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Big brother steps in for his sister's father-daughter dance and then steals the show

“I don't know if he knows what an impact he's making as her big brother, but she'll never forget this.”

@patrice_thomps/Instagram

Best brother ever.

Even for the parents who prioritize showing up for their kids, missing a child's event now and then might be unavoidable. But certain occasions are more painful than others when a parent can’t show up, and fatherless father-daughter dances undoubtedly fall into this category.

In June 2024, six-year-old Harper was nearly put in this situation when her dad couldn’t show up to her dance studio's annual summer showcase—which normally includes a father-daughter dance—because of a work commitment.

Thankfully, her 14-year-old brother Micah is the coolest brother in the world, and stepped up to take her dad’s place so she wouldn’t miss out.

In a mega-viral video posted to Instagram by Harper and Micah’s mom, Patrice Thompson, we see the duo have a blast as they twirl in circles, fist bump, and end with an adorable lift for their “Barbie and Ken” themed routine.

“Core memory for the team today,” Thompson wrote in the caption. “I don't know if he knows what an impact he's making as her big brother, but she'll never forget this.”

Micah didn’t just have an impact on Harper. So many people left comments sharing how impressed and moved they were by his kindness.

“In a world of boys he is a gentleman,” one person wrote, referencing a Taylor Swift lyric.

Another offered a touching truth, writing, “As a man whose dad walked away from me, this makes me so emotional. You are raising your son to be the cycle breaker. He won’t end up repeating cycles of toxic masculinity like so many of the men we see today. he will be a better man. And his little sister will grow up knowing what a real man should be like, because she has her big brother to show her."

One comment commended Micah for stepping out of his comfort zone, saying, “Bless his sweet heart. I know how big that is for a 14 year old to put himself out there. Major props!”

“Watching him lift her up at the end got me i can’t lie i teared up 🥲🥲” another shared.

“As a girl who had my older brother participate in my “father-daughter” dances for drill team in high school, this made me soo emotional! 😭 this is a special moment they will remember forever,” reminisced another.

And perhaps the best (and truest) comment of them all, was this one: “Does your son know he's a legend?”

In an interview with Newsweek, Thompson shared that while she is “so proud” of her son, especially since most boys his age “would rather do anything else than perform a routine in front of their peers and during summer when he could be off with friends.” However, she is “not super surprised” that he what he did. “That's the young man he is!" she exclaimed, adding “he truly understands the meaning of being selfless."

To all the brothers who would show up for their siblings in this way—thank you. Your generosity and compassion really do help make the world a better place, and it doesn’t go unnoticed.

Here's the family all together: Mom, Dad, Micah, Harper, and the newest addition born earlier this year, baby Christian. Hopefully the new baby boy knows he won the sibling lottery.

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

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Mental Health

A woman joked that she need a 'cry room.' So her husband built one for her.

Their designer friend Rachel helped draw up a plan.

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A woman said she needed a crying room so her husband built one

For most of us, the world can seem chaotic. With the influx of a 24-hour news cycle, constant social media scrolling, and the day-to-day fires we're so often putting out, we need an anxiety-reducing space to help us take it down a notch. Interior designers have taken note and have begun creating "Wellness Rooms"–with "introvert nooks" as the latest trend.

Think smaller and cozier, surrounded by warm and inviting items, specifically curated for each person. In the same way Dachshunds like to burrow under the covers, a lot of humans do too—at least in a metaphorical sense. Interior designers have definitely taken this into account.

In the Associated Press article, "Wellness Rooms Are Claiming Space in Many Homes," author Kim Cook writes, "We’re seeing rooms transformed into sanctuaries of self-care." She shares the thoughts of Dallas designer Gonzalo Bueno, who says, "Music rooms, meditation rooms, and Zen gardens are some of the wellness spaces we’ve designed recently. Spaces for wellness, retreat, and recharging are all really popular right now."

Bueno notes in the article that these spaces can be serene like a spa or have a bit more energy to them. "We’re designing more music rooms, which isn’t surprising since music is so healing."

Also popular? Introvert nooks. On the lifestyle site Cup of Jo, founder and editor Joanna Goddard shares a letter from a reader named Kristen, who was feeling overwhelmed. In the letter, she writes, "I’m an introvert with a husband and four kids, so I’m always trying to find a space where I can be alone. I joked to my husband that if we could move the back wall of our bedroom forward, we could create a tiny room for me. For my 40th birthday, he did it!"

After a follow-up phone call, Kristen revealed to Joanna, "I was crying a lot but didn’t want to cry in front of my kids. I told my husband, 'I need a cry room,' and I joked that we could move the wall up in our bedroom and create a little nook."

Kristen said she also addressed her underlying depression and anxiety with a therapist. But, her husband Jeff never forgot her initial request. She shares that the night before her 40th birthday, Jeff pulled out a card. “The front said, ‘You’re my human panic room,' and inside he had written, ‘But you might need one of your own.'” Their designer friend, Rachel, had drawn up a plan, which Jeff included in the card.

What came to be was her own tiny (mostly) private nook, accessible through a hidden door in their bookshelf. There, she can read and knit sweaters under an "Over the Rainbow" sign made by her brother. There's an entire wall adorned with cards and notes. Kristen told Joanna, "I saw that Drew Barrymore had something like that, and I’m a big words-of-affirmation person. I have so many from my kids when they were little, like ‘Happy Mother’s Day,’ but they couldn’t spell it."

There are plenty of others sharing similar cozy spaces. On TikTok (and among many interior designers), it also became known as the "Rest Corner Trend." In a 2024 article for The Spruce, writer Shagun Khare's discusses how nuanced and personal each space is. How the colors, materials of the fabrics, and, of course, layout, are all paramount to finding the relaxing space that's right for each individual.

@theintrovertedition

will literally never get over this corner of my library, peak coziness just in time for the holidays 🎄🎀✨ #booktok #homelibrary #christmas #pinkmas

She also cites designer Amy Courtney, who shares, "Cozy corners have become more than just a trend—they're a necessity. This trend will last because it aligns perfectly with the wellness movement, encouraging us to take a step back and find balance in our lives."

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Kids

A 4th state just passed laws protecting 'child influencers' from their own parents

A former 'Youtube star' had brutal words for these parents in her testimony.

Canva Photos

New laws aim to protect teen and child influencers' money. It's a start.

In recent years, some big questions have popped up about the kids you see on social media. When an influencer posts a photo with their children or an adorable candid family video, it might not ring many alarm bells. But what if their kids are constantly an integral part of their every day content? What if those influencers rely on the cuteness of their kids, or the hilarious things they say, to drive engagement of their content? Content they earn money for?

In the worst cases, teens and even toddlers are not just a prop in their parents' videos, but they are positioned as the "stars" of their own social media accounts. Child influencers. I remember once seeing a shocking post about a 3-year-old girl who was "excited" to tour the country and meet all of her fans. My own daughter is that age and only cares about cartoons and mac and cheese, so it's ridiculously easy to see the parents pulling the strings behind the scenes. But social media is big business, and big money.

Finally, something is being done to protect these kids. Utah just became the 4th state to pass simple legislation designed to ensure children are at least being fairly compensated for their work online.


influencers, social media, screentime, youtube, tiktok, instagram, children, families, parentsUtah is letting kids delete content they appeared in when they turn 18. Photo by Ethan De Long on Unsplash

The new law dictates that any family earning more than $150,000 per year from online content that includes their children set up a trust fund for them, and offers guidance via a formula to calculate how much the kids are owed for their appearances. It may not end up being much, but at least the kids will be compensated somewhat for their own likeness.

Most fascinatingly, the Utah law also gives kids the right to have any content they appeared in deleted when they turn 18. That is a major win, and it gives kids some agency back when they become adults capable of making their own informed decisions.

Other states with similar protections include California, Illinois, and Minnesota — with legislation currently being drafted and debated in many more places. The monetary protections are a good start, but more will definitely need to be done to reign in parents putting kids on the Internet without their permission. The exposure, fame, and messages can do a lifetime of harm to young people.

The passing of the law hinged on testimony by former child YouTube "star" Shari Franke, who was forced to appear on her family's channel 8 Passengers as a kid. Her mother was later arrested for child abuse.

“I want to be clear: there’s never, ever a good reason for posting your children online for money or fame," Franke said to lawmakers. "There’s no such thing as a moral or ethical family vlogger. ... The only people harmed by child influencer laws are the parents exploiting their children.”

She called being a child influencer "24/7 labor" and has urged for stronger protections that go beyond just setting aside money earned.

"How do we determine how much a child should get paid for appearing in family content?" she said. "What price is worth giving up your childhood?

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The line between using your kids as props to monetize and genuinely sharing moments from your family's life is thin and grey. This area of social media is uncharted territory, and we don't even know the full impact of how growing up in the online spotlight (and not by their own free will) will affect kids. There will always be loopholes in legislation meant to protect kids. Hollywood has been trying to get it right for nearly 100 years, starting with the first law that gave child actors some control of ownership over their own wages.

It's great that Utah is taking a first step, and hopefully many more parts of the country follow suit soon.

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The Yanny vs. Laurel debate is back and what you hear could reveal the 'age' of your ears

What you hear might depend on your age.

Photo by Anna Keibalo on Unsplash

What did you hear?

In 2015, many of us had our minds blown by the "Dress" debate. It started with a post and became an Internet sensation. Was the color of this random dress posted on social media black and blue, or white and gold? Arguments erupted. Scientists got involved. We looked at each other with suspicion. And for some, it was never truly resolved.

Fast forward three years, and the internet exploded again, this time with an auditory feud. A video started making the rounds with a simple recording of a word said over and over. Some heard "Laurel." Some heard "Yanny." None of it seemed to make sense. Two people could be sitting in the same room with the same speakers and hear two entirely different words.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Just as theorists came forward to explain the dress phenomenon, Reddit threads and YouTube channels exploded with explanations. Some thought it was the treble/bass settings that influenced what people heard in the recording. But that didn’t explain how people could listen from the same device and still hear different words.

Brad Story, a professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing at the University of Arizona, did a little digging. In the 2018 CNN article, "Yanny or Laurel: What Science Has to Say," writer Amanda Jackson notes that, "Story ran an acoustic analysis on the viral recording of the computerized voice. He also recorded himself saying 'Yanny' and 'Laurel' for comparison."

She shares that Story reported, "When I analyzed the recording of Laurel, that third resonance is very high for the L. It drops for the R and then rises again for the L. The interesting thing about the word 'Yanny' is that the second frequency that our vocal tract produces follows almost the same path, in terms of what it looks like spectrographically, as 'Laurel.'"

He also noted that if you alter the pitch of the recording, you might hear the other word. "Most likely, the original recording was ‘Laurel,’" Jackson adds. "If you heard 'Laurel,' you are the winner and have earned bragging rights for this round of the Internet debate."

yammy, laurel, gif, auditory understanding, man, mind blownDetroit Tigers GIFGiphy

But there's more to it. On the AsapSCIENCE YouTube channel, they reveal a few reasons for the divide. One is simply the power of suggestion. When the words are written on the screen, the mind might hear whichever word it sees first.

They also illustrate Professor Story's actual sound waves when saying the words "Laurel" and "Yanny," and explain that even though the waves are similar, what you hear might depend on your age. "The sounds of 'Yanny' play at a higher frequency than 'Laurel,' so if you're hearing 'Yanny,' you might have younger ears."

The video goes on to say that a Twitter (now X) user "posted audio of the pitch both brought down and up. When you listen to it brought down 30 percent, you will hear 'Yanny.' But when you listen to it brought up 30 percent, you'll likely hear 'Laurel.'"

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

On a blog post for the hearing aid company Miracle-Ear, they back up the theory. "The real mystery of Yanny vs. Laurel lies with sound frequency. The sound waves that allow us to hear 'Yanny' are at a higher frequency, whereas the sound waves that allow us to hear 'Laurel' are at a lower frequency. As we age, it’s common for us to start losing our ability to hear higher frequency sounds. It wouldn’t be surprising if someone younger hears 'Yanny' while someone older, listening through the same device, hears 'Laurel.'"

It’s all coming around again after the hosts from the Just The Nobodys Podcast revisited it on Instagram. One plays the sounds for the other, who hears "Yanny." He then exclaims, "Okay, since Yanny is a higher frequency, it requires younger and healthier ears to be able to hear it. But for older people, who don't have healthy ears, they're actually hearing Laurel."

The comment section was fired up as many of them argued with the premise.

"I'm 12, and I hear Laurel," said one.

Another claims they don't hear either: "I hear Yammy."

Amazingly, some hear both within two seconds:: "The first time I heard Laurel. The second, I heard Yanny."

And then, of course, there was this comment: "It's blue and black."

I guess we'll never truly know for sure.

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