At Upworthy, we love sharing the “best of humanity” with our audience, and this story out of Utah, originally reported by CBS News’ Steve Hartman, shows the power of love to break down barriers. When Schauna Austin was 20 years old, she got pregnant and knew she wasn’t ready to raise a child, so she made the difficult decision to give the baby up for adoption. She gave birth to a son she named Riley and only had three days to spend with him before surrendering him to his new family. So, she held him tight for 72 hours straight. “It was perfect,” Austin said about those three emotionally-charged days. “I knew I would have him for a short time, so I made every minute count of it. I didn’t sleep for three days.” It must have been tough for Austin to give up her son because the grieving process of surrender and adoption can be incredibly difficult. The beginning of an unlikely journey Riley was placed with Chris and Jennifer Schoebinger through a closed adoption, and they decided to rename him Steven. In a closed adoption, the birth mother, Austin, would not receive any information about the adoptive family. In Utah, closed adoptions are a rarity these days, with about 95% allowing some exchange of information between the birth and adoptive parents. Usually, the birth parents have a good deal of input over whether they prefer to have regular contact or not with the adoptive family. However, about a week later, the Schoebingers made a major decision. The Schoebingers decided Austin should be involved in Steven’s life. They wanted to officially open the closed adoption. You can imagine that it’s a big and potentially risky decision for adoptive parents to bring in a birth parent. It could complicate things, stir up difficult feelings, or even bring conflict into their lives. But the Schoebingers weren’t worried about any of that. “It was like, ‘OK, this is the way it should be. She was part of our family,'” Jennifer told CBS News. “You know, you can’t have too many people loving you, right? Why couldn’t he be both of ours?” Chris added. A life documented in books and photos Every year, the Schoebingers sent Austin pictures and bound journals showing Steven’s journey in deep detail. They even had lists of all the new words he learned each year. The books were titled “The Life and Times of ‘Riley,’” paying homage to Steven’s original name. The Schoebingers sent Steven’s mother photos every year until the two were ready to meet. Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash The hope was that one day when the biological mother and son were ready, they could pick up where they left off. That moment came when Steven was seven years old and his biological mother taught him to fish. The unique arrangement has been fantastic for both Austin and her biological son. “I was blessed beyond words,” Austin said. “I kind of got the best of both worlds, for sure,” Steven agreed. It may seem like relationships between children and those who gave them up for adoption would be complicated, but studies show that 84% of adoptees reported high levels of satisfaction when maintaining ongoing contact with their birth parents. It’s considered the standard these days unless there are specific reasons why it’s in the best interest of the child to have the adoption be closed. Steven is now 28 and in August 2022, he and his wife, Kayla, had their first child, a boy they named…wait for it…Riley. Austin, herself, is now a grandmother. He’s heeere!!! ? Our first grandchild. Welcome, Riley. You don’t know me yet, but our home will always be your home. No matter what life throws your way, you will be loved and accepted and we’ll eat pie! And ice cream. And you’ll wonder if that’s the only thing grandpa eats? ? pic.twitter.com/7ac8A0GVKI— Chris Schoebinger (@PUBGUY) August 19, 2022 The remarkable story of Austin and the Schoebinger family proves that when we put walls between ourselves and others, we are often blocking everyone off from more love and support. It’s Father’s Day. And as a father, I’m excited for my son to soon be a new father. Still strange to think I’ll be a grandfather. But I’m really looking forward to it. pic.twitter.com/0RZlD8cwP7— Chris Schoebinger (@PUBGUY) June 19, 2022 The emotional response to their story People on social media were incredibly moved by the story. Dozens of commenters chimed in on YouTube to express their gratitude for the families involved: “Steven’s adoptive parents are WONDERFUL! They weren’t selfish, and did what was best for STEVEN, His dad said it best—–the more love a child has, the better. His bio mom lucked out with this special couple as well, especially when they sent her the books each year! This story was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!” one user wrote. “Speaks volumes of his adoptive parents and also the love of his natural mother to make the hardest decision on earth,” another said. “Thank you for including the birth mom in the raising of your son. I’m adopted and it was a closed one. the struggle of not knowing your birth parents is real. I just spent my first Christmas in 56 years with my Ukrainian birth family. Full circle family is love. Oh what a ride!” someone added. Ultimately, Chris Schoebinger, the adoptive dad, said it best: “I think the lesson we learned is that sometimes we create barriers where barriers don’t need to be. And when we pull down those barriers, we really find love on the other side,” Chris said. This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.The post 20-year-old woman agreed to a closed adoption for her baby, then got a wonderful surprise appeared first on Upworthy.

Millennials and Gen Z truly have a sibling kind of relationship. They take turns teasing each other but in the end it’s nothing but love between the two generations. One such viral taunting involved people saying that Gen Zers have aged like milk. Several Gen Zers themselves even agreed that people often mistake them for much older than they are. But that’s neither here nor there. Gen Z eventually fired back with their own commentary about how poorly millennials age. But millennials came with receipts to prove that this was beyond untrue. Millennial Chris Bautista uploaded a pretty savage video response to these young whippersnappers explaining why they feel that way. According to Bautista, the answer is quite simple. Millennials set the bar for what aging looks like for people approaching middle age. Why millennials think they’re aging better “I’m gonna say this a little bit louder for the Gen Zers in the back that didn’t hear me the last time. Millennials look fantastic for our age and you cannot tell us otherwise,” Bautista starts. “The reason why you think we don’t look great for our ages is because we have set the new standard of what it looks like to age.” Then he pulls out the evidence. Pictures of celebrities who were the age millennials are right now when the pictures were taken. Yikes! Most millennials look nowhere near the age of the people in the pictures. Watch the video: @bautistud This needs to be said for millenials ? #millennialsoftiktok #genzvsmillenial #aging ♬ original sound – Chris Bautista Fellow millennials were quick to chime in with their guesses as to why they are the poster children for anti-aging. “It’s cause all millennials used the St. Ives peach scrub exfoliating wash and we achieved eternal youth,” someone surmised. “It’s gotta be the Flintstone vitamins,” another quipped. “I don’t know, I am 40 and got stopped at my son’s high school security guard because he thought I was a student. No one ever believes my age,” wrote a third. A fourth shared, “But seriously like what’s the reason? Cause this life has been stressful.” Experts actually have some answers There are several theories as to why the anti-aging phenomenon has occurred. None of them actually involve Flintstones vitamins or St. Ives scrubs, but they do have that signature self deprecating millennial humor. They range from being the first group heavily indoctrinated to cosmetic “tweakments,” to being depressed and therefore indoors all day, to simply having youthful energy due to never being able to truly grow up. A woman getting botox Photo credit: Canva However, according to experts, it really comes down to millennials being among the first group to take the basics seriously. By basics, we mean, sunscreen (and somehow bypassing the anti-sunscreen conspiracy theory craze via TikTok) as well as hydration (hellooooo Stanley water bottles). Plus, millennials aren’t as known to have a proclivity towards vaping, like their Gen Z counterparts. Sometimes it really comes down to the simple things. Regardless of aging it seems that the sibling banter between these two generations will remain alive and well forever and ever. This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated. The post Millennial has brilliant clapback for Gen Zers who try to say they haven’t aged well appeared first on Upworthy.

Americans’ attitudes about water have changed over the past 30 years. In the past, a common phrase on the athletic field was, “Don’t drink too much water, you’ll get a cramp,” which was partially true because of the risk for overhydration. Beyond that, the only people with water bottles were hippies. Now, people everywhere walk around with large water bottles, sometimes up to 64oz, attached to themselves like purses. It’s like people leave the house with the sincere belief that they will not be able to find potable water for the next three weeks. The hydration craze has also meant that water bottles have become trendy status symbols and markers of personal identity. Are you more of a Yeti person or a Stanley? The trend has also been passed down to our children, who are encouraged to bring water bottles to school daily. In 2024, Miss Smith from the popular Bored Teachers TikTok page had fun with the trend in a video that received over 1.5 million views. “Does anyone over 30 remember being allowed to have a water bottle in their elementary classroom?” she asks in the video. @bored_teachers Do you remember these days?! #boredteachers #teachers #teacher ♬ original sound – Bored Teachers The three-second rule Miss Smith recalls the only water she had during school back in the day was at lunch or during snack time and even then, the time she was allowed at the water fountain was limited. “You were like gulping for life at that water fountain while kids behind you were like obnoxiously counting down or being like, ‘She’s getting more than 3 seconds!'” Then, the teacher would tap you on the shoulder, and you were done. “Can you imagine if we did that to today’s kids? The emails! The calls I would get,” she continued. The funny thing is that even though kids didn’t drink much water back in the day—and if they did, it was out of a fountain—somehow they survived. Now, we’re raising an entire generation that feels compelled to lug a heavy and costly bottle with them wherever they go, fearing they will suffer from dehydration. Plenty of people remember those days well The post resonated with many folks over 30 who lived through the dry days of pre-millennium America. “I hear all the time that behavior issues have risen since we were kids; my theory is we were too dehydrated to misbehave,” one commenter joked. “We didn’t have water bottles because they also didn’t want us to ever go to the bathroom,” another added. “I don’t remember drinking water as a kid. Unless it was from a hose, it was Kool-Aid or milk. How am I still alive?” another said. Your water bottle is SO ‘2023’ The hydration craze was a news topic in early 2024 after the new, limited edition Stanley + Starbucks water bottle was released at Target stores. The frenzy over the $49.95 bottle had people camping outside Target and jumping counters to get their hands on newly designed bottles popular with younger women. @vincentmarcus Camped out at Target for the new viral pink Starbucks Stanley cup thing for my kiddo. Ridiculous? Yes. Fun? Also yes…#StanleyCup ♬ original sound – VincentMarcus The bottles promise to keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold for an extended period of time. So, when you drop your daughter off at first period, her water is still cold by the time the 3:05 bell rings. Having cold water throughout the day certainly is a luxury, but does it explain the hype? Some think the hydration craze has gotten out of control, but if history has anything to say about it, trends come and go and extra hydration in fancy cups might be on the way out. This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.The post Teacher explains how ’90s kids never had water bottles in school and ‘somehow’ survived appeared first on Upworthy.

People say having children is like having your heart walk around outside of your body. You send them off to school, practices, or playdates and hope that the world treats them kindly because when they hurt, you hurt. Inevitably, there will be times when your child’s feelings are hurt, so you do your best to prepare for that day. But what prepares you for when the child you love so much winds up accidentally healing your inner child. A mom on TikTok who goes by Soogia posted a video explaining a phone call she received from a parent in her daughter’s classroom. The mom called to inform Soogia that their kids had been sharing lunch with each other. Soogia wasn’t prepared for what came next.  An unexpected phone call  The classmate’s mother informed her that her son loves the food Soogia’s daughter brings to school and wanted to learn how to cook it, too. “I was like, ‘thank you for my food’? Like, what is she talking about? Did she find my TikTok? ‘F**k, I’m mortified.’ But that wasn’t the case,” Soogia recalled, hardly being able to get the story out through her tears. @soogia1 These kids, man. They’re really something else. #culturalappreciation #breakingbread #sharing ♬ Inspiring Emotional Piano – Metrow Ar That may seem like a small thing to some, but the small gesture healed a little bit of Soogia’s inner child. Growing up as a Korean kid in California, Soogia’s experience was a bit different than what her children are now experiencing. Children eating lunch together. Photo via Canva/Photos “I guess I just never thought that my kids would be the generation of kids that could go to school and not only just proudly eat, but share their food with other kids that were just so open and accepting to it,” Soogia says through tears. “Knowing that they don’t sit there eating their food, feeling ashamed and wishing that their fried rice was a bagel instead, or something like that. And I know, it sounds so small and it sounds so stupid, but knowing their experience at school is so different from mine in such a positive way is just so hopeful.” At the end of the video, she vowed to send extra food in her daughter’s lunch every day so she could share her culture with the other kids. The comments were heartfelt Soogia’s tearful video pulled on the heartstrings of her viewers who shared their thoughts in the comments. “Soogia! It will never be small. Your culture is beautiful & the littles are seeing that every day. You’ve even taught me so much. I’m grateful for you,” one person says. “Beautiful! I can see your inner child healing in so many ways,” another writes. “Welp. Now I’m sobbing at the airport. This is beautiful,” someone reveals. “These Gen Alpha babies really are a different, kinder generation. I love them so much,” one commenter gushes. Ultimately, the story is a wonderful reminder that everyone has a backstory and that a simple gesture like appreciating someone’s culture or history can mean far more to them than you’ll ever know. This article originally appeared 2 years ago. It has been updated. The post Mom breaks down in tears after another parent called her about her daughter’s lunch appeared first on Upworthy.

Living abroad is a dream many people have, whether it’s spending a summer in a foreign country or packing up their entire life to make the permanent move. In fact, according to a 2025 Harris Poll, more than half of Americans believe they could have a higher quality of life abroad, and many say they’d move if they had the means. Some estimates show that an estimated 5.5 million Americans live abroad, according to the Association of Americans Resident Overseas. But life is funny, and sometimes these expats come back to the United States for a variety of reasons like family or career, which gives them an extremely interesting perspective when they begin their re-entry. Take American-born TikTok user Kayleigh Donahue, for example. She’s going viral on the platform because of her unflinching take on why it was a mistake for her to move back to the U.S. after spending 4 years in Ireland. Moving to the U.S. was a step backwards Kayleigh moved back to the Boston area from Ireland to make more money, but that didn’t go as planned. Even though she got paid more, the cost of living was so much higher that she saved less money than she did in Ireland. She also missed the generous number of vacation days she got in Europe as compared to America. “I have been bamboozled,” she begins in the now viral clip with over 600 thousand views. @kayshaynee popping off always #americanabroad #usavseurope #movingabroad #livingabroad #europevsamerica #fyp ♬ original sound – Kayleigh Many people like Kayleigh move abroad, especially to European countries, for a slower way of life, better work-life balance, more opportunity for travel, or just to see something different. But America is the land of opportunity, right? For some, that promise always beckons, no matter where they go. So even though Kayleigh had an amazing life in Ireland, she wound up moving home to advance her career and make more money. The real cost of the American Dream “Basically, I really got sucked into the American Dream way of living when I was abroad, which is funny because I loved living abroad,” Kayleigh said. “But you know, making more money, that’s enticing. Good job, that’s enticing. It’s not true. It used to be. It definitely used to be. You could come here and make a ton of money, make a great life for yourself. But the younger generation today, in this country – screwed. It’s literally all a lie that is sold to you. It’s such a struggle, and the older generation doesn’t seem to see how much of a struggle it is for the younger generation here.” In the end, who wants to work harder for a lower quality of life? “Needless to say, I will most likely be moving back to Europe where 20-plus days of paid vacation a year is literally the law, and I will make less money, but somehow, you know, the cost of living is lower there and I can save more,” Kayleigh concluded the video. The comments support Kayleigh Viewers applauded Kayleigh for coming to the realization: “Yep, I made the same mistake. Then I realized that people and quality of life are more important than income. Enjoy life!” one wrote. “Get that. We moved back to US and it was horrible. We moved back to the UK. Happier now was 6 weeks off a year” said another. “I think there are actually very few people who derive their enjoyment and self-worth from their job. Quality of life is so much more important,” another user added. @kayshaynee so lucky to live this life #movingabroad #americanabroad #thenetherlands #europetravel ♬ Swing For The Fences – Elton John & Brandi Carlile Kayleigh made good on her promise. As of January 2025, she now lives in Amsterdam with her Dutch husband, and they seem to be loving their life abroad. A Mercer survey in 2024 put Amsterdam as the sixth best city in the world for quality of life. It’s a place with rich culture, amazing public transportation, and a reasonable cost of living to earning potential ratio.  Young Americans really aren’t asking for that much. They just want to be able to afford and enjoy their life, and they’re willing to work hard for it. America should be giving them those opportunities instead of losing more and more talented young people to other countries. This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated. The post Woman who moved from Ireland to Boston shares why the American dream is ‘all a lie.’ appeared first on Upworthy.