--- title: Dear Abby Gives Advice About Twerking description: It's not a dangerous drug—it's a dance fad! canonical: https://time.com/91592/dear-abby-twerk-advice/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-07T22:10:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:09:29.552Z og:title: Dear Abby Gives Greatest Advice Yet: No, Twerking Isn't Dangerous og:description: Abby, you're probably getting trolled and we don't even care og:url: https://time.com/91592/dear-abby-twerk-advice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt993ac83ca9508cd8/69868e52169ab04b3127931d/187595604.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: MTV EMA's 2013 - Show og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dear Abby Gives Greatest Advice Yet: No, Twerking Isn't Dangerous twitter:description: Abby, you're probably getting trolled and we don't even care twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt993ac83ca9508cd8/69868e52169ab04b3127931d/187595604.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Dear Abby Finally Addresses the Nation's Twerking Epidemic by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler May 7, 2014 10:10 PM UTC  An alternative view during the MTV EMA's 2013 at the Ziggo Dome on November 10, 2013 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. An alternative view during the MTV EMA's 2013 at the Ziggo Dome on November 10, 2013 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.Gareth Cattermole—Getty Images for MTV by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler May 7, 2014 10:10 PM UTC In an era of advice columns tackling tough questions from people who fantasize about [“group sex with old, obsese men,”](http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/oct/14/fantasise-group-sex-old-obese-men) it’s nice to see that Dear Abby has stayed relevant. In her latest bit of advice to a (probably trolling) reader, [our dearest of Abby’s clarified that no, twerking isn’t a dangerous drug](http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/2014/5/7/twerking-isnt-dangerous-just-the-latest). Instead, it is merely a dance fad. A “Troubled Mom,” with enough internet savvy to email Abby but not enough to Google, wrote: --- > “” --- [As Deadspin pointed ou](http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/dear-abby-runs-clearly-fake-letter-from-woman-asking-wh-1572908719)t, apart from the catfishing reference, the biggest giveaway that this letter is probably a lie was the fact that Princeton doesn’t give sports scholarships. Still, Abby gave the questioner a very sincere response about how, “The ‘twerking’ your son was referring to is a dance move recently made famous by Miley Cyrus — in which the dancer (usually female) gyrates in a provocative, semi-squatting position that involves thrusting hip movements.” Thanks, girl. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/91592/dear-abby-twerk-advice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/91592/dear-abby-twerk-advice/"},"headline":"Dear Abby Finally Addresses the Nation's Twerking Epidemic","datePublished":"2014-05-07T22:10:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:29.552Z","description":"Abby, you're probably getting trolled and we don't even care","url":"https://time.com/91592/dear-abby-twerk-advice/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Living","Internet","viral","dance","advice"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt993ac83ca9508cd8/69868e52169ab04b3127931d/187595604.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt993ac83ca9508cd8/69868e52169ab04b3127931d/187595604.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MTV EMA's 2013 - Show","caption":"MTV EMA's 2013 - Show","creditText":"Gareth Cattermole—Getty Images for MTV","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/91592/dear-abby-twerk-advice/","name":"Dear Abby Finally Addresses the Nation's Twerking Epidemic"}}]}] ```