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Joy

Read the powerful, viral note this dad wrote to his makeup artist son's bully.

Internet, don't you dare mess with Manny Sr.





This is YouTuber and makeup guru Manny Gutierrez.

Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for People.

He's taking the beauty world by storm, one tweet at a time.

Maybelline just recruited Gutierrez to be the face of its new mascara campaign — the very first time the role has ever been given to a man.

From a promotional standpoint, the move was a smart one. Gutierrez has amassed millions of social media fans who follow him for his expert makeup advice and hilarious online presence.

Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Maybelline New York.

But with all the extra fanfare lately, Gutierrez, who is openly gay, has attracted some unwanted attention too.

On Jan. 6, 2017, conservative blogger Matt Walsh tweeted out a photo of Gutierrez, writing, "Dads, this is why you need to be there to raise your sons."

Dads, this is why you need to be there to raise your sons.pic.twitter.com/8ybirgppKi

Needless to say, Walsh's tweet — which racked up nearly 5,000 favorites and over 1,600 retweets — encapsulates a whole lot of bigotry and ignorance in less than 140 characters.

Walsh's rhetoric wasn't just harmful, though, it was factually incorrect too.

Gutierrez's dad, "Manny Sr.," has been there for the social media star.

In fact, he's been one of Gutierrez's biggest supporters.

After Walsh's example of fragile masculinity went viral, Manny Sr. — who works for his son and is "so proud" of him — decided to throw in his two cents. He wrote a message addressed to Walsh and asked Gutierrez to share it on his social media accounts:

My dad is a fucken SAVAGE, I can't with him pic.twitter.com/iWceEmZ6L4

"Not only am I proud of what [my son] has accomplished, but I'm more proud of the person he has become," Manny Sr. wrote.

"I know the words you speak are from lack of knowing anybody from the LGBT community," he wrote. "If you did, you would soon realize they are some of the most real and kind hearted individuals that walk this planet of ours."

Fortunately, Manny's tweet with his dad's message has spread much further than Walsh's original hateful comment, garnering more than 12,000 retweets and nearly 60,000 favorites.

Gutierrez's dad's love for his son reflects a broader shift in parents who are accepting and supportive of their LGBTQ children.

While the popularity of same-sex marriage doesn't necessarily indicate progress on all queer issues, it does serve as a general barometer to gauge Americans' evolving attitudes on LGBTQ rights. And in that sense, we've come a long way.

Not only has national approval of marriage equality trended upward in recent years — surpassing 60% in 2016 — but, more specifically, parents of a certain generation are coming around to the idea too: A 2016 WedInsights study found that 60% of married same-sex couples reported having emotional support from their parents — up from 46% in 2013.

There are many more Manny Sr.'s out there.

In response to the letter, fans applauded Gutierrez's dad.

Whether it was through an abundance of exclamation points...

...attempts to recruit Gutierrez's dad for public office...

Can we have your dad for president?!

...or sending him a simple message of love via hug.

Fans loved Manny Sr.'s message of inclusion. And that message, of course, wasn't lost on Gutierrez either.

"He's the best," Gutierrez wrote in response to one fan. "[I'm] so lucky to have him."


This article was originally published on 1.18.17


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Teen son wins mom's $1,800 bet he couldn't stay off social media for 6 years

via Aranami/Flickr and Unsplash

The "18 for 18 challenge."

There is a lot of research that needs to be done on the effect that social media has on adolescents but the early studies suggest some reason for concern. The University of Columbia says that the more time teens spend on social media, the more likely they will experience mental health symptoms like anxiety, isolation and hopelessness.

Teens who can’t help but compare themselves to others are bound to have a difficult time with their self-image after spending hours a day scrolling through a world that’s predicated on likes, followers and comments.

Social media also makes it easy for teens to minimize their face-to-face contact with others. This can exacerbate feelings of alienation and hopelessness in those who suffer from social anxiety and depression.

via Pexels

One of the most disturbing studies out of BYU has found a correlation between time spent on social media and suicidality risk among teenage girls.

Lorna Klefsaas’ daughter had a tough time with Snapchat in her teens. "She got so obsessed with keeping up her Snapchat streaks that it was really affecting her mood. It was affecting her friendships,” the Minnesota mom told WUSA9.

The daughter is in grad school now and doing great with her social life, but Klefsaas hadn’t forgotten about her daughter's troubles when her younger son, Sivert, turned 12. She wanted to do whatever she could to keep him off social media, so she made him a bet. If he could stay off until he was 18, she would pay him $1,800. She called it the “18 for 18 challenge.”

"Being 12, I didn't really have that great of a concept of money yet. So, I was like oh sick, yeah, absolutely,” Sivert told WUSA9.

The student-athlete took on the challenge just like it was football or basketball. "He did really dig in. He was like ‘I'm not breaking this.’ I'm proud of him, because there were a few times where it was harder,” Klefsaas said.

"I knew for sure he was going to make it,” she added.

Klefsaas came up with the idea after hearing about another mother who issued a “16 for 16'' challenge to her daughter. She beefed up the deal by two years to hopefully carry her son into adulthood.

And it did.

Recently, when Sivert turned 18, he collected $1,800 from his family for being able to abstain from social media for six years. He celebrated the occasion by opening up an Instagram account, but he has a lot of catching up to do.

"It's hilarious. I feel like I'm like 80. I can't seem to figure out social media. It's pretty embarrassing. I'll be with my friends, and they are like, 'what are you doing?'" Sivert laughed.

Sivert is happy he took on the challenge and won because it allowed him to spend more time focusing on his academics and sports. "On the whole, I would say totally worth it. I mean, I would do it again,” Sivert says. He’s currently sifting through offers from colleges to play football next year.

Looking to help your kids develop healthy social media habits? Anne Marie Albano, Ph.D., director of the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders, said that it's best to set time aside every day where the phones are always off.

“Mealtimes are a great time to put the phones away. Another healthy habit is to set a time each night when you’ll put all the screens away to give yourself enough time to wind down and prepare the body for sleep,” she told Columbia University.

She also says that you can improve a child’s social media habits by implementing the “grandma's rule” we all abided by as kids. You’ve got to eat your veggies before you have dessert. First, kids have to exercise and do their homework before they earn their social media time.

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Culture

John Mayer had a wonderful response to a Taylor Swift fan who wished him dead

via Wikimedia Commons and Wikimedia Commons

John Mayer and Tayloe Swift

Taylor Swift gave a tour de force performance on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend of a 10-minute version of "All Too Well," which is believed to be about Jake Gyllenhaal.

The performance was to promote her new album "Red (Taylor's Version)" which is a re-recording of her classic 2012 CD. Swift is in the process of re-recording every album she made before 2019 to reclaim the rights to her music. Her older recordings are owned by Shamrock Holdings, which gets paid whenever someone streams or buys the songs.

Swift hopes that fans will opt to listen to the new versions that she owns over the older ones.

For Swift's loyal fans, known as Swifties, the "SNL" performance brought the Gyllenhaal break-up back to the forefront and some, sensing a trend, took the opportunity to address another ex, musician John Mayer.

Swift eviscerated Mayer on the song "Dear John" which appeared on her 2010 album "Red." Here's an excerpt of the lyrics:

My mother accused me of losing my mind,

But I swore I was fine, you paint me a blue sky

And go back and turn it to rain

And I lived in your chess game,

But you changed the rules every day

Wondering which version of you I might get on the phone

Tonight, well I stopped picking up, and this song is to let you know why

Dear John, I see it all now that you're gone

Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?

The girl in the dress, cried the whole way home, I should've known

One Swiftie, who goes by the name @hoeforlouaylor on TikTok, wrote an extremely mean message to Mayer on Instagram.

"Fuck yourself you ugly bitch I hope you choke on something," @hoeforlouaylor wrote. She then demanded a response adding, "answer me you bitch." To her surprise, the "Your Body Is a Wonderland" singer gave a very polite response.

Hi Alondrea, It's John. I've been getting so many messages like this the past couple of days, I decided to choose your message at random to reply to. You can feel free to screen shot, share in any way you like if you want. I'm not upset, I just tend to have a curious mind and feel compelled to ask. Do you really hope that I die?

After Mayer responded, she posted an image of the conversation on TikTok.

via @hoeforlouaylor / TikTok

The TikTok user sent a follow-up video where she said she apologized to Mayer. The video has since been set to private.

"My friend literally dared me to do that," she said in the recording, according to The Daily Dot. "She's a Taylor fan and like so am I. It was a dare. I'm sorry. I did not expect you to see."

Mayer responded by showing that he's a human being with feelings, too. "So it's a fun thing people are doing without taking into account that I might see it and be affected by it?" he asked.

The TikTok user reiterated that she didn't think he'd read the message. Then, in a wonderful display of grace, Mayer told the woman who wished him dead that it was fine by him.

"It's 100 percent okay," Mayer told her. "Go forth and live happy and healthy!"

Mayer did a great job in taking the high road with the Swiftie by explaining that even though he's a famous musician, he's just like everyone else. One of the worst things about internet culture is the idea that there aren't any real people behind the profiles on social media.

If more people saw the humanity in those they are speaking with online it would go a long way toward softening our national discourse. Mayer did a nice job by pointing that out.

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Most Shared

One little girl took pictures of her school lunches. The Internet responded — and so did the school.

If you listened to traditional news media (and sometimes social media), you'd begin to think the Internet and technology are bad for kids. Or kids are bad for technology. Here's a fascinating alternative idea.

True
Norton

This article originally appeared on 03.31.15

Kids can innovate, create, and imagine in ways that are fresh and inspiring — when we "allow" them to do so, anyway. Despite the tendency for parents to freak out because their kids are spending more and more time with technology in schools, and the tendency for schools themselves to set extremely restrictive limits on the usage of such technology, there's a solid argument for letting them be free to imagine and then make it happen.

It's not a stretch to say the kids in this video are on the cutting edge. Some of the results he talks about in the video at the bottom are quite impressive.

If you can't or don't want to watch the clip, here's the quick version:

Many people think the Internet and technology are scary places for kids. But did you know about ...

Martha, who is from Scotland.

She took pictures of her school's lunches every day.

It reached a point where Jamie Oliver took notice and tweeted his support.

The school told her to stop, but after all of the press, instead they did the right thing and made changes to the lunch program. Yay, Martha! And she raised $200,000 for the food insecure.

(Yes, that's Mr. Bean in frame 4.)

There's Josh, who is in middle school in Iowa.

He decided to narrate Pokemon walk-through videos.

He's so good at that, he walked into college with a six-figure income from the ad revenue of those videos(!!).

There's Tavi, who created an online magazine called "Rookie" with her friends.

It has a huge following and has reached far into teen culture.

John created an app at age 15.

He sold it to Yahoo at age 17 for $30 million. Can you imagine?

Lauren decided to send a Hello Kitty doll 93,000 feet into space, and record it.

And she did just that.


And there's a group of teens on the Rosebud Sioux reservation in South Dakota.

An ABC News special portrayed their lives as pretty much based on drugs and crime. They made a video to show who they really were: kids with passion, humility, self-respect, love, creativity, and family.


All of these are kids are creating and innovating — but not in school. Rather, at home.

Schools are far too restrictive to allow kids to do things like these kids did, and that needs to change.

The final quote says it all for me. "Get out of their way and let them be amazing!"

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