JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER ✉️

Sweet Online Trend Has People Hugging Their Younger Selves In Powerful Photos

A two-photo collage. The first shows a little girl smiling wide. "Text on the image reads: Polaroid trend except it's you hugging younger you." The second image is a photo generated by AI of a smiling woman holding a smiling child that is supposed to be her younger self.

Kids can be so hard on themselves. A lot of the time, however, this isn’t something we realize until we’re adults. While we can’t go back in time, we can do our best to “talk” to our younger selves now that we’re older and wiser. This conversation can take all kinds of forms, whether that be writing a letter or talking to yourself aloud. Perhaps it was this concept that helped inspire a new trend…

Videos by InspireMore

This social media trend involves photos of adults hugging children. At first glance, you might not think much of them at all. But the thing is… each adult in these photos is “hugging” their younger self. How? Well, the exact tool each person uses may vary, but what they’re all using is some type of generative AI. Below, you’ll find the result of a woman named Hannah joining in on the trend.

Getting AI to capture a real person can be rather tricky. It’s why people are suggesting various ways to word your request, that way it ends up looking as real as possible. So, when ones do turn out as well as Hannah’s did, it’s no wonder she’s left saying, “Whyy am I crying?”

Whenever someone like Hannah or Mel (as seen above) makes a post sharing their own photos, the comment section is quickly filled with folks sharing some of their very own. Needless to say, people can’t stop talking about this shockingly realistic trend.

Social Media Trend Aims to Heal by Showing an Adult “Hugging” Their Younger Self

One of the most popular prompt suggestions involves making the background a white curtain. But for some people, the results can look pretty weird. So, one woman played around with the prompt until she found one that actually worked.

“I couldn’t get the background,” they wrote of the image below, “but I liked this more anyways.”

Sure, photos are nice. But what if you could actually talk to your younger self? And no, I’m not referring to AI this time. Some high school graduates were able to do just that thanks to the clever project their school had them do back in elementary school.

You can find the source of this story’s featured image here!

Want to be happier in just 5 minutes a day? Sign up for Morning Smile and join over 455,000+ people who start each day with good news.