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

Struggling bookstore owner makes heartfelt plea online and within days was flooded with support

Nobody wanted to see the charming bookstore go out of business.

support small business, independent bookstores
@sapphirejbates/Twitter

People love their independent bookstores.

Maybe this is just the nerdy bookworm in me, but it feels particularly heartbreaking to see a bookstore struggling. There are few commercial places in this world that hold so much inspiration, knowledge, whimsy and quaintness all rolled into one.

Independent bookstores have their own unique magic on top of that—providing their neighborhoods with a specially curated wonderland available nowhere else in quite the same way. To have that snatched away due to financial hardship is just…devastating.

This was the dire situation that England-based bookstore owner Sapphire Bates found herself in. Her shop, Book Bodega, endured an abysmal winter with very few sales. A photo Bates posted to Twitter on Feb 25 showed the shop completely empty—and on a weekend afternoon, no less.

Book Bodega needed to make £800 ($956) in three days just to pay the bills and keep its doors open. Knowing that wouldn’t happen without some kind of miracle, Bates made one last ditch effort of reaching out online. Little did she know just how many people would rush in to show support.

Using the hashtag #BookTwitter, Bates wrote, “We need your help! I run Book Bodega, an Indy bookshop in Ramsgate. Winter is killing us, it’s soo quiet & we need to make £800 by Tuesday to pay our bills. This is my current view = no customers. Please shop with us and help us stay open!”

It wasn't long before the post went viral, spreading like digital wildfire throughout Twitter as people began advocating for Book Bodega.

"Instead of buying books from Amazon, let's buy from an indy book store and keep the economy more local! Here's a book shop that needs support!" one user wrote.

Authors began sharing Bates’ post on their own platforms, along with several other celebrities.

"Your shop looks beautiful! And this post gave me the perfect excuse to order a book from you for my sister," author Hazel Gaynor wrote.

"Good luck! Your shop looks amazing and you all clearly have brilliant taste in books. We need you!" tweeted film producer Paul Fischer, along with a photo showing he had four Book Bodega items in his cart.

"No better time or place to order your next book," added Tim Burgess, lead singer of the rock band The Charlatans.

Adam Kay, author of “Undoctored” and “This is Going to Hurt,” even offered to stop by and do an event.

Eventually, one Twitter user named Jamil Qureshi offered to pay the full amount, which Bates was thrilled by but felt was too big an offer.

However, in an interview with Insider, Bates shared that she and Qureshi were able to reach an agreement—Qureshi would donate £1,000 ($1,119), a third of which would go towards a profit for the store and the rest of which would pay for books for customers who can’t afford them, so they can still shop for their favorite titles. Sounds like the ultimate win-win-win, if you ask me.

On Feb 28, Bates announced to Twitter that Mission: Save Book Bodega was a glorious success.

Again, using the hashtag #BookTwitter, Bates wrote, "I just paid our bills that were due thank you SO much for your support, this has given me faith that we can do this."

For Bates, the lesson of this situation has been two-fold. First, the internet can help people show up for one another in big ways.

"[I] didn't really expect anything to come from it. That was in my head, the best-case scenario—never in a million years would I have guessed it would be seen by 6.1 million people," she told Insider.

Second, she thinks that her miraculous rebound shows just how important it is to support small businesses.

"Please continue to support independents when you can," she said. "They will definitely appreciate it."

From Your Site Articles
business
Science

Astronaut shares the profound 'big lie' he realized after seeing the Earth from space

This change in perspective could change humanity.

via Rubén Moreno Montolíu/Flickr

Our home, from space.

Sixty-one years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to make it into space and probably the first to experience what scientists now call the "overview effect." This change occurs when people see the world from far above and notice that it’s a place where “borders are invisible, where racial, religious and economic strife are nowhere to be seen.”

The overview effect makes man’s squabbles with one another seem incredibly petty and presents the planet as it truly is, one interconnected organism.

Keep ReadingShow less
space
Pop Culture

Special ring that tells people you're single created for folks tired of dating apps

The Pear ring is a new "social experiment" trying to connect folks IRL, not online.

Photo by Michael Discenza on Unsplash

Dating never stays the same.

Why, it feels like it was only yesterday when dating apps were the shiny new trend in the singles world. However, with life becoming increasingly more virtual, many people are looking to become less dominated by screens. As a result, folks are once again hoping to find love from an authentic connection IRL. Swiping just isn’t as romantic (or cutting edge) as it used to be.

That’s where the Pear ring comes in. Self dubbed as the “world’s biggest social experiment,” this $25 brightly colored blue ring offers something classic, with a twist. Basically, folks wear it out to signal they’re single and ready to mingle. Almost like the opposite of an engagement ring, really.
Keep ReadingShow less
dating
Family

Wife cooks nachos for 'picky' husband who refused to eat her salmon. But she has a point.

Should she be cooking two meals?

via TheMamaBrianna/TikTok

Brianna Greenfield makes nachos for her husband.

A viral video showing a woman preparing nachos for her "picky" spouse after he refused to eat the salmon dinner she cooked has sparked a contentious debate on TikTok. The video was shared on April 26 by Brianna Greenfield (@themamabrianna on TikTok) and has since earned over 2.5 million views.

Brianna is a mother of two who lives in Iowa.

The video starts with Brianna grating a massive hunk of cheese with a caption that reads: “My husband didn’t eat the dinner that I made…So let’s make him some nachos.”

“If I don’t feed him, he literally won’t eat,” she wrote. “This used to irritate me. Now I just blame his mother for never making him try salmon,” Greenfield wrote. The video features Meghan Trainor’s single “Mother” playing in the background.

Keep ReadingShow less
marriage
Family

New study shows spanking hurts kids' mental health and is less effective at teaching lessons

Why is it wrong to hit an adult or an animal but OK to spank a child?

Photo by Kat J on Unsplash

Yet another study shows that spanking isn't good for kids.

Whether to spank your child or not is one of the oldest debates among parents. Many live by the age-old wisdom that to “spare the rod” is to “spoil the child,” while others believe it’s wrong to resort to violence to punish a child when so many alternatives exist.

It also begs the question: If it's wrong to hit your spouse or pet, why is it acceptable to hit a defenseless child?

The 2021 American Family Study found that support for spanking has declined in the U.S. over the past few years. In 2015, 54% either somewhat or strongly agreed with the practice, but that number dropped to 47% in 2021. Thirty-five percent of respondents disagree with the practice and 18% neither agree nor disagree.

A new research study from the Parent and Family Research Alliance in Australia led by Professor Sophie Havighurst and Professor Daryl Higgins from Australian Catholic University makes a strong case that people should stop using corporal punishment to discipline their kids. The study “Corporal punishment of children in Australia: The evidence-based case for legislative reform” analyzed countless studies on the topic and found spanking ineffective and harmful.

The study was published to urge lawmakers to make corporal punishment in Australia illegal. Sixty-five states across the world have made corporal punishment illegal, protecting 14% of the world’s children.

The study defined corporal punishment of children as using physical force to cause pain, but not injury, to correct or control a child’s behavior.

The most startling meta-analysis published in the study found that "only 1 out of 111 statistically significant effect sizes was associated with a link between 'spanking' and a positive child outcome," while 110 were found to be associated with adverse outcomes.

The one positive outcome was in a 1972 study of children of the U.S. military living in West Germany that found those spanked showed less amphetamine and opiate use as adults.

However, the remaining 110 significant results found that spanking had adverse effects, including: “reducing trust and connection with those they are closest to, lower self-esteem, more internalizing and externalizing behavior problems including aggression, mental health difficulties, and increased risk for later substance abuse, antisocial behavior, and violence.”

A meta-analysis found that when children are spanked, they are less likely to internalize the moral implications of the behaviors that led them to be disciplined. It also found that non-physical discipline was more effective at teaching “alternative behaviors,” “developing a child’s conscience,” and advancing their “emotional development.”

Another meta-analysis cited in the story found that corporal punishment in childhood was associated with mental health problems, low self-esteem and antisocial behavior.

In the end, the studies show that corporal punishment is counter-productive when it comes to raising healthy, happy children. But it will take much more than a study to get people to reconsider their views of corporal punishment because they are deeply rooted in many cultural traditions.

Looking for some non-physical alternatives to discipline your child? Here’s a great place to start from WebMD.

From Your Site Articles
spanking children
Identity

Woman’s experience scheduling an EEG highlights the unconscious bias of textured hair

Though her scalp was exposed for the procedure, they still insisted she take her twists out, making it harder to get to her scalp.

Sadé Naima|TikTok

Woman can't schedule EEG due to unconscious textured hair bias.

Getting a medical procedure done can be scary, or at the very least nerve-wracking, no matter how many times you've had it done. It's something that's outside of your normal routine and you're essentially at the mercy of the medical facility and providers. Most of the time, the pre-procedure instructions make sense, and if something catches you by surprise, it's usually easily explained.

Sadé Naima recently had an experience while attempting to get an EEG that wasn't easily explained away. In fact, the entire situation didn't make sense to the TikTok creator who experiences migraines. Naima uploaded a video to the social media platform explaining the sequence of events that happened after her doctor referred her to receive an MRI and EEG.

An MRI uses a magnetic field to generate images and an EEG uses electrodes that stick to your scalp to create images of your brain waves.

Keep ReadingShow less
unconscious bias
Joy

Heroic train conductor spots and saves 3-year-old autistic, nonverbal boy lost on tracks

He was dangerously close to the third rail.

via MTA info/YouTube

An MTA employee rescues a 3-year-old child on the tracks.

Five Metropolitan Transportation Authority employees are hailed as heroes for their quick thinking and diligence in the April 6 rescue of a young boy. Locomotive Engineer William Kennedy was operating a southbound Hudson Line train near Tarrytown, a few miles north of New York City, when he noticed an unusual object on the northbound track.

That “object” was a 3-year-old boy.

Kennedy sent an emergency call out to all trains in the area, catching the attention of a northbound conductor, Shawn Loughran, and a trainee. Loughran slowed down his train as he approached the child, who was straddling the electrified third rail.

When the train screeched to a halt, Assistant Conductor Marcus Higgins didn't waste a second. Leaping down the tracks, he sprinted 40 yards ahead of the train, scooping up the young child like a guardian angel.

Keep ReadingShow less
rescue
Trending Stories