School girls as young as age 14 are knocking fists in pre-arranged brawls down under, then posting footage of their ‘bloody exploits’ online.
In a shocking reversal, a core group of around 30 young teens around south-western Sydney engages in punch-ups in parks and train stations, cheered on by throngs of guys. The premeditated fights are recorded on cell phones and later uploaded to YouTube.
The Australian Sunday Telegraph uncovered two videos in which teens had to be pulled apart following a bout of kicks, punches, and hair pulling. One girl lost part of a tooth.
Another fight only ended after a girl was kicked in the face after falling to the ground in what’s called "a dog shot". Even though the 16-year-old had to be hospitalized after the incident, she was proud to display the footage online. Apparently she even received praise from the local police officers who did little to stop the cat fights.
"But now people know they shouldn't mess with me," she said. "It's good that we have YouTube to get our message out there."
The Acting Deputy Police Commissioner in New South Wales, Carlene York, said police did not condone the behaviour and would “come down hard on any teens who were involved in fights”.
Following inquiries by The Sunday Telegraph, both clips were subsequently removed from YouTube, which does not automatically preview clips uploaded by users and only pulls them following public complaints.
These girls are obviously getting the wrong sort of power and attention from fighting. Cat fights aren’t cool, but they won’t stop as long as there is a receptive audience.
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Motherhood changes all women, in a good way, we think. For actress Christina Applegate the shift in limelight was a welcome change.
“We’ve been self-obsessed for a long time. I had my baby at … 39!” Applegate told USA Today. “Thirty-nine years of doing whatever I wanted to do. Getting up when I wanted to get up. Going where I wanted to go. Completely self-involved.”
Although the Up All Night star had to make some sacrifices along the way since she and fiancé Martyn Lenoble welcomed 7-month-old daughter Sadie Grace into their lives, it's been worth it. One such sacrifice was missing out on a Red Hot Chili Peppers gig with all her friends.
Unlike most "Hollywooders", Applegate chose to hold off on calling in the reinforcements for the first six months of Sadie's life. Only recently did the actress hire a nanny for when she is filming her new series. She has kept her daughter in a protective bubble, away from the paparazzi, yet it seems unlikely she can keep it that way.
“I have not left the house in six months. This is my coming-out party. My bubble has been real tight and real quiet,” she explained. “If anyone gets too close to my kid with a camera, something violent may happen to them.”
Kudos to Applegate. Let’s hope she can continue to keep it real despite her return to work.
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Love might have been in the air the night your kids were conceived. But a recent survey in the Australian Daily Telegraph revealed that most of us would choose Zs over Xs.
In fact, 70 per cent of the 500 Aussie moms polled would prefer a decent night's sleep over a night of mind blowing sex. For moms with a child under one, sleep was an even bigger fantasy, with 81 per cent choosing sleep over sex.
The fascinating survey also revealed many home truths which exhausted, time-poor mums don't even reveal to friends and family, like over 30 per cent of moms have medicated their kids to get them to sleep or just calm them down.
Nearly 40 per cent admitted they'd sent their child to school or daycare sick, as they had no choice due to work commitments.
"There is not a lot of honesty in today's society about the reality of being a mother, we are led to believe that it's not at all difficult to be the perfect mother," said Amanda Cox, who developed a popular Aussie website called Real Mums.
"On top of that, commercials are full of happy, smiley mothers who have their hair done and are not wearing their pyjamas at 4pm."
Some other fascinating stats flagged by the survey:
around 30 per cent moms would prefer to lose five to 10 kilograms than add five to 10 points to their child's IQ.
a third of moms admit to feeling jealous of their childless friends at least some of the time.
almost 30 per cent of those with two or more children admit to having a favourite child at least sometimes.
almost half of moms feel pressure to compete with other mothers with regard to their child's achievements.
Are you surprised by any of these findings?
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