Category: TikTok

Categories
Dogs Pets Religion TikTok

People believe the rapture is coming today and hope they can take their dogs

people-believe-the-rapture-is-coming-today-and-hope-they-can-take-their-dogs




Happy New Year, bitches! Or alternatively, salutations on this day of the rapture. Allow me to explain: today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It falls on a different date in the Gregorian calendar each year because the Gregorian calendar is solar, while the Jewish one is lunisolar. (And the Chinese is lunar, rounding out the trifecta of New Years I observed as a Jewish kid growing up in San Francisco. Shanah Tovah Gong Hei Lang Syne.) But today is also special because Jesus visited a South African pastor in a dream to give him the heads-up that the rapture will be taking place today and tomorrow. Pastor Joshua Mhlakela dutifully spread the good word that “The rapture is upon us, whether you are ready or not,” and social media took the baton from there by spawning the hashtag #RaptureTok. So as faithful TikTokers contemplate their (potential) upcoming ascent to heaven, they have a fervent request for Jesus: please let us take our dogs!

If you’re unfamiliar, the rapture in Christianity is the belief that good Christ-loving folks of Earth — both living and dead — will ascend to heaven with Jesus Christ.

People have taken this belief and run with it on social media, which has started the trend of #RaptureTok.

In the hundreds of videos with that tag on TikTok, you’ll discover everything from rapture tips to people wondering if they can take their dogs with them if they’re the chosen ones.

One woman’s video with over 200,000 views is making light of it all by referencing another jokester’s videos on the topic. “He’s a riot, he’s making this whole journey so fun.”

She went on to explain that in one of his videos, he mentions how there’s an angel assigned to each person when they get raptured. “He’s like, ‘I wonder if our pets get raptured too.’ He goes, ‘Could you imagine the angel that’s assigned the one little Chihuahua? They’re going up 1,000 miles per hour,’” she said, giggling.

…“I ask God all the time to please take my dogs when we’re raptured,” someone wrote in the comment section of that video.

“I have prayed for my fur babies to be raptured with me,” agreed someone else.

“They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household.’ My household includes my fur babies,” a hopeful commenter wrote, quoting scripture.

While there are plenty of serious videos on the topic, of course, there are many skeptics making light of the situation, dogs aside.

One video posted under #RaptureTok showed two people hysterically laughing with overlay text that read: “I am so petty I am going to lay out a couple of outfits in my driveway on sept 24th so when my neighbor walks his dog he will think me and my dog made it to heaven for the rapture and they didn’t.”

[From NY Post]

I love how all these people are worried about whether their fur babies can go with them, as if it wasn’t the reverse that is the case: that our pets are assured entrance while we humans ought to be praying we get to tag along with them! Don’t these TikTokers know the holy proverb, All dogs go to heaven?? And of course there’s the argument that heaven is wherever your dog is. Honestly, though, and despite this not being my religion, I’m confident in saying that these 48 hours are not the rapture. Not after learning that the tragic half of the rapture decrees that “those left behind will endure seven years of suffering, war and devastation led by the Antichrist.” Is that not proof positive the event already took place, and we’re the left behinds?

Whether you’re reading this edition of Celebitchy from heaven, hell, or whatever it is that constitutes our current plane of existence, I say Merry September 23, ya filthy animals!

Photos credit: Jozef Fehér, Pixabay, musicFactory lehmannsound, Laurie Gouley, Matheus Bertelli on Pexels

Categories
Feuds food TikTok

People are review bombing a NJ bagel shop for not spreading cream cheese

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As I’ve mentioned one or two or a trillion times, I had a lovely beach interlude at the Jersey Shore last week. Not gonna lie, the reentry to “reality” has been a bit of an emotional crash landing — much like the physical ass-whooping I got from the ocean herself each and every time I attempted a graceful exit, only to be slapped down on the sand over and over again until the lifeguard sidled up to hoist me back to standing. It really was a wonderful trip! Anyway, I was in Asbury Park, where the boardwalk is fun, the restaurants are fab, and the Bruce worship is real. But if I’d traveled a little further south, I could’ve popped into Seaside Park, a shore town now living in infamy thanks to a controversial bagel shop. How controversial could a bagel joint called Bella’s really be? Well, earlier this month TikToker Valentina posted photographic evidence of two bagels purchased from Bella’s in which there is a shocking lack of cream cheese spreadage. The situation devolved from there.

“Bella’s Bagels in Jersey Shore, what is this?” she says as she holds a bagel with a thick block of cream cheese centered between the two halves, which appears to not have been spread. “Did you just cut Philadelphia cream cheese and put the freaking block?”

“And I know it’s not a mistake, because what is this?” she says, showing off a second bagel with cream cheese, even worse than the first. There’s so much cream cheese plopped on one side of the bagel that there is a visible cavernous space on the other side.

“This is not OK, guys, you have to spread your cream cheese,” she says.

In response, Valentina received over 12,000 mostly supportive comments.

…Bella’s Bagels, which also has a TikTok account, posted an indirect response video but later deleted it after receiving backlash. And because the internet is forever, it was reposted by another TikToker.

“This is how we actually make bagels with cream cheese,” an employee says in the now-deleted video.

She shows the process: cutting the bagel, toasting it and, finally, spreading the cream cheese.

…And if it wasn’t clear that the video was directed at Valentina, the closing line really seals the deal.

“And just to be clear, it’s at the Jersey Shore, not in the Jersey Shore,” the employee says, referencing the opening line of Valentina’s TikTok.

The video didn’t go over well, with many calling it “rude” and “passive aggressive.”

“Well hers didn’t look like this soooo,” noted one TikTok user.

Now, Bella’s Bagels’ TikTok account is being inundated with negative comments, many of them photos of the offending bagel, and its Yelp page has been frozen due to review bombing.

Valentina posted an update on Aug. 11 asking people to stop tagging the bagel spot.

She also said some of the employees reached out through their personal TikTok accounts, offering to remedy the situation, which she “appreciated” but “left it alone” until she saw the now-deleted video from Bella’s Bagels.

“Now I see that the company is actually posting a video, and they’re throwing shade at the end, which is so unnecessary,” she says in the video. “Like, if you are trying to fix bad PR, you should probably respond to me and not like, make a snide comment — that’s just my two cents.”

[From Today.com]

I don’t know, sounds to me like Valentina can schmear it out but can’t take getting schmeared back! She called out Bella’s Bagels for a double case of improper cream cheese spreading; I don’t think it’s “snide” or “passive aggressive” for Bella’s Bagels to respond in kind with their own vernacular correction. Valentina opened the door — very publicly! — and to me it seemed like Bella’s was just volleying back. But then again, I am a word nerd, and Valentina saying “Bella’s Bagels IN Jersey Shore” hit me like nails on a chalkboard. And I’m from San Francisco! (Though an honorary Jersey Girl through family lineage.) That’s just my two cents.

As for the crime at issue, the spreading of the cream cheese or lack thereof. I have watched both TikToks, the initial complaint and the rebuttal, and have rendered judgment as follows: the schmear spreading policy as laid out in the restaurant’s video is more than satisfactory, it’s exemplary (soft schmear spread to the outer rim). It’s also totally not the bagel(s) Valentina received! Someone definitely fell down on Valentina’s order. But is it worth Bella’s getting toasted by hordes of internet people who’ve never been there? That seems like an overly-charred response.

Categories
health Surgery TikTok

‘Eye tattooing’ to change eye color is trending but ophthalmologists warn against it

‘eye-tattooing’-to-change-eye-color-is-trending-but-ophthalmologists-warn-against-it




Today in WTF?! news, I bring you keratopigmentation, or as the kids are calling it, “eye tattooing.” True to what it sounds like, the cosmetic procedure involves a pigment-filled needle going into your cornea to cover the iris with a new permanent eye color. I’m almost always out by the time I hear “needle” (except for the health and civic duties to stay vaccinated and give blood), but a needle in the eye?? No. Nope to the no no no. Not for me, never will be. But apparently it’s popular, with one ophthalmologist amassing millions of followers on TikTok where he shares before and after pics of patients. But though this Doc loves the work he’s doing, the American Academy of Ophthalmology would like to remind us that the inherent risks of surgery could easily end up harming your eyesight:

A procedure known as keratopigmentation—where color pigment is injected into the cornea to cover the natural iris, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology—has been gaining popularity on social media with its promise to permanently change patients’ eye color in just a matter of minutes.

Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, an ophthalmologist with over 3.4 million TikTok followers, has accrued tens of millions of video views on the platform with clips of his patients’ before-and-after transformations, including one where a woman was overcome with emotion after successfully undergoing the operation to change her eye color to olive green.

“I love it. The color is very natural,” she said in the video, adding that she felt no pain after the surgery. “It’s amazing.”

The video concluded with a notice that the procedure—also known as eye tattooing—could cause “light sensitivity and scratchiness,” but some experts say the risks can be much more extensive.

In January 2024, the American Academy of Ophthalmology issued a release cautioning against the procedure, as they warned of “serious risks for vision loss and complications” including damage to the cornea, bacterial or fungal infection and leakage of the dye into the eye.

“Don’t think that these surgeries carry no risk,” AAO clinical spokesperson JoAnn A. Giaconi, MD, said in the release. “No surgery is free of risk. With purely cosmetic surgeries on the eye, it’s just not worth the risk when it comes to your good vision.”

But Wachler dismissed the advisory as “make believe facts about the dangers of this procedure,” adding that he intends to challenge the Academy’s stance.

“This is going to help make [patients] happy,” he told NBC affiliate WXII in October. “This is what they have dreamed of. And now the technology is there, and it’s proving to allow them to have it.”

[From E! News]

Egads. I don’t even have to ponder the possibility of this, given the needle quotient. Just getting through reading this article was a serious strain on my nerves! But if I really had a burning desire to change my eye color, I would check out contact lenses to achieve the look. Also, as a general rule, I don’t source my doctors on TikTok. Very old fashioned of me, I know. (And to this doctor in particular: remember, your job isn’t only to make patients happy, but to first do no harm.) But really, folks, be safe in how and who you let treat your bodies! And if possible, let’s try to love ourselves as we are? I realize it’s the great journey/struggle of life. Case in point: my mother has blue eyes, but she’s always had a striking brown patch in just one eye. As a kid she didn’t love it, and accused her own mother of making her from a kit. Recently, though, she had cataract surgery (it went perfectly!), and one of her biggest worries going into it was that the brown spot would somehow be affected. Thankfully it wasn’t, and she gets to enjoy it even more now that her vision is so much better!

Photos via Instagram/Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler

Categories
Cheese food TikTok

Woman buys 40-lb half-wheel of Parmigiano cheese from Italy, throws pasta party

woman-buys-40-lb-half-wheel-of-parmigiano-cheese-from-italy,-throws-pasta-party




Humanity has overseen some truly miraculous inventions, not least among them is cheese. I’m not being facetious! It completely boggles my mind that about 1,000 years ago some intrepid (or possibly just bored) Italians thought, “I wonder if I can do more with this cow’s milk?” and then somehow came up with the process of coagulation, adding rennet and a whey starter, breaking the curd down into tiny granules with a special instrument, torching them, and then presto: two wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano ready to be wrapped in linen and placed in moulds! Not one of those phases seems like a logical, natural next step to me. But I guess that’s why I operate on the consumption end of formaggio, as opposed to production. Still, I’m not about to drop $700 on a 40-lb half-wheel of authentic Parmigiano to be shipped to me in the States, which is what one California TikToker just did. And to anyone who asks why she made this exorbitant purchase, Ms. Elise Osafo has an unassailable counter-question: “Why not?”

Sometimes, you must ask yourself, “Why not?” when making decisions. Elise Osafo asked herself this when she bought a 40-lb. half-wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano from Italy for $700. It took only four days for the cheese to travel from Italy to her home in California.

Osafo found inspiration from another creator on TikTok who bought a cheese wheel to recreate the experience of being served pasta in a cheese wheel in Italy. Osafo researched and then decided she would buy the wheel herself, asking, ‘Why not?’

“I have a list on my phone of so many random things I want to do. I thought the first thing I’m going to do is get this cheese,” Osafo tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Because why wouldn’t I want to have that cheese in my home? That’s how it came to be in my possession.”

Osafo has already used her cheese wheel twice: once to make an alfredo pasta; the other to host a pasta party with her friends. They made a lot of fresh pasta and sauces and then lit the cheese wheel on fire to enjoy it like one would tableside at an Italian restaurant. She’s earned more than 700,000 views on a Tiktok about the experience.

“With the cheese wheel, specifically, it’s been a lot of fun bringing my friends around to experience this together,” Osafo shares. “It’s just a fun way of being a part of my community and getting to share and enjoy together.”

Osafo has until June 8 to use up all the cheese before it goes bad. Until then, she plans on making different pastas and continuing to share with her friends.

Her cheese wheel purchase is the first part in her series about ‘100 Why Nots,’ in which she documents 100 things she does after asking herself, “Why not?”

“It’s based on the mindset that I have that I feel like life is meant to be fun and exciting, and I think we are meant to do the fun, little weird things that we might find interesting,” Osafo shares.

“Because why wouldn’t you want to experience that joy? Or accomplish that goal? Or, you know, whatever it has to be. It could be a huge thing or simple little things where it’s like, why not?”

“I got a tattoo in Amsterdam two years ago, and it says, ‘Why Not?’ That phrase has guided all my choices in my adult life, like deciding to become a content creator, deciding to go to law school, deciding to pursue my different interests and the different things that I’ve done — it’s all been this ‘Why not?’ mindset,” Ofaso recalls.

[From People]

“I have a list on my phone of so many random things I want to do. I thought the first thing I’m going to do is get this cheese… Because why wouldn’t I want to have that cheese in my home?” I mean, as I said before, her logic is objectively unimpeachable here. And yet… I have questions, like: has she already gone to law school, or is that still on the random to-do list? I’m just imagining her in class or mock trial: “Because, your honor, why not?” Or: “But your honor, my client was simply following the mantra of his tattoo!” Of course the $700 question is, what’s funding all this?! Because if someone asked me, “why not spend hundreds of dollars on a hunk of cheese bigger than my dog,” I would have many answers at the ready. Little things, like rent, or 12,000 meals for the price of that one cheese wheel. On the other hand, I’m 92.7% certain I’m not having as much fun as Elise is, so I give her props for her cheerful approach to life. I’ve even had my own “why nots” from time to time, most recently and persistently, “why not quit my day job?” If I ever take the plunge, we’ll know the 40-lb cheese that finally tipped the scale.

Woman Buys $700, 40-lb. Cheese Wheel Direct from Italy — but the Reason Behind the Purchase Is Much Bigger (Exclusive) https://t.co/EA4ieXwCpx

— People (@people) March 16, 2025

@eltheegg I bought a half wheel of cheese. 100 Why Nots Ep. 1 #whynot #foodie #parmigianoreggiano ib: @Alessandra ♬ In the Mood – Glenn Miller
@eltheegg This is my cheese. #cheesewheel #cookwithme #foodie ♬ Vintage Jazz Bar – Jazz Music Cafe
Categories
Business Kevin O'Leary Legal Issues TikTok

Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary is close to a deal to buy TikTok

shark-tank’s-kevin-o’leary-is-close-to-a-deal-to-buy-tiktok

Embed from Getty Images


The countdown is on before America’s TikTok ban goes into effect. A quick refresher: Back in April 2024, Biden signed a bipartisan bill into law requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, to sell the app to a US company within 270 days or risk being removed from US app stores and any “internet hosting services” that support it. Government officials and members of Congress have been given some pretty alarming intelligence briefings about the company, which is challenging the law in front of the Supreme Court on Friday, January 10. The deadline for the sale is January 19, and if I may say, it feels like we’ve all lived 270 different lifetimes over the past nine months.

Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary is trying to swoop in and save the day. On Monday, he announced that he and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt are close to finalizing a deal to buy TikTok from ByteDance and therefore prevent the ban from happening. He even went on Fox News to appeal to the president-elect to help him get it across the finish line in the upcoming months.

“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary on Monday said he’s nearing a deal to purchase TikTok’s U.S. business in a move that would save the popular app from being banned from the States. TikTok is set to be banned from the U.S. on Jan. 19, unless the company’s parent company, Beijing-based Bytedance, can find a buyer for its American business.

O’Leary, while making an appearance on “The Story with Martha MacCallum” on Fox News, said he’ll need the assistance of president-elect Donald Trump to get the deal across the finish line.

“Trump will be who we have to work with to close the deal in the months ahead. So I wanted to let him know, as well as others in his cabinet, that we’re doing this, and we’re going to need their help.”

Earlier in the day, O’Leary posted on X that he was partnering with former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt on his bid for TikTok. A deal for TikTok’s American business will not be cheap. Wedbush Managing Director Dan Ives told TheWrap last month a deal for TikTok — which has 170 million monthly users in the U.S. — would cost a record-setting $300 billion.

The TikTok ban was initially floated during Trump’s first administration, before ultimately being passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden last April. The chief concern U.S. lawmakers have with TikTok is that it doubles as a spyware app for the Chinese government; TikTok, according to Chinese law, is required to share user data with China’s communist government, if it is asked to do so.

Most Americans do not seem to be too concerned with China’s government having easy access to their data, though. Only 32% of Americans are in favor of the U.S. government banning TikTok, according to a Pew Research Center survey in September.

Despite his initial support, Trump has since changed his tune on banning TikTok, saying last year that he would like to “save” the app. And in December, Trump reiterated he would like to keep TikTok in the U.S. He said he’d “take a look” at saving TikTok, noting he had a “warm spot” in his heart for it because it helped get young people to vote for him.

TikTok has been scrambling to find a legal remedy to keep its app in the U.S. as its ban date approaches. In mid-December, The U.S. Supreme Court said it would listen to arguments from TikTok on why it should block the law behind the ban. That crucial hearing is set for Friday.

[From The Wrap]

I know a lot of you disagree with the ban, but as someone who has never had a TikTok account and therefore has no dog in this fight, I think it’s crazy how little people seem to care about the Chinese government potentially having “easy access” to their data. There’s an entire political party that thinks they need AK-47s to defend themselves against the US government because they think there are nanobytes or whatever spying on them through 5G technology. Yet, it’s totally cool for a foreign government to know their personal business? I said it back in April, and I’ll say it again: If you have Senators Liz Warren and Tom Cotton voting the same way based on intelligence briefings they’ve gotten, then there is definitely cause for concern.

All that said, I am absolutely for avoiding a ban by having a U.S. company or investor buy it. It’s even better now that it’s not Steve Mnuchin doing the acquiring! If only someone could only convince Mark Cuban to buy Twitter, lol. I think O’Leary is right to go on Fox and talk up the 47th president’s involvement in a deal happening. Tell that old man whatever he needs to hear to make it happen. I have no idea which way this ban will play out, but I strongly feel that in the end, it’s going to be up to whatever the 47th president tells his cult members to do.

Embed from Getty Images

Categories
Hygiene shoes TikTok

It’s socially acceptable in Australia to walk around barefoot & Americans have thoughts

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A big dream of mine is to go to Australia one year to get to experience a summer birthday and swim in the ocean there. I never feel more spiritually grounded and supported than when I’m bobbing along with the waves, and my gosh their waters look gorgeous. So bright, so clear! And much warmer than the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans I’ve always lived near. So that’s my fantasy, but one aspect of Aussie culture, particularly beach Aussie culture, that I wasn’t aware of until now is that some people walk around barefoot? Not just on the beach, but everywhere. And I am not alone in just learning this. A video has gone viral on TikTok that shows Aussies doing everything from food shopping to walking their dogs at indoor and outdoor venues, all sans shoes. Naturally, people online have very strong opinions both for and against barefoot living:

Barefoot in the park… and store, and beach, and supermarket: For many down under, going barefoot is a way of life. When we’re not getting around in thongs (flip flops, for the dirty-minded), we often forgo shoes when going for a quick trip to the supermarket, the petrol station or Maccas. But now, the rest of the world has discovered our collective shoelessness, leaving many stunned and even horrified. A video montage of Sydney locals walking around barefoot has gone viral on TikTok, racking up over 4.4 million views, 200,000 reactions and 7,000 comments. … The video exposed our dirty habit, with the poster saying: “POV: You’re in Australia” with a crying emoji.

The world reacts: Even though we pride ourselves on being a clean country, people still seem to take issue with our nonchalant attitude towards the hygiene and safety of our feet. “But why?? So many insects, broken glass, urine etc.,” one comment, with 1,500 likes, read. …Even our fellow countrymen chimed in, with one saying, “I’m from Melbourne and can’t think of anything filthier than being barefoot on public floors.” … Other international commenters thought it was a joke. “Can someone please confirm if this is real?” one confused viewer asked. “What?! Do people not have shoes??” another shocked man wrote. “Aren’t there bugs, snakes and weird plants everywhere?” someone else replied.

Australia responds: “As a born and raised Aussie, this is true, but only in beachside suburbs, more people wear shoes than not but definitely have memories of hot days barefoot in the supermarket getting ice cream,” one said. “It’s only acceptable if you’re close to the beach,” someone wrote. Others went so far as to specify the exact radius from the beach it’s acceptable to go sans shoes. “10km or less,” one said. “Nah, it’s 5km,” a second quipped. Others couldn’t see the issue and even argued that it was our “natural state of being.” “We weren’t born with shoes, why is this so strange to some people?” one questioned. “It’s ‘grounding’,” another joked. … There isn’t a clear reason why it’s so common to go barefoot in Australia. Some have put it down to the influence of our Indigenous culture. Others see it as a reflection of our casual, laid-back society.

[From NY Post]

What do we think? I am all over the place on this issue! My gut reaction was nope, not happening, I don’t care how clean you think your country is. But then I wondered if I was just recoiling thanks to my frame of reference for the past 10 years: the mean streets of New York City. I would sooner remove my shirt, split it in two, wrap my feet in the strips, and go around topless than walk these streets barefoot. But hygiene isn’t the only consideration here. What about temperature? I’ve had times where we left our flip flops at the beach entrance, thinking we’d frolic freely, only to have to make a mad, desperate dash back when the sand was burning our feet. I can’t imagine the sidewalk being any cooler! And speaking of flip flops, I only ever wear them in beach or pool situations, because despite their being ubiquitous, I have never found them comfortable. Is going around all day barefoot comfortable? I need support! As I’ve opined before, I don’t f–k with fashion stilts (aka high heels), instead proudly wearing the cloudlike footwear that are Hoka sneakers. After living with that level of buoyancy, am I a lost cause for trying out barefeet?

Clearly I have a lot of sole-searching to do (see what I did there?!) before I’m ready to book my trip down under. Wait for me, Bondi Beach… I’ll make it someday!

Is going barefoot acceptable? #barefoot #australia #onlyinaustralia #barefootlife #barefooting pic.twitter.com/rQFVoXmMFB

— 7NEWS Australia (@7NewsAustralia) December 12, 2024

Note by CB: I found this BBC news report about Australians going barefoot!


Photo note by CB: These photos of Chris Hemsworth, Matt Damon, Elsa Pataky and Luciana Damon are from 2018 and were taken in Sydney! Bonus pics of Hugh Jackman on Bondi Beach in 2019. Credit: Diimex/Backgrid. Photo of Chris Hemsworth at the Transformers One premiere in September credit: James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon

Categories
Jools Lebron Lists TikTok

‘Demure’ named the 2024 word of the year from Dictionary.com

‘demure’-named-the-2024-word-of-the-year-from-dictionary.com



The Brits got us started last week when the UK’s Cambridge Dictionary announced their 2024 word of the year: Manifest. What with celebrities, social media influencers, and the GOAT herself Simone Biles talking up the practice of visualizing goals into reality, not to mention the word being looked up 130,000 times on Cambridge’s website, manifest proved itself to be an obvious winner. Not to be outdone, American-based Dictionary.com has now announced their pick for 2024, and it is a very mindful choice. Yes, our favorite TikTok etiquette expert Jools Lebron launched “Demure” into being word of the year! A feat I consider doubly impressive considering her profile only really took off in August. And even better, Dictionary.com is giving Jools due credit for the word’s soaring popularity. Which of course is very demure, very mindful of them.

“The word ‘demure’ experienced a meteoric rise in usage in 2024. Between January and the end of August, this term saw a nearly 1200% increase in usage in digital web media alone,” the announcement read. “This sharp rise is mainly attributed to TikToker Jools Lebron’s popularization of the phrase.”

According to Dictionary.com, the term ‘demure’ means to be characterized by shyness and modesty and to be reserved.

The original TikTok video posted by Lebron, 31, on Aug. 5, showed her sitting in a car with makeup on as a caption over the clip read, “How to be demure … at the workplace,” before she shared her tips to the camera.

“You see how I do my make-up for work? Very demure, very mindful,” Lebron, who identifies as transgender, said. “I don’t come to work with a green cut crease. I don’t look like a clown when I go to work. I don’t do too much, I’m very mindful while I’m at work.”

“See how I look very presentable? The way I came to the interview is the way I go to the job. A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like my Marge Simpson and go to the job looking like Patty and Selma — not demure,” the TikToker joked. “I’m very modest. I’m very mindful.”

The clip was quickly reshared and recreated in other videos shared on the platform with Lebron’s voiceover uttering the phrase “very demure” playing over the top. The video has since garnered five million likes on TikTok.

Lebron, who has become a social media star on the back of the video, acknowledged the announcement of ‘demure’ as the word of the year as she reposted the news on her Instagram Stories on Monday, Nov. 26.

“Between August 2023 and July 2024, there was no significant trend in the usage of the word ‘demure.’ By the week of Aug. 18, 2024, however, there was almost 14 times more interest in the term, highlighting the term’s almost overnight explosion in popularity,” Dictionary.com explained, referring to Lebron’s impactful video.

[From People]

That Marge Simpson line gets me every time! Well done, Jools. As I’ve said of Ms. Lebron before, I love a gal who promotes etiquette and vocabulary. While “demure” used to primarily mean reserved, quiet, or modest, Dictionary.com notes that Jools’ TikTok tutorials have broadened its definition to mean refinement and sophistication, particularly as it pertains to appearance and/or behavior. If she’s wielding that kind of influence, I really hope Jools is able to make money from this! (Mindfully and demurely, of course.) She’s filed to trademark her catchphrase “very demure, very mindful,” after a brief scare that she’d missed out when some interloper filed to trademark ahead of her. American trademark law is nothing if not convoluted, but I still think Jools has a strong case in terms of having already clearly made the phrase her public signature. And if Dictionary.com says searches for “demure” increased 1,200% percent between January and August, how much more has that percentage skyrocketed since her August videos gained traction? I’d venture to guess by very un-demure margins.

photos via Instagram and YouTube/Good Morning America