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The next generation of female leaders has arrived. Here’s how they’re making sure they (and every girl) get a chance to learn.
Malala Fund and their local partners, with support from Pura, help girls find their voice. The result: greater access to education and a better world.
Music, community and joy drive real change
In a small village in Pwani, a district on Tanzania’s coast, a massive dance party is coming to a close. For the past two hours, locals have paraded through the village streets, singing and beating ngombe drums; now, in a large clearing, a woman named Sheilla motions for everyone to sit facing a large projector screen. A film premiere is about to begin.
It’s an unusual way to kick off a film about gender bias, inequality, early marriage, and other barriers that prevent girls from accessing education in Tanzania. But in Pwani and beyond, local organizations supported by Malala Fund and funded by Pura are finding creative, culturally relevant ways like this one to capture people’s interest.
The film ends and Sheilla, the Communications and Partnership Lead for Media for Development and Advocacy (MEDEA), stands in front of the crowd once again, asking the audience to reflect: What did you think about the film? How did it relate to your own experience? What can we learn?
Sheilla explains that, once the community sees the film, “It brings out conversations within themselves, reflective conversations.” The resonance and immediate action create a ripple effect of change.
MEDEA Screening Audience in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura Across Tanzania, gender-based violence often forces adolescent girls out of the classroom. This and other barriers — including child marriage, poverty, conflict, and discrimination — prevent girls from completing their education around the world.
Sheilla and her team are using film and radio programs to address the challenges girls face in their communities. MEDEA’s ultimate goal is to affirm education as a fundamental right for everyone, and to ensure that every member of a community understands how girls’ education contributes to a stronger whole and how to be an ally for their sisters, daughters, granddaughters, friends, nieces, and girlfriends.
Sheilla’s story is one of many that inspired Heart on Fire, a new fragrance from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection that blends the warm, earthy spices of Tanzania with a playful, joyful twist. Here’s how Pura is using scent as a tool to connect the world and inspire action.
A partnership focused on local impact, on a global mission
Pura, a fragrance company that recognizes education as both freedom and a human right, has partnered with Malala Fund since 2022. In order to defend every girl’s right to access and complete 12 years of education, Malala Fund partners with local organizations in countries where the educational barriers are the greatest. They invest in locally-led solutions because they know that those who are closest to the problems are best equipped to solve and build durable solutions, like MEDEA, which works with communities to challenge discrimination against girls and change beliefs about their education.
But local initiatives can thrive and scale more powerfully with global support, which is why Pura is using their own superpower, the power of scent, to connect people around the world with the women and girls in these local communities.
The Pura x Malala Fund Collection incorporates ingredients naturally found in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil: countries where Malala Fund operates to address systemic education barriers. Eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection will be donated to Malala Fund directly, but beyond financial support, the Collection is also a love letter to each unique community, blending notes like lemon, jasmine, cedarwood, and clove to transport people, ignite their senses, and help them draw inspiration and hope from the global movement for girls’ education. Through scent, people can connect to the courage, joy, and tenacity of girls and local leaders, all while uniting in a shared commitment to education: the belief that supporting girls’ rights in one community benefits all of us, everywhere.
You’ve already met Sheilla. Now see how Naiara and Mama Habiba are building unique solutions to ensure every girl can learn freely and dare to dream.
Naiara Leite is reimagining what’s possible in Brazil
Julia with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura In Brazil, where pear trees and coconut plantations cover the Northeastern Coast, girls like ten-year-old Julia experience a different kind of educational barrier than girls in Tanzania. Too often, racial discrimination contributes to high dropout rates among Black, quilombola and Indigenous girls in the country.
“In the logic of Brazilian society, Black people don’t need to study,” says Naiara Leite, Executive Coordinator of Odara, a women-led organization and Malala Fund partner. Bahia, the state where Odara is based, was once one of the largest slave-receiving territories in the Americas, and because of that history, deeply-ingrained, anti-Black prejudice is still widespread. “Our role and the image constructed around us is one of manual labor,” Naiara says.
But education can change that. In 2020, with assistance from a Malala Fund grant, Odara launched its first initiative for improving school completion rates among Black, quilombola, and Indigenous girls: “Ayomidê Odara”. The young girls mentored under the program, including Julia, are known as the Ayomidês. And like the Pura x Malala Fund Collection’s Brazil: Breath of Courage scent, the Ayomidês are fierce, determined, and bursting with energy.
Ayomidês with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura Ayomidês take part in weekly educational sessions where they explore subjects like education and ethnic-racial relations. The girls are encouraged to find their own voices by producing Instagram lives, social media videos, and by participating in public panels. Already, the Ayomidês are rewriting the narrative on what’s possible for Afro-Brazilian girls to achieve. One of the earliest Ayomidês, a young woman named Debora, is now a communications intern. Another former Ayomidê, Francine, works at UNICEF, helping train the next generation of adolescent leaders. And Julia has already set her sights on becoming a math teacher or a model.
“These are generations of Black women who did not have access to a school,” Naiara says. “These are generations of Black women robbed daily of their dreams. And we’re telling them that they could be the generation in their family to write a new story.”
Mama Habiba is reframing the conversation in Nigeria
Centre for Girls' Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura In Mama Habiba’s home country of Nigeria, the scents of starfruit, ylang ylang and pineapple, all incorporated into the Pura x Malala Collection’s “Nigeria: Hope for Tomorrow,” can be found throughout the vibrant markets. Like these native scents, Mama Habiba says that the Nigerian girls are also bright and passionate, but too often they are forced to leave school long before their potential fully blooms.
“Some of these schools are very far, and there is an issue of quality, too,” Mama Habiba says. “Most parents find out when their children are in school, the girls are not learning. So why allow them to continue?”
When girls drop out of secondary school, marriage is often the alternative. In Nigeria, one in three girls is married before the age of 18. When this happens, girls are unable to fulfill their potential, and their families and communities lose out on the social, health and economic benefits.
Completing secondary school delays marriage, and according to UNESCO, educated girls become women who raise healthier children, lift their families out of poverty and contribute to more peaceful, resilient communities.
Centre for Girls’ Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura To encourage young girls to stay in school, the Centre for Girls’ Education, a nonprofit in Nigeria founded by Mama Habiba and supported by Malala Fund and Pura, has pioneered an initiative that’s similar to the Ayomidê workshops in Brazil: safe spaces. Here, girls meet regularly to learn literacy, numeracy, and other issues like reproductive health. These safe spaces also provide an opportunity for the girls to role-play and learn to advocate for themselves, develop their self-image, and practice conversations with others about their values, education being one of them. In safe spaces, Mama Habiba says, girls start to understand “who she is, and that she is a girl who has value. She has the right to negotiate with her parents on what she really feels or wants.”
“When girls are educated, they can unlock so many opportunities,” Mama Habiba says. “It will help the economy of the country. It will boost so many opportunities for the country. If they are given the opportunity, I think the sky is not the limit. It is the starting point for every girl.”
From parades, film screenings to safe spaces and educational programs, girls and local leaders are working hard to strengthen the quality, safety and accessibility of education and overcome systemic challenges. They are encouraging courageous behavior and reminding us all that education is freedom.
Experience the Pura x Malala Fund Collection here, and connect with the stories of real girls leading change across the globe.
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Vet delivers best response after being told it’s ‘disgusting’ to let cats on the furniture
Don’t mess with cat people.
No one would get a dog expecting it to not bark, try to eat human food, or need daily walks. And yet people regularly get flummoxed when their just-as-loveable cat exhibits completely natural behaviors like climbing tabletops or scratching at furniture.
Cat people, who delight in adapting their lives to make them as enriching as possible for their feline family members, know the flaw in this logic. After all, most cats spend more time in the house than their human counterparts. So shouldn’t the house belong just as much to them?
If you answered yes, then this response video from a vet should have you feeling pretty vindicated. If you answered no, prepare to reconsider.
Dr. Matt McGlasson is a veterinarian and chief medical officer at Noah’s Ark Animal Clinics in Kentucky, where he oversees a four-hospital network, and also happens to be the proud dad of a special needs cat named Rupaul. As he told Newsweek, he gets several comments each week saying it’s gross to have cats on the furniture. One viewer went further and called it “disgusting.”
McGlasson’s response to that comment racked up 11.8 million views on Instagram, and with good reason.
In the clip, McGlasson holds up Rupaul, who can’t use her hind legs, and lists off everything he would do for his cat, including co-signing a loan for her, letting her do his taxes, giving her the passwords to all his accounts, going into business with her, giving her $20,000 for bringing him a dead mouse, and making her the beneficiary on his life insurance policy. He also mentioned capital punishment, which he’s not normally in favor of, but “if someone hurts Rupaul, that’s another story.” And last, but certainly not least, letting Rupaul on the furniture.
Put simply: “My cat can do whatever she wants. It’s her world. I’m just living in it.”
A cat stretches out on the couch. Photo credit: Canva Fellow cat owners in the comments could not agree more.
“My husband picked his new chair based on the cat. The arm had to be wide enough for her to sit whenever she chooses to have quality time with him.”
“I would donate my kidneys to Square if she needed them. Yes, I mean both.”
“‘You let your cat sleep with you?’ Ma’am, I’d let him represent me in court.”
“I bought my house for my senior kitties. I wanted to get out of our apartment so they could feel grass beneath their paws again before their time was up.”
Bottom line: climbing is part of a cat’s inherent programming. If cat owners truly want their home to be a safe space for their cat, this needs to be part of the equation. The good news is there are plenty of ways to redirect those instincts without conflict, like making sure there are dedicated cat trees to climb and scratching posts to use, or opting for furniture fabrics that cats tend to avoid, like microfiber.
And as a general rule, cats respond to positive reinforcement rather than punishment. Contrary to popular belief, cats don’t “know” when they’re being bad. Scolding them just teaches them to associate their behavior with negative attention, which isn’t fun for anyone.
As McGlasson, now with nearly 800,000 TikTok followers and a book called “How to Rate a Cat,” would tell you: having a pet in your home provides so much fulfillment and connection that small compromises, or large bank loans, are well worth it.
By the way, McGlasson’s TikTok and Instagram are full of hilarious (and informative!) cat content. Here’s a small sampling:
For more pawsome videos just like these, be sure to give McGlasson a follow.
This article originally appeared last year.
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Toddler uses lawyer-like logic to make the case for taking candy from strangers
His mom’s attempts to teach “stranger danger” backfired.
Teaching children about “stranger danger” is a tough paradox. On one hand, you want your child to be comfortable and friendly around others—after all, a lot of folks we end up calling friends started out as strangers. On the other hand, they need to be careful not to interact with those who may seek to harm them.
An easier lesson to teach is not to take candy from strangers. You can be friendly with some strangers, but never take candy from them under any circumstances.
A young child on TikTok named Hudson, the son of pediatrician Megan Hall, is going viral for the lawyer-like way he responds when his mother tells him to stop taking candy from strangers. His logic: If you know someone’s name, they aren’t a stranger.
It all began when Hudson took a gummy candy from a child at the park and put it in his mouth. “You can’t keep taking snacks from strangers at the park,” Hall told her son. But Hudson wanted a clearer definition of what “stranger” actually meant. “There are no strangers here,” Hudson calmly responded, adding that he knew the name of the child who gave him the candy.
Then Hudson tried to flip the script on his mother, questioning the very nature of what it means to be a stranger. “Are you a stranger?” he asked his mom, who gave a prompt no. “But my dad tries to be a stranger to me,” Hudson said, ending the debate.
Three gummy bears. Photo credit: Canva Hudson is friends with everyone when he’s at the park
Based on what Hall told People, it looks like she’ll be having this debate for quite some time—and may need to take extra-special care at the park.
“He has always been a really friendly and social child who genuinely believes everyone is—or should be—his friend,” she told People. “We jokingly refer to him as the mayor because he likes to talk to everyone, anywhere we go.”
A commenter wrote, “His logic he met them, exchanged names, and played w the kids = no longer strangers.”
“He’s about to be real confused on the rules come Halloween,” another added.
Another loved his nonchalant nature: “The fact that he’s still tasting every ingredient in the candy while you’re warning him.”
Kids playing at the park. Photo credit: Canva How should parents discuss stranger danger with their children?
“The phrase ‘stranger danger’ can be misleading. While it’s true that we need to teach our children to be cautious around people they don’t know, the reality is that not all strangers are harmful. Labeling all unfamiliar people as dangerous can create unnecessary fear and confusion,” Nature Therapy, a family therapy practice based in Illinois, wrote on its blog. “Statistically, most child abuse cases involve someone the child already knows. This is where the concept of ‘tricky people’ becomes more effective. It shifts the focus from fearing all strangers to identifying behaviors that are inappropriate or unsafe, regardless of whether the person is a stranger or someone familiar.”
The debate may have been about the nuances of stranger danger, but it’s also a great example of how open-minded and kind-hearted young kids can be.
“Children are innocent, hate is taught,” Hall said. “Children see the best in people and never think anyone would do something to harm them, and I wish this were true.”
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‘You better than that’: Door camera shows woman stopping package thief with tough love
She turned a tense moment into an unforgettable display of empathy.
In a moment when most people might respond with anger and discipline, one Philadelphia woman chose instead to lead with compassion.
On March 6, Bernadette Williams noticed a stranger across the street near a neighbor’s porch. As seen on Williams’ doorbell camera, a woman with a partial face covering appeared to reach for a delivered package. It was the kind of scene that immediately raises alarm, and Williams responded without hesitation.
‘What are you doing? Put that back! Put that back!’
The woman quickly dropped the package. For a brief moment, the situation hung in the balance. It could have turned into a confrontation, a threat, or a call to the police. But then Williams made a choice that shifted the entire tone of the encounter.
“I said, ‘She’s in trouble. How can I make a bad situation better?’ You have to be a part of the solution,” she later told WPVI.
Rather than continuing to call out the woman, Williams began speaking to her in a completely different way. As her voice softened, her message changed from warning to encouragement.
“You better than that. Get some help. I love you. God loves you,” she told the woman.
Then came the offer that has stayed with so many people who have heard the story. Reaching into her pocket, Williams told the stranger, “I’ll give you some money. Here’s $7, here’s $7.” It was all she had, and she gave it up willingly.
Close-up of hands offering money. Photo credit: Canva The exchange was brief, but its impact was clear
As WPVI reported, the woman apologized and thanked her before leaving. Williams said she could see something had shifted in her expression.
“Her eyes of ‘I’m sorry.’ That was in her heart, and that’s what I read. I hope that she will be fine, and I have faith that she will be fine.”
For Williams, the decision was not about ignoring wrongdoing, but about recognizing what might be underneath it. Instead of seeing a thief, she saw someone who might be struggling.
“She started realizing ‘I am somebody,’” Williams said. “She started realizing that ‘There is somebody out here that cares.’”
A close-up of eyes. Photo credit: Canva That perspective comes from years of living in the same neighborhood and feeling connected to the people in it. Williams believes that communities are shaped by how people choose to respond to one another, especially in difficult moments.
“We are a part of this community, and we can make our community better,” she told WPVI.
The big takeaway
There’s a common assumption that accountability must come with harshness. This story shows that it doesn’t always have to. The would-be thief is held accountable while maintaining everyone’s dignity, making a different choice in the future far more likely.
While it’s impossible to know what happens next for the woman in the video, what remains is the example Williams set by actively choosing humanity when most would not.
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Ethan Hawke beautifully explains why AI art can’t replace imperfect human creativity
This energy is what AI can’t replicate.
As AI plays an increasing role in our world, questions about its appropriate use abound. There’s no doubt that technology has the potential to improve our lives dramatically. But the way we choose to use it can also impact us in ways we may not fully appreciate.
For instance, how might AI impact our relationship with human creativity? Ethan Hawke was asked about the idea that “AI is the future of art,” and how he would argue that human creativity matters. People are loving his thoughts.
Ethan Hawke on AI art versus reality
“Nature is reality,” he said. “And when you get away from reality, you get lost. Human creativity is nature manifest in us. It is happening in us.”
Then he gave an example of why AI art will never be able to replicate a piece of art created by a human.
“AI could make an amazing portrait of the Sundance Film Festival, and it’ll be incredible,” he said. “Or my 14-year-old could color her impression of it. And the thing about my 14-year-old’s is it’s not perfect. It’s hers. It’s unique to a moment in time and a place. And it’s inimitable because it’s coming from her, and she is beautiful. And it’s not the painting; it’s the energy behind the painting.”
“What makes a poem great is not this collection of words,” he continued. “It’s the energy behind the poem. Dance can be…you see people who can barely dance, and you can cry at the joy happening with the music. Because they’re alive right now and they won’t be forever. And when we start making things being about perfection, you’re just belittling the experience of life. You’re just totally ceding your humanity.”
Hawke concluded, “It makes me sad, but it also makes me excited, because I don’t want to do that. I’m not going to do that.”
So many people resonated with his response in the comments:
“This is so beautiful and so true ~ everything he says is so profound and I’m here for this thinking…. we’ve become a weird world of social media perfection.”
“I love how he got 🥲 talking about the imperfections created by hand from his daughter. What a beautiful way of describing creativity.”
“Can he just write a philosophy book already? We all know we’d read it.”
“@ethanhawke always saying what the world needs to hear. Thank you sir! Thank you for defending the magic of NATURE and defending the MAGIC of humanity. More of this ENERGY and CONSCIOUSNESS ❤️❤️❤️.”
“This feels less like an anti-AI take and more like a pro-human one.”
AI isn’t going anywhere, time to choose the role it plays in society
That last comment hits the nail on the head. Whether you love it, hate it, or aren’t sure how to feel about it, AI is here. The conversations we have about it, and how we consciously choose to engage with it, matter. There’s a lot to consider on that front, ethically, educationally, environmentally, and more.
But one thing those considerations are forcing us to do is to examine the value of human creativity. Not the dollar amounts we can assign to it, but the inherent value of the energy behind an artist’s unique expression. Generative AI will never be able to replace human creativity, no matter how “perfectly” it may replicate it. The real beauty of art is the singularity of the human spirit and the unique energy an artist brings to it.
As Hawke said, we can choose not to cede our humanity in the age of AI—and we can be excited about that choice because the beauty of human creativity is absolutely worth celebrating.
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Pro cleaner shares ‘trap’ method to stop dust from returning and allergies from raging
“Dust is such a massive problem for so many people simply because almost everyone cleans it the completely wrong way.”
As spring arrives, it’s time for the annual spring cleaning ritual. From decluttering your home to cleaning up messes and washing sheets and duvet covers that feel a bit dank, it’s a great time to reset and refresh.
A deep clean usually involves getting rid of dust that has accumulated on various surfaces. While you might reach for a duster and swipe surfaces in one fell swoop, cleaning expert Sergio of EDGE Cleaning Service says most people are dusting completely wrong.
In an informative Instagram video, he explains why dust always seems to come back so quickly after you’ve cleaned. It all comes down to technique.
How to dust properly
According to Sergio, most people pick up a duster and simply swipe it across surfaces, thinking the job is done. However, he explains that this method is just pushing dust back into the air, where it will soon settle again.
“Dust is such a massive problem for so many people simply because almost everyone cleans it the completely wrong way,” he says.
The goal, he says, is to “trap the dust instead of just moving it around.” To properly dust, he recommends first cleaning your duster by vacuuming it, a step many people neglect, often starting with an already “dusty” duster.
Next, he says you should adjust your dusting speed.
“Dust surfaces slowly so the dust sticks to the duster instead of flying into the air,” he says.
After dusting each room, he says you should vacuum your duster again to prevent trapped dust from spreading to the next room.
Finally, you should wipe down surfaces with a slightly damp microfiber cloth. “The damp cloth helps trap dust so it doesn’t float back into the air,” he says.
Reduce allergies by dusting
Dust is a leading cause of allergies in homes due to dust mites, which feed on human skin flakes shed every day and on moisture in the air, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA).
Sergio offers an extra tip for managing dust in your home: clean and replace air filters regularly.
“Dirty filters can push dust around your house through the vents,” he says.
He also recommends dusting your home once a week to prevent buildup. If that’s not possible, aim for once every two weeks.
The AAFA notes that bedrooms are a haven for dust mites, where they tend to live more than anywhere else in your home. To reduce them, it recommends washing blankets and sheets weekly in hot water (at least 130 degrees Fahrenheit) and using dust-proof mattress and pillow covers to prevent mites from penetrating them.
Since humidity is also a factor, the AAFA notes that your home’s humidity should not exceed 50%. If it does, consider investing in a dehumidifier.
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Eagle-eyed sleuths might be close to finding the sender of this puzzling 33-year-old Valentine
Promising theories abound.
No one can resist a good mystery, least of all when love is involved. One woman recently captivated puzzle enthusiasts when she posted a juicy brainteaser in the form of a mysterious Valentine’s card she received in 1993.
In a viral post on Threads, Sarah Snop explained how she received the card on Valentine’s Day more than 30 years ago. The card was, to say the least, extremely bizarre.
The card was a blank-inside design from the German company GRUSS GmbH. That’s strange in and of itself, since Snop was living in the United Kingdom at the time. Inside, one side of the card featured a hand-drawn ace of hearts, with the central heart marked by a peculiar arrow.
Inside the card. Photo credit: sarah_snop13/Threads The other side featured a cryptic, nonsensical, and likely encoded note:
“Dear Sarah I wish you quite a few unsloppy kiss es to the space where your head is. i hope that you enjoy to-day and to-morrow, and don’t forget to eat the broccoli on the shorts. (And dear V-alentines day two) … Bestwisheslovefromgetwellsoonyours.”
A strange and mysterious message. Photo credit: sarah_snop13/Threads Other strange words and scratchings appeared around the edges of the card, and the copyright information on the back was scratched out, except for the word “HAPPY.”
What could it all mean?
“I kept it all these years because I have never figured out who sent it to me,” Snop wrote in the post. “It intrigued me as I always felt it was in some form of code that I just couldn’t crack.”
For all these years, she’s had no leads or clues. Snop told Upworthy the card must have come from someone at her college, as it was secretly slipped into her bag while she was on campus. Other than that, she didn’t recognize the handwriting or any references to inside jokes with her friends.
And no one ever came forward to claim responsibility.
The challenge
Not to worry—hundreds of amateur Internet puzzlers were more than eager to take on the challenge.
More than 400 users chimed in with observations and attempts to solve the puzzle, taking a multitude of approaches.
Some fed images of the card into AI chatbots like ChatGPT to spot patterns. ChatGPT “identified” an elaborate cipher in the note—a coded message that uses a key, or secret instructions, to encrypt and decrypt information.
“The line ‘Unsloppy kisses to the space where your head is’” was the “key clue,” it said. The AI tool was eventually able to extract a scrambled message from the note, which, when unscrambled, read: “Hi Sarah, I hope you enjoy today and tomorrow. Don’t forget I adore you.”
Adorable, but it doesn’t do much to identify the secret admirer. And for such an elaborate cipher, the hidden message isn’t all that fascinating—hardly worth going to such great lengths to conceal.
Another user chimed in with a much more interesting theory:
“Ok. FAITHFULL could be a columnar cipher key: after writing the letters in a grid under it, if you reorder the columns alphabetically according to the letters in the keyword then reading down the correct vertical column after reordering reveals the hidden name DAVID, and the rest of the letters form LOVE FROM DAVID. Does that make any sense?”
Others took a more human approach, looking for clues in the card, the drawing, and the handwriting itself.
“From the writing, the level of thought that went into it, neatness, I’d be pretty sure this is from a girl,” one user wrote.
Some speculated that, since the card was from Germany, the sender must have been as well, which might help explain the odd phrasing.
A few others didn’t have any codebreaking skills to contribute, but still got a kick out of the mystery.
“So much to unpack… the spacing and arrangement of the letters, the arrow next to the heart, the all one word ‘bestwishes…’, the bordered words, Faithfull … this is zodiac level,” one user marveled.
“Get the swifties on this STAT!!” someone else joked.
Sadly, Snop had to break the news to everyone following the post that she didn’t recall knowing anyone named David or Faith, or anyone who had spent significant time in Germany. For now, at least, the card remains a mystery—but a few dedicated cryptographers are still on the case, with plenty of new leads to pursue.
A fascinating tradition
Secret admirers and coded love letters are a fascinating tradition that dates back hundreds of years.
The Victorian era was a time of elaborate flirtation. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons The Marginalian‘s Maria Popova writes of a gentleman in the 1850s courting a woman with an overprotective father. Knowing his letters would be read first, he brilliantly encoded them to avoid arousing suspicion. Secretly, they contained messages expressing his longing for the daughter:
“The young bachelor cleverly engineered his language so that the letter could be read two ways — line by line, as the unsuspecting father would, which renders the text a contemptuous disavowal of romance, or by skipping over all even-numbered lines and reading only the odds, which transmogrifies the message into a passionate declaration of love.”
In the Victorian era, the placement of a postage stamp on a letter could reveal the sender’s secret intentions. Edwardian Promenade‘s Evangeline Holland writes:
“They say that when a stamp is inverted on the right hand upper corner it means the person written to is to write no more. If the stamp be placed on the left hand upper corner and inverted, then the writer declares his affection for the receiver of the letter. When the stamp is in the centre at the top, it signifies an affirmative answer to a question, or the question, as the case may be; and when it is at the bottom, or opposite this, it is a negative.”
Even Julius Caesar is said to have written secret love notes to his mistress, which she kept concealed in a wooden chest.
When you combine encoded messages with a secret admirer, the titillation is irresistible. Snop’s old Valentine may be a forgotten and slightly strange piece of paper tucked among her belongings, but to the rest of us, it’s a fascinating, multilayered puzzle we can’t help trying to solve.
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Pop music’s most famous phone number now connects callers to a cancer support helpline
Tommy Tutone’s frontman said he hopes it makes people smile.
Since the 1980s, one particular phone number has earwormed its way into pop culture’s collective memory. That number? 867-5309 (which you probably just sang in your head). Today, however, that memorable number doesn’t belong to Jenny anymore. Thanks to Tommy Tutone’s frontman, dialing it now connects cancer patients to a support group.
Tommy Heath, the lead singer of Tommy Tutone, teamed up with the Cancer Support Community to secure the number for its free support helpline. In an exclusive interview with People, Heath shared how cancer has affected him as he’s gotten older, noting that he is dealing with “minor” skin cancer himself.
“I have some family members who are struggling with cancer,” he told People. “I’m out on tour with a lot of bands and suddenly somebody’s not there.”
The song’s prank-filled past
The song “867-5309/Jenny” reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982. However, its catchy, memorable chorus led to a wave of stories beyond music. It also sparked years of prank calls, with people asking for “Jenny” whenever they dialed the number—both during the song’s heyday in the 1980s and decades later.
The Cancer Support Community’s hotline provides expert support from trained specialists who offer personal guidance, information, and a listening ear for cancer patients. Having such a recognizable phone number helps ensure people know exactly which number to dial for help. After learning this, Heath stepped in, wanting to give back after getting so much from the number that made him famous.
“I need to give back to the community, the people who have supported me all these years,” he told People. “I’m going to do what I can…I’d be happy if this was an enduring legacy, and made people smile and give them hope.”
Now, when someone dials the number using the 272 area code (or “CSC,” for “Cancer Support Community”), it connects them to a professional who can help people with cancer.
At 78, Heath is still going strong, performing live. And yes, he still happily plays and sings “867-5309/Jenny” for the crowds that support him.
If you need additional or specialized support in your battle against cancer, visiting the American Cancer Society’s website can help. Searching for and connecting with professionals there can provide patients with additional resources, including in-person, local support.
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Instagram post compares Robert De Niro’s face over the years to explain why everyone’s ears change
It happens to the best of us.
Our bodies are miraculous, and much of the time, we don’t even know why. As we age, without any surgical help, our face shapes can change, shoulders can hunch, and teeth can shift. But one of the most obvious (and perhaps odd) differences is the size of our ears and noses.
In a recent post from the Instagram page Historic Moments, two profile photos of actor Robert De Niro are shown. In the earlier image—likely from his role as Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver—his features appear proportionate. The other photo shows a more recent De Niro, where his ear (and possibly his nose) appears noticeably larger.
The caption reads, “Robert De Niro is living proof that our ears grow roughly 0.22 millimeters per year.” In the description, they write:
“Recent side-by-side comparisons of Robert De Niro vividly illustrate the physiological reality that human ears continue to grow throughout our lives. While many believe this is merely sagging skin, studies confirm that ear circumference increases by roughly 0.22 millimeters per year. This phenomenon is primarily due to the continuous growth of cartilage and the relentless effects of gravity over decades. De Niro’s evolving profile is a high-profile example of this unique aspect of the human aging process.”
The post has gone viral, suggesting that many people have wondered why this change happens. Fortunately, we have answers.
Doctors weigh in
Upworthy spoke with Dr. Ari Hoschander, the head plastic surgeon at the Rhinoplasty Center of Long Island, who shared:
“There are actually two things happening at once, and people conflate them. The nose and ears do genuinely grow, but they also appear larger because the face around them is losing volume. Volume decreases in the cheeks and temples, and the fat pads that used to provide roundness to the face start to descend or just disappear altogether. Suddenly your nose looks disproportionately larger compared to the rest of your face.”
Hoschander also discussed the cartilage issue:
“Cartilage also doesn’t behave the way bone does as you age. While bone mostly stops changing once you’re done growing, cartilage continues to slowly deform and lose its structural resilience over your entire life. The ears and nose are mostly cartilage, so the actual structure of your nose and ears continues to change over the course of your life.”
As for noses and ears?
“The nasal tip is where I see it most dramatically in practice. Gravity pulls the tip down, the supporting ligaments stretch out, and the skin loses its elasticity. So the tip droops and the nose looks longer and heavier than it did a few decades earlier. For the ears, the lobes are mostly fat and skin, so they elongate just from years of gravity, sometimes accelerated by heavy earrings. The upper ear cartilage is also slowly expanding, which is why older men in particular can end up with ears that look really big.”
A plastic surgeon explains the change
Dr. Jeffrey Lisiecki, a board-certified plastic surgeon, also shared similar insight with Upworthy. As for noses, he said they appear to grow for a couple of reasons:
“The cartilage of your nose essentially stops growing by adulthood, but the ligaments that hold those cartilages together can stretch with age, which can make your nose appear longer and more drooping with age. We also lose fat in our faces as we age, which makes our cheeks appear flatter and our nasolabial folds appear deeper, which can make the nose seem relatively larger.”
And what about those ears?
“Ears age in a similar way—the cartilage reaches its mature size before adulthood. The earlobe stretches out and becomes longer with age, which makes the ear appear larger. The earlobe also loses volume with age, and the thinning of it accelerates the process of lengthening.”
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