TikTok is home to a number of trends that have gained traction throughout the app’s history. These trends can be sounds, edits, dances, or challenges—and are recreated by hundreds of creators on the platform. However, each creator adds their own unique touch to the trend to keep it entertaining.
Some of the trends that arise on TikTok are dances choreographed to a specific song. At its height, Jason Derulo’s “Savage Love” drew in roughly 750,000 TikToks a day, with millions of users partaking in the dance trend to the backdrop of the song. Meanwhile, others have utilized the platform to lip-sync catchy movie scenes, such as Adam Driver stating, “Good soup.” Others complete or create challenges, such as texting the lyrics of Studio Killers’ “Jenny” to random people in their contacts.
But it’s not always a popular song or celebrity who creates these trends. Sometimes, it is just ordinary people who, by chance, capture real-life moments that resonate with TikTok users.
‘I’m just a baby’ TikTok trend
Of the TikTok trends from original creators to go viral, ‘I’m just a baby’ is one of the most popular. The sound came from little.blooming.women, an account run by Jordan Faeh, that shared snippets of her life with her husband and four young daughters. The original TikTok, featuring the ‘I’m just a baby’ sound, was posted on February 20th, 2022.
The video is equal parts heartwarming, cute, and hilarious. In the video, Jordan attempts to give her daughter, Coco, a talking to. However, Coco is not having it and the conversation goes as follows:
Jordan: Coco, when mommy says ‘stop,’ you say ‘ok.’
Coco: I’m just a baby.
Jordan: But you still have to say ‘ok, mom.’
Coco (more aggressively): I’m just a baby!
The sound quickly caught the attention of TikTok users, who began to use it in their own videos. The sound started showing up in videos of dogs who don’t want to listen to their owners, in videos of couples who want their partners to do things for them that they are fully capable of doing for themselves, and in videos of adult children wanting to still be spoiled by their parents. Just like Coco, we would all love to use the excuse, “I’m just a baby,” to avoid our responsibilities.
So, why was little.blooming.women banned from TikTok?
However, the ‘I’m just a baby’ TikTok trend took an odd turn less than a month after its release. Despite users gushing over the sassy Coco and her sweet mother, and the sound being used in millions of TikToks, little.blooming.women’s account was banned. The ban was revealed when Jordan started a second account, little.blooming.women2. Through the account, Jordan was able to reupload the viral ‘I’m just a baby’ TikTok, which had been deleted. She also appealed to fans to help her get her account and followers back.
As for why little.blooming.women’s account was deleted, it’s a mystery. According to Jordan, she attempted to log into her account one day, only to find that TikTok had permanently deleted it. She received no warning and no explanation for why it was deleted. Also, her attempts to get her account back have been futile so far. While little.blooming.women2 was able to reupload Coco’s video, it now only boasts a small fraction of the millions of views, likes, and comments the original received.
Since TikTok has not given an explanation, and since one can no longer view the original channel’s videos, it is almost impossible to figure out why exactly Jordan was banned. Some commenters on little.blooming.women2 even speculated as to whether TikTok purposely banned the account to avoid having to pay the creator. While there is likely a much more reasonable explanation for the ban, it is still difficult to understand. One cannot help but see the unfairness in millions of TikTok creators being able to gain followers, likes, and views off of Jordan and Coco’s sound, while these original creators had their views, likes, comments, and followers wiped clean.
(featured image: blooming.little.women2 TikTok)
