When people think of portraits from the Victorian era, the images that come to mind are usually women in tight corsets with extremely pale skin. Children were also very pale and often appeared to have dark circles under their eyes. But why? It’s not because they had better sunscreen in the 1800s. The reason many people who posed for those portraits were as white as bleached cotton sheets is multifaceted. Portraits from the Victorian era generally depict wealthy people, which is likely the reason for the over-the-top dresses and hairstyles. Sitting for a formal portrait was an expensive luxury that poor people couldn’t afford. If they had been able to, we’d probably see a lot more color in the faces being captured. Why pale skin meant power back then In the 1800s, especially during the European Victorian era, paleness indicated status. The paler you were, the more money you were assumed to have, signaling higher social status. It was believed that tan skin meant you did some form of outdoor manual labor, something associated with poorer people. Paintings from that era often show women enjoying the outdoors in multilayered dresses, carrying parasols to shield their fair skin from the sun. This belief that paleness displayed high status became a dangerous obsession, according to historians. Then tuberculosis became fashionable The Johnston Collection explains that the Romantic period marked a shift toward paleness and extreme thinness as the ultimate signs of wealth and beauty, writing, “many of the beauty icons of the day were depicted as skeletal thin with ghostly pale skin, glistening eyes, flushed cheeks and perpetually red lips.” Those chasing this impossible beauty standard quickly noticed that contracting tuberculosis produced many of these highly sought-after features as the disease progressed. “If a lady wasn’t fortunate enough to suffer from such a glamorous illness, she could feign going into a decline, the desirable fragile look being simulated by drinking vinegar and dropping belladonna into the eyes,” The Johnston Collection notes. Belladonna is poisonous, but women of the era appeared unafraid to risk death for the privilege of being seen as beautiful. As the Romantic period faded, appearing sickly did not fall out of fashion. The Victorian era simply tied paleness to morality and social status, leading women to continue risking their lives to avoid being perceived as poor. Instead of trying to contract tuberculosis, women began ingesting arsenic, chalk, and even ground-up rocks to maintain a fair complexion. History Facts shares: “In 1851, a Swiss physician published a report in a medical journal about the ‘toxicophagi,’ a group of people in modern-day Austria who routinely consumed arsenic; they knew it was poison, but thought they could develop an immunity to it by starting with small doses and gradually increasing the intake. The report’s author claimed that arsenic gave them great energy, sparkling eyes, and wonderful complexions, but noted that after long-term use, unsurprisingly, ‘most arsenic eaters end with an inevitable infirmity of the body.'” And then the wallpaper started killing people While there was some knowledge that consuming arsenic could be dangerous, it was still viewed as benign when used in other products. The chemical was used to create the color green in clothing, wallpaper, and other products. This led children to take on the same sickly look and eventually contributed to their deaths. Unintentionally, entire families were poisoned by their beautiful green wallpaper, dresses, baby blankets, and other household items. It took one family losing multiple children to what doctors believed was diphtheria before a leading physician and a chemist teamed up to uncover why the children kept dying. After noticing the green wallpaper in the home, the doctor asked to perform an autopsy on the child who had recently died. The results of the tests changed how society treated the dangerous chemical. If you ever find yourself gazing up at a portrait of a ghostly pale Victorian child or a wealthy Victorian woman, you’ll know that arsenic is likely the reason. Ingesting deadly chemicals to keep up appearances is a practice that should probably stay lost to history. This article originally appeared in January. It has been updated. The post Historians explain why everyone was so darn pale in those Victorian-era portraits appeared first on Upworthy.

If you’re trying to save money, a good place to start is taking note of your shopping habits. Small purchases can add up over time, and people living a frugal lifestyle have their shopping dialed in. Frugal people have mastered the practice of mindful shopping. They know what is worth spending money on, and what is a waste. In an online community of frugal people on Reddit, they offered up their shopping advice about what they no longer purchase since becoming more mindful of their spending. From food to subscriptions and clothes, these are 16 things frugal people have stopped buying to save more money. Here are all 16, straight from Reddit “Anything from the gas station other than gas.” – yourfuneralpyre “Food delivery. I won’t even do pizza delivery anymore because of the delivery fee they tack on that doesn’t even go to the driver. H to the no no no.” – 104488361, Humble-Plankton2217 “Cheap stuff. No buying junk, no cheap clothes, no trinkets. I save for nice things that I know will last and can be repaired. I don’t have a lot of ‘stuff’ but the things I do have have lasted and will last and still look good.” – Cats-on-Jupiter “New clothes. I would say 95% of my wardrobe is secondhand. I enjoy thrifting and finding unique pieces. It’s cheaper and also just more environmentally friendly to buy secondhand!” – patrickbatemankinnie “Trendy decor. I thrifted most of the furniture and decor in our new house. I’ve saved thousands of dollars. I have high-quality pieces that will last decades. And nothing ‘goes out of style’ cuz it’s technically all out of style already!” – Technical-Anteater61 “A huge number of disposable products can be avoided by either repurposing existing items or investing slightly more into a washable / reusable version of that thing. I try to apply this mindset to everything possible around the house and at work.” – rand-wazoo Personal care is a big one for many “Hair coloring. I’ve been doing my own balayage for the past year now. It takes a little while since I’m doing it myself, but I work in sections. $100 max to do my hair several times a year versus $250-300 per session if I get it done professionally. I routinely get compliments and shock that I do it myself. YouTube, Instagram and TikTok are full of wonderful resources, though I’ve been doing hair unprofessionally since the early 2000s by asking my stylist and Sally’s employees a ton of questions, reading blogs and also frying friends and my own hair many a time .” – missprincesscarolyn “I also do all of my own waxing. Wax warmer was only $25 off of Amazon. I use Veet wax strips for my legs just because it’s more convenient, but underarms, face and even Brazilian (not for the faint of heart, but can be done!) I use hard wax. Again, these things add up significantly over time.” – missprincesscarolyn “I don’t shop as an activity. I don’t ‘go shopping’. I only go to buy things I need or have decided I want, and I go with a list.” – schokobonbons “Greeting cards. They’re expensive and it’s just as easy to make one or upcycle one you’ve received. If I’m giving a gift in person I just make a nice tag with a message instead of a card.” – June_and_Vernon “Brand new phones. Even 1 year after release is a good deal. I got my S25 in excellent refurbish condition for half price of new.” – SoSavv Entertainment spending gets a hard look too “Movies. In a theater. I just want to state for the record, I was a movieaholic. I went to the movies a lot. Now I haven’t been in 6 years. It’s expensive and I don’t mind waiting. Now I even wait until they are free on some streaming I am already subscribed to and most of them are not very good. What has happened to movies? Anyway, my home setup is awesome now, 65” gaming TV with surround sound and in a basement so no glare, I can pause it whenever I want, only people I know and like are in attendance, food is excellent. And neither the floor or seats are sticky. And don’t get me started on bathrooms. My co-worker told me how much a movie was with his wife with concessions and I nearly fell over.” – JulesSherlock “Kleenex!! – I have cloth handkerchiefs for daily use. My nose is never ‘chapped’ anymore after a cold.” – RuthTheWidow “I make my own spice mixes and salad dressings. I cook almost exclusively from scratch.” – Fit-Winter5363 “Any new furniture is garbage. Its all made from wood pulp smashed together. Thrift an old piece and spend time making it look good and it’ll last you a lifetime.” – Zacky_Cheladaz “I don’t have any subscription services that automatically renew. If I sign up for a streaming service like Netflix, I cancel it immediately so that I don’t get billed for the next month. I never want to be paying for a streaming service that I’m not actually using.” – MuricanIdle What all 16 of these have in common None of these are dramatic sacrifices. Nobody on this list gave up something they loved and mourned the loss. What they gave up was the habit: the autopilot purchase, the convenience markup, the subscription that kept renewing because canceling felt like too much effort. That’s the real pattern here. Frugal living isn’t about deprivation. It’s about noticing the things you were buying without thinking, and deciding whether they’re actually worth it. This article originally appeared this January. It has been updated. The post Frugal shoppers share the 16 things they never buy anymore since becoming more mindful spenders appeared first on Upworthy.

Ask any European about their perceptions of American culture and people, and they’ll likely say the United States has some quirks. From apartment buildings to giving strangers compliments to our large portion sizes, the differences can feel innumerable, including how Americans travel by car across the country. A curious British Redditor asked Americans whether they “actually consider a 3-hour drive ‘short’?” They explained, “I’m from the UK, and growing up, visiting my grandparents (who lived 3 hours away) was a massive yearly event. It felt like a serious expedition.” They added that Europeans and Americans have very different perspectives on what qualifies as a “long” or “short” car ride. “I keep seeing Americans say they drive 3-4 hours just for a weekend visit or even a day trip,” they wrote. “Is this an exaggeration, or is my European brain just not comprehending the scale? How do you not go insane driving that long regularly?” So Americans tried to explain it To help Europeans understand, one American Reddit user kindly explained how the geography of the U.S. differs from that of Europe: “The U.S. is also, geographically, much bigger and more spread out, especially as you head west. The original states (New England and the upper part of the Mid-Atlantic) are more like Europe, where you can drive a few hours and get to a completely different (though similar) place, whereas there are some southeastern, midwestern, and western states where you can drive for 3 hours and still see your house from there.” Another major difference is that American cars are built for longer trips. One Redditor added: “We tend to buy cars more suited for longer distance highway travel too. Very small hatchback type cars popular in the UK and other European countries are generally terrible for that. They get tons of road noise and vibration and are super fatiguing to drive long distances. Our best selling vehicle, the Ford F150 is a road trip champion.“ Even the roads themselves are different Beyond that, roads in the U.S. are also designed for long hauls, especially when compared with those in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. Another Redditor noted: “I think a major difference is that America has the space to build a lot of road infrastructure. The States have had automatic gears and cruise control in their cars as standard for years and years. The roads in the UK are smaller and have been built around things, way more bendy and twisty. Manual gears were/ are more common as well, although that’s slightly changing with modern cars here. Think driving for 3 hours is just feels slightly different in these countries for these reasons.” Here’s what counts as far for Americans To further explain what Americans consider a “long” or “short” drive, others chimed in with their own experiences and perspectives: “3 hour daily commute? Way too long haha. 3 hour drive to a destination spot? SUPER short haha.” “My husband is about to drive about 30 hours (2,000 miles) from the East Coast to Colorado to help his mom out. He’ll stay for a week, and then drive back with some stuff that’s too expensive to ship. And he doesn’t even mind it. Many times, he’s driven 6 hours to attend a meeting. Drive out after work one day, stay overnight somewhere, meeting in the morning, stay for lunch, head home. I think the car can find its way itself by now.” “I used to drive 12 hours straight to work twice month, there and back home weeks later. Did that for 7 years. The craziest part of all that is that 90% of all that driving was done going across one state: Texas.” “3-4 hour one way would be maybe once a month thing for me. 90 minutes can be any day.” “Most Americans do not think of a 3 hour drive as something particularly long or unusual. I know many who don’t think twice about driving 500 miles a day. Personally I feel like about 350 miles a day is my limit.” This article originally appeared in January. It has been updated. The post Europeans simply can’t understand what Americans consider a ‘long drive’ versus a ‘short drive’ appeared first on Upworthy.

The Great Depression was one of the darkest economic times in the United States. Americans resorted to new levels of frugality out of necessity and survival. People went to great lengths to save, preserve, and reuse things. The generations that lived through the Great Depression were the Greatest Generation (born 1901 to 1927) and the Silent Generation (born 1928 to 1945), and their children and grandchildren gleaned many lessons in frugal living. In a discussion among Boomers and Gen Xers on Reddit, they shared stories about frugality and frugal habits they learned from their relatives who survived the Great Depression. From clothing to food and more, these are some of the most interesting ways they made it through. Nothing ever went to waste “My grandmother kept all the clothes. They wore it, then cut it up into quilts or made rugs out [of] it. Cut the buttons off. She had jars of buttons. All sorted by color. Once, I poured the potato water down the drain after boiling them. I thought she was going to have a heart attack. She saved that for soups, gravy, or put it on her body as lotion after a bath.” – Key_Investigator1318 “My grandmother worked in a boarding house for room and board while my grandad was on a rail gang painting train overpasses for the WPA. My grandma was taught to waste nothing, so she learned to can fruits and veg and salt cure meat. She also learned how to make cakes and pies from practically nothing. She had a lifelong habit of hoarding washed-out food containers- literally had a tower of margarine tubs- and newspapers. She used them for stuffing cushions, filling cracks in the wall (with wallpaper paste- like papier-mâché) and even make some Christmas decor out of old comics. Probably my most fond and direct memory/lesson is staying with them for the week or weekend- my mom was a travel agent who traveled often on ‘fam trips’- (and she left me with the grandparents) were the cheap snacks they made on Saturday nights for games of cards and watching the late movie on a local TV channel: popcorn, slices of apple, and a snack I came to know as ‘depression s’mores-‘ saltines, peanut butter and half marshmallows made into sandwiches and baked in an oven. Delicious.” – AnalogAficionado “My grandmother also never wasted anything. If the collar on a shirt got worn, she would unstitch it, reverse it and sew it up again.” – evaniesk “My mom was a great cook & baker. I asked her once why she worked so hard to get every last bit of batter, etc. ‘Because you never know when you’ll wish you had that bite.’ My dad’s mom made wonderful homemade bread. As kids he and his 6 siblings would eat fresh bread with milk and a little sugar as a special treat.” – Single-Accountant306 These habits ran deep in some families “Turning off the lights when you left a room. ‘Kill the lights’ my dad would say.” – Notch99 “Recycle, reuse, how to make an awesome meal from leftovers. We used to call it ‘Fridge Stew’ and ‘A Never Have Again meal’. Only because you will never have the exact same ingredients.” – FOAD1951 “My parents were teens/20s during the depression and learned to never waste anything. Ever. Shoes worn out? Cut out cardboard and put it in your shoes like inner soles. Just don’t prop your feet up. Cold at night? Put newspaper between your sheets and blankets to keep the warmth in. Apple peels? Make jelly. Leftover potatoes? Make soup. Any vegetable leftover? Make soup.” – tigerowltattoo “My mother saved all the plastic bread bags and the twist ties. Also saved all paper bags from the grocery store. Used them to wrap our school books.” – Tb182kaci “Sweet Jesus where do I start? Frugality and self sufficiency were the major themes. But they both were teenagers during the depression, both raised by single mothers in larger families. I was surprised we could throw away used toilet paper. I’m not a hoarder but I hate throwing things out. Just this morning my wife made me get rid of two pair of shoes. They were both less than 20 years old. I remember being taught to never live on credit, save and pay cash. I also remember my dad saying in the 70s that there were exceptions when interest rates were going over 15%. I bought my first house on a 17% mortgage and that was a VA loan. Still a good deal…It was rough being raised by two children of the depression. But they made me the man I am today and I wouldn’t change a thing.” – Tasty_Impress3016 Even the holidays reflected the hardship “The tradition of an orange in the toe of your Christmas stocking. Sometimes it was all they could afford and it was treasured. The tradition continues in our family along with the story of why. Homemade bread because it was cheaper than day old store bread for school sandwiches. Winter coats as Christmas gifts.” – MontanaPurpleMtns “Always maintaining good credit because when you were dead broke you could at least pay for groceries on credit. That meant contacting your creditors before the payment was due if you didn’t have enough to pay the bill in full and explaining you acknowledge the debt, but hope that x dollars will be enough for now, until the weather makes work possible again. Also when you have money, don’t waste it. Put some by for the future. I’m old, and have followed this my whole life. At 74, my credit score is above 800.” – MontanaPurpleMtns “Hairdressers were for the wealthy. Get a friend to give you a perm/trim. Rags were better than rollers for curling your hair. (They are!!!! Soooo much more comfortable to sleep on.). Basically a clump of wet hair was wound around a small strip of fabric, the fabric ends were tied together and you slept on it all night so your hair could look nice for church on Sunday. Shoes that fit well were worth the money. (Too many hand me downs as a child caused foot problems.)” – MontanaPurpleMtns “Keeping used fat in a jar in the fridge.” Stardustquarks “There was zero snack food in the house because money was not to be wasted on things like pop and chips that had no positive nutritional value. We did have cookies and other desserts – just always home made.” – OaksInSnow What all of these habits have in common Read enough of these stories and a pattern starts to emerge that has nothing to do with money. The people who lived through the Great Depression weren’t just teaching their grandkids how to stretch a dollar. They were teaching them to look at an object, a leftover, a worn-out shirt collar, and see possibility instead of trash. That’s a harder habit to learn than most people realize, and judging by how many of these stories start with someone rolling their eyes as a kid, it’s a lesson that tends to skip a generation before it finally lands. This article originally appeared in January. It has been updated. The post People share the frugal habits they learned from relatives who lived through the Great Depression appeared first on Upworthy.

What creatures have eight legs, nine brains, and dozens of fun and fascinating facts about them? Octopuses, of course. (Wait, is octopuses or octopi? Octopodes, perhaps?) However interesting we think our suction-cupped, cephalopodic friends are, we’re probably selling them short. That’s the contention of Sarah, a comedic content creator on TikTok who’s been sharing everything she’s learned about octopuses, because they’re far more bizarre than we might think. “However impressed or fascinated you are by octopuses, it’s honestly probably not enough,” she says. “We are severely underreacting to octopuses collectively.” Once you see her video, it’s clear she’s not wrong. @sarahmakesmelaugh Octopuses are fascinating and I DO want to hold a tiny guy if possible just putting that out in to the universe ??#creatorsearchinsights #octopus #weirdanimals #animalfacts #didyouknow ♬ Quirky Sneaky Pizzicato for Inide Comedies(1192187) – Kenji Ueda What she actually covers in the video With a hilariously understated sense of humor, Sarah shares facts like the idea that octopuses don’t have tentacles, as many of us have been led to believe, but arms instead. Tentacles have suckers only at the end, while an octopus’s arms have them from top to bottom. “They decorate their front yards with shells and other shiny things they find in the ocean,” Sarah says, adding, “I wonder if they judge other octopuses for how they decorate their front yard. Like, is there an octopus HOA?” Sarah points out that The Beatles’ song “Octopus’s Garden” was inspired by this delightful fact. I’d like to be, under the sea…Listen as 'Octopus’s Garden' evolves — from the rehearsal to the final master  pic.twitter.com/qJItnY6PIY— The Beatles (@thebeatles) November 11, 2025 Many of us know that octopuses are smart, but we may not know that they have a brain in each arm in addition to the brain in their heads, which is shaped like a donut. They can solve mazes and complete tricky tasks. And if their beak can fit through a hole, so can their whole body. “So a fully grown giant Pacific octopus, which can literally be 30 feet long, can fit through a hole the size of a lemon,” says Sarah. “And I don’t care for that, particularly. I would never say that to an octopus’s face because, evidently, they can recognize us, which I find unsettling. Note to self: Do not be mean to an octopus.” Because each arm has its own brain, it can operate independently, complete with its own sensory system. Each of those arms has its own brain? Photo credit: Canva “I feel like they’re smarter than us,” Sarah says. “Are we confident they’re not smarter than us? For instance, they will prank their prey. You know the joke where like old men will tap you on one shoulder, but surprise, they’re at the other shoulder? Octopus do that. If they’re hunting a shrimp, they’ll tap it on the faraway shoulder so the shrimp runs directly into them. Like, ‘gotcha!’ I don’t want octopus to do gotcha.” On a positive note, Sarah shows some examples of exquisitely colorful octopuses, though some of the most “fancy and beautiful” ones are also highly venomous. It turns out there’s even more That may have been the end of Sarah’s video, but she wasn’t finished. There’s a part two that features blanket octopuses, the female superheroes of the sea. And that’s not even the wildest part: @sarahmakesmelaugh Replying to @LalainID did yall know about the blanket octopus and didn’t tell me? Except those of you who did thank you ? #octopus #animalfacts #science #learnontiktok #learnwithme ♬ L.Boccherini, Minuet from String Quartet No.5 in F major – AllMusicGallery   A male blanket octopus is basically an inch tall and the female can grow to over six feet. The males can fit inside the pupil of the female’s eye. What?! Basically, their only job is to produce sperm, which just raises way too many questions. Sarah also talks about the mimic octopus, which she calls “the Jafar of the ocean” because it’s basically a sorcerer (and one of them genuinely looks like Jafar from Aladdin). And then came part three That wasn’t all. Even after the second video, she still wasn’t done. Part three was every bit as fascinating, terrifying, wonderful, and chuckle-worthy as the first two (and also slightly NSFW in the most PG way possible): @sarahmakesmelaugh More Octopus species, this could go on forever y’all ? #octopus #weirdanimals #learnwithme #funfacts #creatorsearchinsights ♬ Gymnopedie No. 1, Slowly, image of wave(1180783) – Dai Hentai Fujishima The blob octopus? Who even knew? The eighth-arm situation is too much. Sarah was 100% right. We are, collectively, not reacting to octopuses nearly as strongly as we should be. You can follow Sarah (@SarahMakesMeLaugh) on TikTok. This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated. The post Woman says we are ‘severely underreacting’ to octopuses, then proves she’s not wrong appeared first on Upworthy.