+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
More

Gay valedictorian rejected by his parents wants to give back and Ellen’s here to help.

There are 1.6 million young people experiencing homelessness in the United States and 40% of them identify as LGBT. A large percentage of homeless LGBT youth were thrown out of their homes because their parents refused to accept their sexual orientation.

“Sometimes [parental rejection] is based on religion; they think that their child is a sinner or that their child needs to be punished so they see ‘the error of their ways,’ LGBT youth advocate, Telaina Eriksen, told The Washington Post. "They might think if they force their child to leave their home, their child may return repenting, magically somehow no longer LGBT.”

Seth Owen, 18, was forced out of his parents house during his senior year of high school after his Baptist parents discovered he is gay.

Owen's parents forced him into gay conversion therapy and made him attend a church that attacked him for his sexual orientation. Owen asked his parents if he could attend another church and they gave him an ultimatum: attend their church or move out.

Owen felt safer being homeless.

“The worst part was I was packing my bags, and I was walking out the door, and I was hoping that my mom would stand in my way,” Owen told NBC News. “I was hoping that she would say ‘I love my child more than I love my religion.’ ”

But his parents never took him back.

Even though he was forced to couch surf for the rest of his senior year, Owen earned a 4.61 GPA, was named high school high school valedictorian, and accepted at Georgetown University.

But then he received another blow. His financial aid package from the university had been determined based on expected contributions from the family who rejected him.

“I started to cry, because I realized there was no way that I could go to college,” he told NBC News. “Georgetown was my only option, because I had already denied my other acceptances,” he said.

But then his biology teacher, Jane Martin, stepped in and started a GoFundMe page to help him pay for college. It began with a lofty goal of $20,000.

After news spread of Owen's situation, over $141,000 in donations poured in.

When Georgetown heard about Owen's struggles, the university awarded him with a full scholarship.

Now that he had a full ride to Georgetown, Owen decided to pay it forward and use the remaining GoFundMe money to start a college scholarship for LGBT youth who’ve been rejected by their families. After hearing about Owen’s scholarship, Ellen DeGeneres invited him on her TV show.

“I often had to look up your videos for inspiration,” Owen told DeGeneres. “There were so many times that you really pulled me through.”

At the end of the interview, DeGeneres gave Owen an incredible surprise: a check for $25,000.

“We’re partnering again this year with Cheerios to encourage one million acts of good, and they're inspired by young people like you,” DeGeneres told Owen. “They're going to help you start your scholarship with this check for $25,000.”

Joy

Airbnb host wakes his guest up in the middle of the night so she wouldn't miss the northern lights

Best. Host. Ever.

@penslucero/TikTok

Pency Lucero taking in the Northern Lights

Seeing the northern lights is a common bucket list adventure for many people. After all, it ticks a lot of boxes—being a dazzling light show, rich historical experience and scientific phenomenon all rolled into one. Plus there’s the uncertainty of it all, never quite knowing if you’ll witness a vivid streak of otherworldly colors dance across the sky…or simply see an oddly colored cloud. It’s nature’s slot machine, if you will.

Traveler and content creator Pency Lucero was willing to take that gamble. After thorough research, she stumbled upon an Airbnb in Rörbäck, Sweden with an actual picture of the northern lights shining above the cabin in the listing. With that kind of photo evidence, she felt good about her odds.

However, as soon as she landed, snow began falling so hard that the entire sky was “barely visible,” she told Upworthy. Martin, the Airbnb host, was nonetheless determined to do everything he could to ensure his guests got to see the spectacle, even offering to wake Lucero up in the middle of the night if he saw anything.

Then one night, the knock came.

Keep ReadingShow less
nature
Pop Culture

People are loving this Amazon delivery driver for warning a woman that her house is 'unsafe'

Great info, even better delivery.

TikTok

Delivering packages AND safety.

Amazon delivery drivers don’t have the easiest job in the world. Sitting through traffic, working in extreme temperatures, hauling boxes … not exactly a fun time. So when a driver goes out of their way to be extra considerate—people notice.

One delivery driver has gone viral for the way she delivered a little bit of safety education, along with some lighthearted advice. The TikTok video of the encounter, which now has more than 4 million views, was shared by Jessica Huseman, who had only recently moved into her new house.

Keep ReadingShow less
acts of kindness
Pop Culture

Christopher Walken dancing in over 50 movies all perfectly spliced into a single music video

Most people don’t know he studied dance as a child.

via YouTube

These days, we could all use something to smile about, and few things do a better job at it than watching actor Christopher Walken dance.

A few years back, some genius at HuffPo Entertainment put together a clip featuring Walken dancing in 50 of his films, and it was taken down. But it re-emerged in 2014 and the world has been a better place for it.

Keep ReadingShow less
dance
Joy

A major UCLA study says that at least 65 species of animals laugh

If you've never seen a fox giggle, you're in for a treat.

SaveAFox/YouTube

Foxes giggle like children on helium.

Laughter is one of the most natural impulses in humans. Most babies start to laugh out loud at around 3 to 4 months, far earlier than they are able to speak or walk. Expressing enjoyment or delight comes naturally to us, but we're not the only creatures who communicate with giggles.

Researchers at UCLA have identified 65 species of animals who make "play vocalizations," or what we would consider laughter. Some of those vocalizations were already well documented—we've known for a while that apes and rats laugh—but others may come as a surprise. Along with a long list of primate species, domestic cows and dogs, foxes, seals, mongooses and three bird species are prone to laughter as well. (Many bird species can mimic human laughter, but that's not the same as making their own play vocalizations.)

Primatologist and UCLA anthropology graduate student Sasha Winkler and UCLA professor of communication Greg Bryant shared their findings in an article in the journal Bioacoustics.

Keep ReadingShow less
animals
Joy

People are sharing the weirdest, most unforgettable art they've found in thrift stores

As the old saying goes, one person's trash is another one's treasure.

via Thrift Store Art and Thrift Store Art

A few of the rare finds at Thrift Store Art's Instagram page

As the old saying goes, one person's trash is another one's treasure.

Even though people can easily buy used items on eBay, the thrift store business thrives in America, bringing in an estimated $10 billion annually. At a time when the economy is shaky, thrift stores are a recession-proof business. When times are tough, people love to find a deal, and there's never any end to the fashionistas who roam thrift stores looking for a rare find.

San Francisco surfer and self-proclaimed thrift store junkie Bryan Dickerson has turned his passion for rare treasures into an Instagram page with over 246,000 followers. Thrift Store Art showcases the most bizarre things that thrifters find in stores and leans heavily into strange-looking works of art and clothing with questionable sayings. His crowds of followers send him countless strange finds every day, and he rewards them by calling them rude names in the comments.

But for Dickerson, it's all in fun.

He told Bored Panda that the idea of Thrift Store Art is “not to bash art but to expand what can be considered as art—clothing, album art, book graphics, vacation souvenirs.” Dickerson's foray into thrift store content was a much-needed break from his job as the editor of a news website.

Keep ReadingShow less
art
Pop Culture

Guy shares the reason viral gym videos need to end, and it's so spot on

"If you can’t respect other people in a shared space, you don’t belong filming at all.”

Reddit

“This sense of entitlement has gotten out of hand."

Gyms are communal spaces where people can come to improve their health, fitness and/or overall well-being.

However, it’s no secret that many gyms have also become a production studio of sorts where influencers can set up a tripod to demonstrate the most cutting-edge squatting technique or where the average Joe can take that obligatory gym selfie to prove that the workout did, in fact, happen.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with either of these activities. However, they have sparked a new kind of behavior in gymgoers where they feign extreme frustration if folks walk from one machine to the next or grab a piece of equipment and, heaven forbid, enter the frame.

Keep ReadingShow less
community
Trending Stories