As a lover of puns, I absolutely love this story about a teen who came out to her parents in the most creative, ingenious way I've read yet: she baked a cake.
Bear with me, it gets better. Not only did a 15-year-old named Laurel "sweeten the blow" to her parents, she iced the words I AM GAY on the cake and delivered a handwritten message.
According to an article in Gawker, the note read:
"Good morning parents, I'm gay. I've wanted to tell you for a long time. I thought doing it this way would be a piece of cake. I hope you still love me. I mean, it's hard not to love someone who baked you a cake.
All my friends know and still love me. Your acceptance would be the icing on the cake. I hope you, much like this cake, are not in tiers.
I hope we can look back on this and say 'boy, this one really takes the cake.'
It gets batter.
Love, Laurel (sorry for so many puns)"
A sweetener, for sure. Lauren's parents should be proud of their daughter's creative spirit, not least of which her remarkable bravery.
Fortunately the cake—and the message—were well received by the teen's parents who hugged, laughed, chatted, and of course, devoured the cake.
Laurel, we at YMC agree, cake makes everything batter! Wishing you and your family a sweet future...
So much for sticks and stones. One school's answer to a bullied 13-year-old girl is...plastic surgery. Gabrielle Jackson is a sixth grader who has been taunted and harassed by classmates. The school's solution? Suggest to the mother that her daughter opt for breast reduction surgery.
Mom Tammie Jackson was outraged about Riverview Gardens School District's response to the bullying, which she claims included two options: either Gabrielle should transfer schools or go under the knife.
"It makes me feel like now you are telling me it's my fault, it's God's fault the way he made her." said Jackson in an article on Huffington Post. "[The school should] talk with the kids, let them know, you know, people's bodies are changing, everybody's body is different but God made us all great."
The school is of course investigating the allegations, which it maintains stemmed from miscommunication. Cosmetic surgery is on the up among American teens, with nearly 219,000 ops being performed on 13 to 19 year olds in 2010.
Last year a 14-year-old girl made headlines when a children's charity footed the $40,000 surgical bill, which included "otoplasty—pinning back her ears, rhinoplasty—reducing the size of her nose—and mentoplasty—altering her chin."
But is plastic surgery really the answer to the bullying problem? Psychologist and author of "Face It," Vivian Diller claims such procedures are not only dangerous but they send "a terrible message" to both bullies and their victims.
"Do we really think that changing physical features undoes the emotional damage created by being teased?" asked Diller. "And aren't we validating the very message behind bullies' actions, that diversity and variation is bad? We need to be encouraging young people to admire and embrace differences -- and that starts from an early age."
How do you teach your kids to like their features, idiosyncrasies and all? Erica Ehm's story seems like a good place to start...
Life really does throw some screwballs sometimes. If I hadn't stepped on his foot, my husband wouldn't be the luckiest man alive! And if a British schoolboy hadn't been hit by a car, he may not be alive today. (I'll wait here while you read that sentence again.)
When eight-year-old Liam Taylor was knocked off of his bicycle, he was out cold and suffered memory loss. As a precautionary measure, doctors ordered a brain scan, wherein they discovered a tumour they believe would have killed him within two weeks.
According to an article in the UK Sun, the youngster underwent a seven-hour surgery at Sheffield Children’s Hospital to remove the malignant growth. Had the tumour not been found, the boy would have likely suffered a stroke or paralysis.
“If Liam had not had the accident he might not be with us today—it was an amazing piece of luck,” said his mother Sharmane.
With Liam now released from hospital and on the road to recovery, his mother has asked police to try to track down the driver of the car—not so she can take legal action against him but "so we can send them a card to thank them for saving my lad’s life.”
Stranger than fiction, isn't it?
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