Denaesha Gonzalez is a Tiktoker who started this trend with a simple video. The trend started off with a video of a purse sitting in Target’s baby aisle as if the mom had to put it down to purchase baby necessities. This blew up on TikTok and influencers across the app decided to make a difference. Women on the app shared their experiences of being a struggling mother.
Mothers from all over collectively said, “We, as mothers, have to give up what we want to be able to afford the necessities for babies”. Each baby has different circumstances that could lead to more expensive products than others. Overall, the average price of diapers is .20-.30 cents per diaper if you use 10 diapers a day you are spending $60-$90 a month. This doesn’t include wipes, clothing, food, and medical bills for babies that are sick.
Influencers then took the initiative to go to baby aisles of stores and hide money in the products so that the mothers had some extra money to get themselves something. Some hid gift cards with notes and some went up to mothers in the stores and offered to pay for their shopping trip. This created a movement of mothers looking out for other mothers and spreading the word that mothers deserve to take care of themselves too. Influencers like Avery Woods and Abbie Herbert were some mothers who followed this trend. Even non-mothers decided to jump in such as Natalie Zacek and Brooke Monk.
The downside of this trend is non-mothers raiding the baby aisles and tearing apart the products to look for money. Some influencers believe if the person needs the money that bad let them take it, others think this trend is done from mothers to other mothers. Another problem is negative comments on these videos saying, “Do this at Walmart where mothers can actually afford” and “You’re just giving an opportunity for people to take the money and then the mothers don’t get it”. Influencers then can’t catch a break for just trying to give back and use their platform for good.
I think this trend is a good way to use social media for good. A way for women to support women. People who are more fortunate than others to give back. It’s unfortunate that some people can’t let good be spread and maybe this could be an eye-opening experience to still be good to the world even if some take advantage of it.