, fear or anger.

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Joy

Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

A sad-looking Labrador Retriever

The sweet-faced, loveable Labrador Retriever is no longer America’s favorite dog breed. The breed best known for having a heart of gold has been replaced by the smaller, more urban-friendly French Bulldog.

According to the American Kennel Club, for the past 31 years, the Labrador Retriever was America’s favorite dog, but it was eclipsed in 2022 by the Frenchie. The rankings are based on nearly 716,500 dogs newly registered in 2022, of which about 1 in 7 were Frenchies. Around 108,000 French Bulldogs were recorded in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Labrador Retrievers by over 21,000.

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Samantha Moriá Reynolds's advice on sick children.

It's cold and flu seasons, folks. During this time of year, we're all on a mission to avoid the demon viruses that threaten to invade our bodies and wage Armageddon on our immune systems.

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Family

A doctor specializing in child development shares 5 of her most surprising parenting tips

"How To Discipline Your Child So They Actually Learn" is one of her more popular videos.

via drkristynsommer / TikTok

Parenting is the most important job that most people will ever have in life. Your decisions as a parent will be some of the most important determining factors in whether your child becomes a happy and productive adult or not. It's a huge responsibility.

Parenting is a difficult and important undertaking, but many parents simply repeat the same strategies used by their parents. How often do we hear people rationalize their decisions by saying, "That's what my parents did and I came out ok."

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Pop Culture

Woman was mocked online for calling an $80 purse a 'luxury item.' Her response went viral.

"I'm so grateful that my dad was able to get me one. He worked so hard for that money.”

@zohtaco/TikTok

Zoe Gabriel, showing off her new purse from Charles & Keith

Insults of any kind are painful, but jabs towards someone’s financial status are their own breed.

In January 2023, Singapore-based Zoe Gabriel was on the receiving end of this particular flavor of mockery when she posted a TikTok about a purse from local retail brand Charles & Keith—a gift bought for her by her father.

In her excitement, the 17-year-old called the bag, which costs around $80, a “luxury” item as she unwrapped it. Her excitement was sadly cut short by some of the negative comments she received.

One comment seemed to stand out above the rest and prompted Gabriel to post an emotional response video.

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