A new TikTok trend has millions of online users taking a moment to show a little gratitude towards the unsung heroes of parenthood. The now viral “She Deserved The Purse” trend kicked off a couple of weeks ago when TikToker Denaesha Gonzalez (@denaeshagonzalez) noticed something out of place in a baby product aisle at her local Target. Sitting nestled between the Infants’ Tylenol, baby lotion, diaper paste, and a Frida Baby Breathe Easy Kit was a glamorous purse with its tags still on. Gonzalez presumed that a mom had left behind the purse to instead buy a baby product that she needed for her family and posted a video on TikTok shouting out that anonymous mother, declaring that “she deserved the purse.”
The image of the purse, combined with Gonzalez’s text overlay, which reads “SHE DESERVED THE PURSE,” spoke volumes about the sacrifices moms make to ensure that their children have everything that they need. The caption accompanying her video reads: “To the Mother who chose themselves last, you deserve the world tonight and always.”
@denaeshagonzalez To the Mother who chose themselves last, you deserve the world tonight and always. #motherhood #motherhoodunplugged #parenting #parentsoftiktok ♬ original sound –
The TikTok video has amassed over 24 million views since it was originally posted on September 4, 2024, and over 17,000 users have commented on the video, many sharing stories of their own experiences of how they have sacrificed expenses for themselves in order to provide more for their kids.
In a follow-up video, Gonzalez explains that she shared the original video in the hopes that at least one mother would come across it and feel seen, but the video and the message have gone on to inspire so much more than Gonzalez ever imagined in a short amount of time.
Next: Gonzalez’s touching “She Deserved The Purse” video inspired a charitable trend
Gonzalez’s video struck a chord with a lot of people, including online creator Cecily Bauchmann (@cecilybauchmann), a fellow mom creator on the app with 2.2 million followers. Bauchmann, who is also a friend of Gonzalez’s, posted her own follow up video reflecting on the times that she had to forgo certain things for herself after becoming a mother and felt inspired to perform an act of kindness. During a recent trip to Target, she posted a TikTok showing her purchasing a $100 Target gift card, which she tucked between a box of baby diapers along with a handwritten note on the back of the receipt that read, “Hey! You deserve that special ‘you’ thing 🙂 You are amazing! xoxo!”
“This is going to make me cry because I remember [having] to put back certain things [when] you can’t afford something for yourself,” Bauchmann says in the TikTok video.
@cecilybauchmann Calling this SHE DESERVED THE PURSE✨@Denaesha Gonzalez you inspire me mamailysm #momoffour #motherhood #momsoftiktok #realmomlife #womensupportingwomen ♬ Lights Are On – Instrumental – Edith Whiskers
“I want to get some of my friends who are creators to do this as well, so let’s do it together,” she said before urging her “fellow mama creators” and others to join her anonymous pay-it-forward initiative that she dubbed “She Deserved The Purse.”
It worked. Bauchmann’s words (and Gonzalez’s original video) sparked a trend on the platform in which people began paying it forward by hiding cash or gift cards in boxes of diapers, cans of baby formula and other family products. Many hoped that parents in need would find the gifts and use them to get something nice for themselves.
On the surface, it’s a pay-it-forward trend similar to paying for someone’s Starbucks drive-through order or leaving a large surprise tip to a service industry worker. But, the fact that this has gone so viral shows that it is about much more than a silly little TikTok trend, a gift card, or a purse. At its core, there’s a deeper message: parents deserve to give themselves some love, too.
In the weeks following the original video, hundreds of people have made videos participating in the trend using the hashtag #shedeservedthepurse.
“I hope that in this [trend] parents, caretakers, moms, dads would feel in a moment that there is a financial burden lifted off of their shoulders,” Bauchmann said. “And I know that it can’t be all the time, but it could be for that one time.”
