Hello Owlets!
This week I had the always nerve-wracking experience of going viral on Twitter. If you spend any time on Twitter, you probably know that drawing too much attention to yourself over there risks bringing out the trolls. It doesn't matter why you're going viral, positive or negative viral tweeting alike attracts people who feed on the need to bring everyone down. So when I tweeted something last weekend that started an exponential growth curve of likes and retweets, I braced myself for the inevitable backlash.
But it never came.
And this is one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had on the internet. But what does it have to do with Owl's Nest? (I'm getting there!)
Here's what I tweeted:
So, what I tweeted about was buying my youngest son a new yellow raincoat. If you take a look at those numbers beneath the tweet, you will see that this tweet was viewed 4.4 MILLION times (at the time I took this screenshot). The numbers keep rising.
Of (what is now) 118K likes and over 4 million views, I have only seen two negative comments or quote retweets. Overwhelmingly, this simple story of the yellow raincoat swept millions of people along for a positive experience and has invited thousands upon thousands of comments expressing joy, solidarity, but most of all a resounding nostalgia for stories!
And this is what really struck me about my son's response to the raincoat and the internet's response to what he said about it: Our cultural emotional core is finely tuned to respond to certain stimuli. In this case, a yellow raincoat.
A little backstory... My youngest son has needed a new raincoat for about two years. I have failed to find him a suitable one in the small window when the stores are selling raincoats for kids during that time in the last two years. Also, we've been in a pandemic. And I've been embarassed to be "that mom" who always sends her kid to school in the rain without a raincoat. So this year, I was determined not to be thwarted!
When I was in the store the other day, I was frustrated by the lack of options because everything seemed too trendy or ridiculous, and this child of mine is particular. So when I saw the mustard yellow raincoat, my mind did not go to a logical place ("Oh, classic color!"), my mind went to, "Oh no, this is really bright. Will E— tolerate wearing this?" So, I brought it home with fear and trembling.
To my surprise and delight, he was thrilled. And said what he said. (And yes, he does talk like that.) And I laughed to myself and thought, "Well of course, it's obviously a classic raincoat color!" And later that night I tweeted what he said because I thought it was funny. And I went to bed.
And woke up the next morning to tens of thousands of likes. Which would rapidly turn into millions of views. and the rest is history! (Here is the link to the tweet if you want to view the tweet thread and access the responses.)
So, what does this have to do with Owl's Nest?
Well, E— was so delighted to receive a yellow raincoat because it was—in his words—a "classic raincoat color...like a raincoat from a story!" And this is what resonated with SO many people across the internet. (We even got featured on UpWorthy!) His words triggered a nostalgic response in thousands of people who saw what I posted because they remembered stories they had read as a child or young adult that featured a classic yellow raincoat. Stories like Curious George, Winnie the Pooh, Madeleine, Coraline, or even Stephen King's IT! Stories are timeless. And so my 8yo, by recognizing the meaning of the color of his new raincoat, made an emotional connection with 4.4 million (and counting!) people across the internet.
And it was so pure that it didn't even attract the sort of negative, trollish attention going viral usually does. And as CEO and cofounder of Owl's Nest Publishers—which specializes in just the sort of stories that we hope will evoke such a response in readers—I couldn't help but ruminate on the power of what happened to me, and to all of us, this past week because of a new yellow raincoat for my very special (and very intuitive) 8-year-old son.
And yes, I just might write a book about a yellow raincoat.
Until Nest Time,
~ Karin
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