A Guide to Kids’ Culture for Out-of-Touch Adults: What Is “Baby Boo Syndrome”?
If you want to understand an entire generation, look at the athletes they admire. The post-war generation, accustomed to suburban conformity, found a hero in baseball’s premier corporate ambassador, Stan Musial, and his 22 seasons with the Cardinals. Baby boomers were drawn to Broadway’s Joe Namath, a smug celebrity who wasn’t even a good quarterback. Generation X saw themselves in the stoic, solitary Tiger Woods-style wrestler, living in a high-stakes vacuum. This year’s Winter Olympics introduced the world to the first iconic athletes who embody the spirit of Generation Z, and they’re amazing . But first, let’s talk about baby boom syndrome.
What is Baby Boo Syndrome?
It seems like everyone on TikTok has been hit with “baby girl syndrome” this week. The trend started with a short dance video by @selenaaa.dta featuring a snippet of YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “What You Is.” The rapper’s line, “She’s gonna call me baby girl,” is both incredibly catchy and incredibly annoying—in other words, the perfect tune to get stuck in your head.
@selenaaa.dta’s unique style earned their videos over 10 million views, but it took over a year for everyone else to catch up and start posting their own choreographies to the music. And then things got weird.
Variations and remixes of Baby Boo began to appear, such as this operatic cover version:
and this patriotic remix:
And here’s a mashup with the song “Baby Shark”
The trend’s rapid spread and the song’s catchiness soon led to people diagnosing cases of “Baby Boo syndrome” in videos like this one:
and like this:
and this:
I definitely associate this track with the numbers 6-7.
Alisa Liu is a Generation Z sports heroine.
Olympic figure skating champion Alysa Liu is a rare role model for children. Liu embodies everything that makes people aged 14 to 29, and America itself, so unique and wonderful. First, there’s her appearance. Her blonde highlights and frenulum piercing perfectly align with the Gen Z aesthetic, but it’s not just about style.
Like approximately 22% of Generation Z, Liu comes from a family of immigrants—her parents were Chinese dissidents who fled the Tiananmen Square protests. Liu was a figure skating prodigy, but like all her peers, COVID-19 changed her destiny. She retired at 16, when the closure of her local rink gave her time to reflect on the impact of skating on her mental health. After two years at UCLA, Liu returned to the ice, but on her own terms, very much in the spirit of Generation Z: she was responsible for her own training schedule, costumes, and diet. Perhaps more importantly, she rejected the competitive nature of her sport in favor of embracing skating as an act of self-expression, something fun .
Many in the conservative figure skating world thought she was finished—it’s impossible to succeed as a world-class athlete without sacrificing everything in your life, and that’s certainly no fun. But Liu made it to the Olympics and performed her individual program brilliantly , as if it were nothing, then walked off the ice, greeting the NBC camera with a loud cry, “That’s what I’m fucking talking about !” So punk rock. Equally iconic was Liu’s shared victory with silver medalist Kaori Sakamoto of Japan .
Amber Glenn: A nerdier version of Alice Liu.
She may not be as brash and daring as Liu, but Team USA figure skater Amber Glenn is quietly becoming a Generation Z icon. The 26-year-old skater is open about her mental health struggles and her LGBTQ+ identity, and is an avid Magic: The Gathering fan. In a recent interview, she revealed that she carries her Magic cards with her, but leaves the “really expensive” ones at home because they are her most prized possessions and she doesn’t want to lose them.
Viral Video of the Week: Punch-Kun the Monkey
A baby macaque from Japan has become the internet’s biggest hit this week. Punch-kun was introduced to the world on the Ichikawa Zoo’s Twitter account.
This tweet is currently unavailable. It may be loading or has already been deleted.
Punch was born on July 26, 2025, but was rejected by his stressed-out mother. Zookeepers raised him, giving him a stuffed orangutan toy as a mother. He carries it around everywhere, which is adorable, but things became much less charming when the zoo introduced him to other apes. It seems things went horribly wrong.
Please share this video, because how could you not? It’s so touching. Many were touched, while others were outraged by the seemingly cruel treatment Punch received from the other macaques, or were angry at the zoo for putting him in such a predicament.
Oddly enough, it turned out the internet had gotten it completely wrong. In the wake of the uproar, the zoo explained that the macaque dragging him around in the video wasn’t bullying Punch; it was an older member of the troop teaching him how to fit in. That’s monkey tricks. They’re wild animals, and they don’t do things like humans do.
The Punch saga continues. Sometimes he seems to be getting along better with the squad , other times he still seems like an outsider. Stay tuned for updates on social media.