This Lady Wants You To Know That There’s More Than One Way To Work Hard In America
You know how car commercials are all “Look at your life! Look at your choices, American!”? I always wanna yell back: “Why do you care? You’re a car!” Well, this ad made me want to yell something different. And maybe do a little celebratory fist pump, too.
Commercials gotta do their commercial thing, but if they use their HUGE platform to lift up the great work of some great Americans like the gal above, color me intrigued.
The woman in this commercial is Pashon Murray and she’s a real person doing real work in Detroit with Detroit Dirt. They make compost for farms so Detroit can make itself an even happier place for people to live. Cities can be complicated organisms, and they require creative awesomeness like Ms. Murray’s, so here’s to her. And here’s to brands interested in the life and choices of some really cool people. If cars care about that, I *might* be OK with it.
An Operation Smile volunteer reverses an oxygen mask so a child with a cleft condition can blow a bubble for the first time in Guadalajara, Mexico. (Operation Smile Photos)
For thousands of children born with cleft conditions, Operation Smile provides simple, playful tools—like bubbles—to strengthen the skills they need to speak and thrive.
While a bottle of bubbles might seem out of place in a hospital setting, you might be surprised to learn that, for thousands of children around the world born with cleft lip and palate, they can be a helpful tool in comprehensive cleft care. Lilia, who was born with cleft lip and palate in 2020, is one of the many patients who received this care.
As a toddler, Lilia underwent two surgeries to treat cleft lip and palate with Operation Smile’s surgical program in Puebla, Mexico. Because of Operation Smile’s comprehensive care, it wasn’t long before her personality transformed: Lilia went from a quiet and withdrawn toddler to an exuberant, curious explorer, babbling, expressing herself with a variety of sounds, and engaging with others like any child her age.
Lilia is now a healthy five-year-old, with the same cheerful attitude and boundless energy. Her progress is the result of care at every level, from surgery to speech therapy to ongoing support at home—but it’s also evidence that small, sustained interventions throughout it all can make a meaningful difference.
Lilia at age 1, before surgery, and at age 5, 4 years post-surgery
Cleft Conditions: A Global Problem
Since 1982, Operation Smile has provided cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries to more than 500,000 patients worldwide with the help of generous volunteers and donors. Cleft conditions are congenital conditions, meaning they are present at birth. With cleft lip and palate, the lip or the roof of the mouth do not form fully during fetal development. Cleft conditions put children at risk for malnutrition and poor weight gain, since their facial structure can make feeding challenging. But cleft conditions can have an enormous social impact as well: Common difficulties with speech can leave kids socially isolated and unable to meet the same developmental milestones as their peers.
Surgery is a vital step in treating cleft conditions, but it’s also just one part of a much larger solution. Organizations like Operation Smile emphasize the importance of multi-disciplinary teams that provide comprehensive, long-term care to patients across many years. This approach, which includes oral care, speech therapy, nutritional support, and psychosocial care, not only aids in physical recovery from surgery but also helps children develop the skills and confidence to eat easily, speak clearly, and engage in everyday life. This ensures that each patient receives the full range of support they need to thrive.
Marie, 11 months, with her mother at Operation Smile Madagascar before her cleft surgery (Operation Smile Photos)
A Playful (and Powerful) Solution
Throughout a patient’s care, simple tools like bubbles can play a meaningful role from start to finish.
Immediately before surgery, children are often in a new and unfamiliar environment far from home, some of them experiencing a hospital setting for the first time. When care providers or loved ones blow bubbles, it’s a simple yet effective technique: Not only are the children soothed and distracted, the bubbles also help create a sense of joy and playfulness that eases their anxiety.
Milagros Rojas, a volunteer speech therapist in Peru, using bubbles in a screening with a patient. (Operation Smile Photos)
In speech therapy, bubbles can take on an even more important role. Blowing bubbles requires controlled airflow, as well as the ability to form a rounded “O” shape with the lips, which are skills that children with cleft conditions may struggle to develop. Practicing these skills with bubbles allows children to gently strengthen their facial muscles, improve breath control, and support the motor skills needed for speech development. Beyond that, blowing bubbles can help kids connect with their parents or providers in a way that’s playful, comforting, and accessible even for very young patients.
Finally, bubbles often follow patients with cleft conditions home in the “smile bags” that each patient receives when the surgical procedure is finished. Smile bags, which help continue speech therapy outside of the hospital setting, can contain language enrichment booklets, a mirror, oxygen tubing, and bubbles. While regular practice with motor skills can help with physical recovery, small acts of play help as well, giving kids space to simply enjoy themselves and join in on what peers are able to do.
Bubbles at Home and Beyond
Today, because of Operation Smile’s dedication to comprehensive cleft care, Lilia is now able to make friends and speak clearly, all things that could have been difficult or impossible before. Instead of a childhood defined by limitation, Lilia—and others around the world—can look forward to a childhood filled with joy, learning, discovery, friends, and new possibilities.
CTA: Lilia’s life was changed for the better with the care she received through Operation Smile. Find out how you can make an impact in other children’s lives by visiting operationsmile.org today.
It’s a common kindness among pet owners to leave their fur babies some kind of background noise whenever they’re gone for extended periods of time. It’s such a popular practice that YouTube and Spotify have dedicated playlists for soothing and stimulating pets while we’re away doing human things. And hey, if it eases our guilt in the process, that’s a win-win.
But do our pets actually appreciate this gesture in the way we hope? The only accurate answer is, of course, that it depends—not only on which species we’re dealing with, such as cats vs. dogs, but also on the genre of music.
Dogs might really dig soft tunes
One United Kingdom-based behavioral study found that, for dogs at least, classical music produced a calming effect. Of the two other genres tested, heavy metal had, perhaps unsurprisingly, an agitating effect, while pop had no observable effect. Sorry, Britney Spears.
Interestingly, a CD playing a human conversation also seemed to have no effect. Of course.
However, another study that used heart monitors to measure the effect different styles of music had on dogs’ heart rates suggested that, like humans, dogs have individual music preferences. In this study, reggae and soft rock “showed the highest positive changes.” One thing to consider, though, is that different breeds of dogs have different resting heart rates, which might influence how they respond to certain styles of music.
Moving on to cats. While there are far fewer feline-centric studies, the data at first glance might suggest that they aren’t quite as musically inclined as their canine counterparts.
Of course, this could be because cats are more attuned to certain frequencies, making what they “hear” very different from what is experienced by dog or human ears. Researchers who relied heavily on music that fell within a cat’s preferred frequency range found that cats reacted significantly more positively to it than to classical music. Some even rubbed up against the speaker—the ultimate sign of cat approval.
Fun fact: that special cat music, composed by David Teie, was turned into an album that can be purchased here.
What about TV?
As for television shows, the general consensus is that rather than providing entertainment, they serve as a source of comforting familiarity for pets. However, there aren’t enough studies to confirm this either way. And considering what we’ve already mentioned about responses to certain frequencies, it stands to reason that most human shows don’t necessarily register in the same way. Of course, we’ve all seen how dogs react to episodes of Bluey, so…
And if these things mask unpleasant outside noises—like fireworks, horns, planes, etc.—that might otherwise cause anxiety, then perhaps that’s all the benefit pet owners need.
At the end of the day, leaving on music or TV might be less about creating the perfect enrichment experience and more about offering a little comfort—to both our pets and ourselves—while we’re away. Some animals may completely ignore it. Others may perk up at a familiar voice or settle down when soft music starts playing. A lot of figuring that out comes from attentively and lovingly observing how your fur babies respond as individuals. Luckily, that’s a task most pet owners will gladly take on.
As they do every year around Mother’s Day, the Social Security Administration released its list of the top 1,000 most popular baby names. The SSA is uniquely positioned to track the rise and fall of baby names because it collects information on every baby born in the United States.
The 2025 list found no major changes among the top 10 names for girls and boys. Olivia and Liam again held the number one spots in the rankings, as they have for the past seven years. The biggest changes were among girls’ names, where Charlotte rose to second place, ending Emma’s six-year run in the spot. Ava dropped out of the top 10 and was replaced by Eliana.
When it comes to the names rising fastest in popularity, there were some decidedly unconventional choices rocketing up the charts. There also appears to be a clear trend toward names with a strong “K” sound.
Kasai made the greatest leap among boys’ names, moving up 1,108 spots on the list to land at 639. Kasai means “fire” in both Japanese and Swahili. Although the name is a fast mover in the boys’ category, it has also been used as a girls’ name. It’s believed that the name is rising in popularity due to actress Skai Jackson naming her baby Kasai and the popularity of entrepreneur and rapper Kasai Guthrie.
Klarity’s origins are a bit more obvious: it’s “Clarity” with a twist, spelled with a K instead of a C. “A rediscovered virtue name with a modern makeover, Klarity has the zippy sounds of Felicity along with the familiar feel of Kate, Katie, Kitty, and Klara,” Nameberry writes.
Akari is another name with Japanese origins, meaning “star” or, depending on how it’s written, “moon,” “bright,” “light,” or “red jewel.” It’s a rapidly rising boys’ name, but it’s also used for girls.
Rynlee is a modern construction that follows the current trend of using popular names, such as Ryan, and adding a -lee or -leigh suffix. Alternative spellings include Rynleigh and Rinlee.
Another unique name is Jasai. It’s a modern take on the traditional name “Jason” and may have ancient Hindi or Sanskrit origins, meaning “victory” or “achievement.” On the girls’ side, Ailanny appears to be a recent creation centered on the opening sound “Ai,” which is often associated with love and affection.
It’s not breaking news that journaling has been proven, again and again, to be good for you—mind, body, and soul.
But not all journaling is created equal. Writing about what you did that day and your future plans has a profoundly different effect than writing about your deepest emotions, especially the upsetting ones. A growing body of research now shows that confronting your deepest traumas and experiences in order to put them on the page not only makes you feel better, but can even help heal you. One remarkable scientific study demonstrates how.
Landmark study indicates that “expressive writing” has healing powers
The body of research around expressive writing had been growing for years. American social psychologist James Pennebaker is considered one of the leading voices in pioneering this area of research.
In an interview with the American Psychological Association, Pennebaker recalled wondering, “If secrets are so bad, what if we brought people in the laboratory and had them talk about them… [but] that turned out to be way too complex. How about we just had them write about it? And that was kind of the birth of expressive writing.”
Pennebaker’s remarkable research revealed that expressive writing could improve mental health, boost the immune system, and reduce doctor visits. In 2013, a group of researchers wanted to see whether these benefits could carry over even further into the physical world.
In the study, two groups of adults ages 64 and older underwent a simple biopsy procedure. It left a small wound on the upper arm that was uniform in size across all participants and could easily be monitored for changes in healing.
A Band-Aid covers a wound. Photo credit: Canva
One group was assigned to perform expressive writing for 20 minutes per day, writing about its deepest thoughts and most upsetting life experiences.
The other group, rather than not writing at all, journaled daily about its activities but did so in an emotionally neutral register.
Just 11 days after the biopsy, 76% of the expressive writing group had fully healed. That’s almost double the rate of the control group, of whom only 42% had healed.
A thorough review found almost no other differences in the adults’ cognitive or physical health, which makes a powerful case that the expressive writing exercises were responsible for the improved healing.
Why emotional writing can have a physical impact
Pennebaker, for his part, recognized that deeply emotional journaling is not just about the physical act of writing.
In order to write about upsetting experiences in your life, you have to turn them over and over in your mind and confront them head-on.
“Getting people to actually sit down and confront it and to write it, you don’t have to write a lot, but you have to first of all just acknowledge it and put it into words,” Pennebaker said. “And that was really for me, the breakthrough.”
Emotional writing eases psychological stress. Feelings like anxiety and stress can have severe negative health consequences, so it stands to reason that relieving some of that stress should have a positive payoff. Less stress on the immune system, for example, means it’s better able to do its job of warding off sickness and healing wounds.
According to Harvard Health Publishing, “The process of writing may enable [people] to learn to better regulate their emotions. It’s also possible that writing about something fosters an intellectual process — the act of constructing a story about a traumatic event — that helps someone break free of the endless mental cycling more typical of brooding or rumination.”
The power of “letting it out”
A majority of scientific research agrees that learning to understand and express what’s happening inside us is a key component of mental health.
“Labeling and expressing what’s going on inside can calm our nervous system. It also gets us in touch with our internal senses and what’s going on beneath the skin, in the heart, and in the brain,” said Alli Spotts-De Lazzer, a licensed therapist. “The connection of thoughts flowing through and out may be similar to ‘name it to tame it,’ a concept related to calming emotional distress and increasing emotional regulation.”
It can be dance, it can be art, or it can be talking it out with a therapist or friend. The important thing is that expression, or disclosure, is necessary. The unique power of expressive writing, however, is that it forces us to address our biggest sources of pain and anxiety head-on.
Expressive writing has its limitations, of course.
It’s not necessarily a cure-all for people suffering from serious mental health conditions like chronic anxiety or major depression. And it can’t cure cancer or miraculously heal a broken leg.
Some research also shows that expressive writing can temporarily make people feel worse before the mental health benefits kick in. And for people who have recently undergone trauma, it may simply be too soon to write about it. Pennebaker himself advises therapists not to assign expressive writing to patients until at least a few months after an incident.
However, the study is fairly undeniable evidence of the mind-body connection. Science shows us that placebos can work wonders, even when people know they’re taking a placebo. And expressive writing research is beginning to show just how incredible the physical benefits of relieving psychological stress can be.
Those daily habits can be extremely specific, as evidenced by one cat owner’s “Q-tip jail” TikTok video. “Note for pet sitter,” the overlay text from @nothoughtsjustsushi reads, “bedtime routine includes putting him in jail, and the prisoner gets one Q-tip nightly.”
The “putting him in jail” part means pinning the cat between two open doors. The human then slips a Q-tip through the crack between the doors as the kitty “prisoner” eagerly grabs it. Seriously quirky:
As weird as this is, it’s not much weirder than the many other examples cat owners and pet sitters shared in the comments:
“As a pet sitter I once had a client tell me I needed to pretend to water her cat or else she’ll yowl and scream at me😭 the cat even had her own plant pot she’d be in when I started to do my rounds of watering.”
“Explaining to the pet sitter my cat needs her alone tub time but DO NOT turn on the water. She just likes to sit in there, unbothered.”
“My cat will scream at me when I go in my room until I lay on the bathroom floor and let her loaf ✨next to me✨. That’s it, that’s her favorite thing.”
“Mine likes to sing in the bathtub for the resonance. And it has to be a bath tub! She doesn’t do it if it’s just a shower stall. It’s something we look for in an apartment now, very important.”
“Mine has to sing the song of her people before we lay down at night. It basically consists of her walking a lap around the house howling to oblivion. Only then will she hop in bed and go to sleep.”
“My cat will only sit on the couch with me if I put a blanket over her. She does not want to be seen, but she wants to hang out.”
“When I had my cat, every morning before work I would put on eyeliner. One morning I pretend put eyeliner on her and told her “all done so pretty” and it BECAME routine. She would promptly sit by the mirror and Scream if I forgot to do it, or until it was done.”
“My cat loves raw asparagus. He will stand in front of the fridge and yell at me until I figured out what he wanted. He plays with it like prey, then he eats it.”
“My sister’s cat gets on top of the fridge and screams until he gets a teaspoon of shredded cheese to eat while he looks down on everyone.”
“My cat demands I cradle her like an infant while I am on the toilet. She will scream and jump on the sink and knock things over until I get her.”
“My cat has to have bathtub time.. every night when my mom goes to shower, she runs into the bathroom, and you have to flip hairbands in the bathtub so she can play with them while mom showers (the shower and bath are separate).”
“Orange cat here! He patiently puts his hand on mine and looks at me until I pick both his hands up ‘to hold hands.’ He never misses a day. He only does this with me. If im going to be busy all day I go ahead and say let’s hold hands. He absolutely trained me to do this. I have to idea how it started.”
People ask how cat owners figure these things out, and most cat owners don’t have a clear answer. With cats, you just do random things to see what happens, and suddenly something sticks. You can’t predict what it will be, so you do have to be careful. That fun little entertainment and enrichment experiment might just turn into a routine you can’t escape.
Not that most would change a thing. These oddities are what make life with cats so delightful.
Cat owners’ relationships with their cats run the gamut from “Fine, I’ll reluctantly feed you and clean your litter box” to “You are my favorite living creature on Earth, and I would die for you nine times over.” But even those of us who adore our kitties might playfully annoy them sometimes, not to be mean, but because cats are fun to mess around with.
People have been sharing videos of “rage baiting” their cats, a tongue-in-cheek term for intentionally annoying them in some way. For instance, a cat owner might pet a cat where it just cleaned itself, gently but repeatedly poke it, put it down really, really slowly, or whatever this is:
Obviously, actually enraging a cat is neither kind nor wise. But where is the line between playful interaction and actual torment? Some cats inexplicably enjoy the most random things, after all. So when does banter turn into bullying, and what are the signs that you’ve taken it too far with your feline friend?
Julia Specht, cat behavior consultant and founder of Park Slope Paws, tells Upworthy that a cat owner’s intent matters a lot less than the impact.
“I think every human can remember a time when someone was good-naturedly teasing them, but it made them feel afraid or angry or alone,” she said. “Cats can’t know what your intention is; they’re not capable of that tertiary-level thought. All they know is that you’re doing something unpleasant that they don’t like.”
Often, cats will walk away if you do something they don’t like. But not always. Specht advises paying attention to a cat’s body language to determine whether it is stressed.
“Are their ears back? Is their tail swishing? If so, they’re not happy. Maybe they’re not lashing out at you, but you’re not helping your relationship,” Specht said. “If they do lash out (by biting or swatting), hide from you, or avoid you, then you’re doing some serious damage to your relationship.”
Cats can get overstimulated, even from fun play, but especially from things we might do to “rage bait” them. PetMD writes that a sudden change in demeanor can signify overstimulation and is a sign to stop what you’re doing.
So what can you do to entertain both yourself and your cat in a way that doesn’t cause it stress?
“Fortunately for us humans, cats have incredible comedic timing,” said Specht. “There are all kinds of things you can do with your cat that will be both hilarious for you and enjoyable for them. Think about ways you can play with them, or give them fun enrichment activities like boxes or tissue paper. (Have you ever seen a cat attack a sheet of bubble wrap? I highly recommend it.) These activities also help make your relationship with your cat better in the long run.”
Other ideas for playing with your cat in ways that are both fun and engaging include toys on poles that you can drag around for it to chase, giving it catnip, or buying or building puzzle toys or structures that hide treats, like the ones featured in this video from Cats Protection:
Cats provide plenty of humor simply by being cats and doing cat-friendly things. As Specht tells Upworthy, “You don’t have to annoy your cat to get them to do something funny. They’ll do that on their own, if you give them the opportunity to.”
The beloved sculptorMichelangelo once said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”
Some have taken this idea and applied it to our psychological sense of self and to those around us. The idea is that when someone in our lives (a friend, family member, or romantic partner) sees our greatest potential, it can have an immeasurable impact on who we become.
It’s called the “Michelangelo Effect,” or the “Michelangelo Phenomenon.” In a clip from the Modern Wisdom podcast that has been making the rounds on social media, Chris Williamson explains the theory to his guest, Matthew McConaughey:
“The Michelangelo Effect describes a situation in a relationship, friendship, or intimate partnership where each partner sees the best in the other—and tries to help bring that out. So the sum of the parts is greater than it is individually. I think in life, you want to be finding people who believe in you more than you believe in you. That holds you to higher standards.”
McConaughey agrees
McConaughey, ever the philosopher, agrees: “I think that’s a definition of a good friend. I think that’s the definition of a good partner. A good husband. Wife. They remind us of the best of ourselves.”
One Facebook user asked a question that many were perhaps thinking: “What does Michelangelo have to do with it?” The answer came quickly: “Because, as a sculptor, he was able to see his subject inside of the marble before he sculpted.”
We sculpt one another
In a research paper co-authored by Caryl E. Rusbult, Eli J. Finkel, and Madoka Kumashiro, the authors note that those closest to us can help “sculpt” us:
“The Michelangelo model suggests that close partners sculpt one another’s selves, shaping one another’s skills and traits and promoting versus inhibiting one another’s goal pursuits. As a result of the manner in which partners perceive and behave toward one another, each person enjoys greater or lesser success at attaining his or her ideal-self goals. Affirmation of one another’s ideal-self goals yields diverse benefits, both personal and relational.”
In a piece for Psychology Today, Sara Eckel also explains the phenomenon using the example of a couple, Wendy and James, who saw the best potential in one another and were open to seeing themselves as they were seen.
“By acknowledging and accepting each other’s help, Wendy and James experienced what University of Pittsburgh psychologist Edward Orehek calls ‘mutual perceived instrumentality,’” Eckel wrote. “Orehek’s research, with Amanda Forest, indicates that when partners feel instrumental to each other, they are more satisfied with their relationship—though he admits that the word instrumental can sound off-putting.”
Romantic relationships
Essentially, it’s suggested that who we surround ourselves with can change the way we see ourselves. Eckel notes another author who explains how this can manifest in romantic relationships:
“Aaron Ben-Ze’ev, a professor at the University of Haifa and the author of The Arc of Love: How Our Romantic Lives Change Over Time, says that our partner’s beliefs and behavior toward us can bring us closer to the person we would like to become—the ‘ideal self’—in a process called the Michelangelo Phenomenon.
‘Just as Michelangelo saw his process of sculpting as releasing the ideal forms hidden in the marble,’ says Ben-Ze’ev, ‘close partners sculpt one another to bring each individual nearer to the ideal self, thus bringing out the best in each other. In such relationships, we see personal growth and flourishing reflected in statements like: ‘I’m a better person when I’m with her.’”
On the Armani Talkspodcast, the idea is summed up quite poetically: “The Michelangelo Phenomenon is a psychological principle that human beings are sculpted by those who we deem important.”
Jumbo, a Dutch supermarket chain with over 700 locations, noticed a problem. A lot of their older customers were lonely. So in the summer of 2019, they created something called a Kletskassa, which translates to “chat checkout.”
It’s exactly what it sounds like. A checkout lane specifically for people who are not in a rush and would like to have a conversation with the cashier. No pressure to scan quickly, no annoyed sighs from the person behind you. Just a place where taking your time is the whole point.
The first Kletskassa opened in Vlijmen, a town in the North Brabant province. The response was so positive that Jumbo rolled out 200 of these lanes across the country. They also added “chat corners” in their stores where people can grab a cup of coffee and talk with neighbors.
The initiative was part of the Dutch government’s “One Against Loneliness” campaign, which makes sense when you look at the numbers. Statistics Netherlands found that nearly 1 in 10 people in the country reported feeling lonely frequently. Among people 75 and older, around one-third said they feel at least somewhat lonely. And that loneliness tends to stick around, especially for seniors living independently.
Colette Cloosterman-van Eerd, the CCO of Jumbo and one of the people behind the National Coalition Against Loneliness, explained the thinking: “Many people, especially the elderly, sometimes feel lonely. As a family business and supermarket chain, we are at the heart of society.”
She added that Jumbo wants to be more than just a place where people shop. “We help our stores by means of a manual to signal loneliness among customers and to set up local initiatives. Several stores also have a chat corner where customers can grab a nice cup of coffee and chat with neighbors.”
Vandaag opende Colette Cloosterman-van Eerd een nieuwe Kletskassa bij de Jumbo winkel in Udenhout. Tevens het startschot voor het openen van 200 Kletskassa’s door heel Nederland. Meer lezen: https://t.co/gv6Q6xd2Nipic.twitter.com/NfT7tBdk1Q
The “Alles voor Mekaar” Foundation (which translates to “All Together”) runs the coffee corners with local volunteers. They connect lonely seniors with people who can help with things like gardening and grocery shopping, but mostly they just provide a place for people to show up and talk.
This is all happening while the grocery industry is moving in the exact opposite direction. Self-checkout lanes, automated systems, less human interaction. Jumbo looked at that trend and said no thanks, we’re going to do the thing that actually helps people.
The Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport has supported local coalitions in all 355 municipalities across the Netherlands to fight loneliness through home visits, hotlines, and activity directories for seniors. The chat checkouts are one piece of a much larger national effort.
It’s a pretty simple idea. Some people just want to talk while they’re buying their groceries. So you give them a place to do that.
Janai Norman (@janai) was about to go on-air with her ABC News co-host Kenneth Moton when she felt something poke her pregnant belly. Hard.
She spun around at full speed, ready to smack Moton for messing with her. Then she realized he was standing several feet away, completely innocent, and had no idea what was happening.
“Oh… I am sorry, I got kicked, and I thought you poked me. I was ready to swat you,” Norman said, seconds before dissolving into laughter.
The baby had kicked so hard it felt exactly like someone pressing a finger into her belly. Moton cracked up. “The baby is like, ‘Watch this,’” he joked.
Norman shared the throwback moment on TikTok on March 30, and the video has been viewed 5.8 million times. The comments are full of other pregnant people confirming that yes, some kicks absolutely feel like someone jabbing you from the outside.
“I know exactly which kind of ‘poke’ kick she felt! It’s not a normal baby kick! It legit feels like a big finger poke,” one person wrote.
Another said, “I know exactly what that kick felt like lol. I don’t even know if it’s a kick or some weird placenta movement, but it happens sometimes when I yawn or stretch. It feels like something poked you hard as f**k. It makes me jump every time.”
Someone else confessed, “Every time my baby would kick me, I always thought my phone was getting a notification, lol.”
One commenter pointed out that Norman’s instant protective reaction was actually kind of sweet: “She’s going to be a great mom; she went right into protector mode.”
The whole thing happened in the span of maybe three seconds, but it perfectly captures one of the weirder parts of being pregnant. Your body does things you have zero control over, and sometimes those things are so startling you almost clock your coworker on live television.
Moton dodged a bullet. The baby, meanwhile, was probably just stretching.
