These Teens Found A Brilliant Way To Prove School Dress Codes Are Sexist And Others Pranked An Entire School Board — Here Are 6 Other Things Youths Did To Win The Internet This Year

    🥺 We're so proud! 🥺

    Well, we've *almost* made it through 2021. COVID still exists, but we have better things to focus on — like the amazing young people who made the internet a better place this year...

    Whether it was by taking a stance against sexist customs, standing up to bullies, or simply making us laugh, here are the kids and teens who won the internet in 2021:

    1. With the help of her dad, a 13-year-old transgender girl named Ruby created a swimwear line for trans girls and nonbinary kids.

    2. Two high school teens dressed the exact same to school to prove that dress codes are sexist — and it worked. The girl got written up, and the boy did not.

    @drooscroo

    they really wrote up @kenziecrimmins and didn’t say anything to me #dresscode #sexist

    ♬ original sound - Sickickmusic
    The two Illinois-based teens — Drew Jarding and Kenzie Crimmins — wore crop tops to school.

    You can read the full article with the teens here.

    3. Maggie Mundwiller was laid off during COVID and invited to a second, in-person job interview but didn't have childcare for her 1-year-old son, Mylo. The company invited Mylo to come along to the interview, and he nailed it like a boss.

    Mylo brought along his own résumé. Key highlights include taking off his own diaper, smelling flowers with his teeth, and he can destroy a clean space in 30 seconds.

    You can read the full feature of Mylo and his mom here.

    4. Teens pulled the ultimate The Simpsons prank during a meeting for the Henrico School Board in Virginia. In the video, chair member Reverend Dr. Roscoe D. Cooper III doesn't realize he is listing fake names, like "Eileen Dover" and "Suk Mahdik."

    View this video on YouTube

    youtube.com

    Cooper also called upon "Phil McCraken," "Ophelia McCaulk," "Don Kedick," and "Wayne Kerr." The prank is clearly a tribute to the long-running prank on The Simpsons where Bart anonymously calls Moe's Tavern asking to speak to nonexistent people, like "Seymour Butz."

    You can read the full article here.

    5. 17-year-old Grace Brumfield was shamed on Facebook by adults for the length of her homecoming dress — one that didn't even break any dress code rules set by the school.

    After Grace read the comments, she was taken aback by how mean some of them were. She told BuzzFeed, "It shocked me because most of them were from women — and they were all mothers and grandmothers. The only question I had was, _Why? _I didn’t see anything wrong with my photos, so why were there negative comments?"

    The full details are in the article, which you can read here.

    6. Five-month-old Mateo caught the attention of the internet for how ADORABLE he made excessive body hair look. (He is on a medication called diazoxide, and it has a side effect that causes him to grow body hair.)

    BuzzFeed spoke to Bri Shelby, Mateo's mom, who said, "We didn’t know it was a big deal until people started saying, 'Oh my goodness, that’s a lot of hair!' Even the nurses were saying that when he was in the hospital!"

    You can read the full article about Mateo here.

    7. A fifth-grade boy named Evan was sent home in tears after being bullied for his Tony Stark costume. Later that day, he decided to ignore the bullies, put his costume on again, and go back to school to celebrate Halloween.

    Facebook: jill.struckman

    Evan wasn't physically bullied, but his mom, Jill, wants people to know that words hurt. "Always have talks about bullying, especially this time of year when kids are dressing up and letting themselves be even more vulnerable. The messages of pure love and support from around the world have shown Evan (and us) that there are far more kind people in this world than there are bullies," she told BuzzFeed.

    You can read more about what happened and what Jill had to say here.

    8. And, lastly, any video of father-son duo Randy and Brice Gonzalez's will bring you joy, but this particular one was so good, it caught the eye of well-known director Ava DuVernay.

    DuVernay tweeted, “I’ve watched four different videos of this kid over the past 25 hours in which he mimics four very different kinds of characters and my new goal of 2021 is to meet him and cast him in something somewhere somehow. Also his partner. Obsessed.”

    We haven't heard news on if they've been cast in any upcoming project or not, but we certainly hope it is in the works!

    You can read our full feature about the pair here.

    Obviously, there are tons of other kids and teens who did fantastic things on the internet this year. If your favorite one isn't on the list, share it with us in the comments!