--- title: Lori Duron: Boys Who Wear Pink Aren't Just Internet Sensations description: In November 2012, a blogger wrote about her son dressing up as Daphne from Scooby-Doo for Halloween and got more than 4 million views and... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7131793/boys-who-wear-pink-arent-just-internet-sensations/ author: Lori Duron article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-09-03T09:45:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T09:13:44.071Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Lori Duron: Boys Who Wear Pink Aren't Just Internet Sensations og:description: In November 2012, a blogger wrote about her son dressing up as Daphne from Scooby-Doo for Halloween and got more than 4 million views and... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7131793/boys-who-wear-pink-arent-just-internet-sensations/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte24f62b0a43d9f7f/698a9144e6e84a60c22b8db2/photo-1-e1377204610782.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1466 og:image:height: 825 og:image:alt: Kid pink og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lori Duron: Boys Who Wear Pink Aren't Just Internet Sensations twitter:description: In November 2012, a blogger wrote about her son dressing up as Daphne from Scooby-Doo for Halloween and got more than 4 million views and... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte24f62b0a43d9f7f/698a9144e6e84a60c22b8db2/photo-1-e1377204610782.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) # Boys Who Wear Pink Aren't Just Internet Sensations > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=51c0b8c6-e7c8-45b2-aefe-0101d922ca59&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) by [Lori Duron](https://time.com/author/lori-duron/) Sep 3, 2013 9:45 AM UTC  The author's son, C.J., at age 5 The author's son, C.J., at age 5 Courtesy of Lori Duron by [Lori Duron](https://time.com/author/lori-duron/) Sep 3, 2013 9:45 AM UTC In November 2012, a blogger wrote about her son [dressing up](http://nerdyapple.com/my-son-is-gay/) as Daphne from _Scooby-Doo_ for Halloween and got more than 4 million views and 47,204 comments. In April 2011, J. Crew ran an ad [featuring](http://www.forbes.com/sites/shenegotiates/2011/04/13/conservative-media-vs-j-crew-the-battle-of-the-pink-toenails/) creative director Jenna Lyons painting her son’s toenails pink and launched what will forever be known as Toemageddon. In December, a photo of a boy wearing pink zebra-print ballet flats to kindergarten drew more than 120,000 likes on [Facebook](http://topics.time.com/facebook/) and 19,000 shares before it was removed by the family. In August 2013, a mom wrote that her young son wore a pink headband in [Walmart](http://topics.time.com/walmart/) and was called a faggot by a stranger, which got a huge amount of sympathy until it was discovered that the story [might be](http://getoffmyinternets.net/katie-vyktoriah-story-being-questioned-by-internets/) false. (**MORE:** [The Lesson of the Boy in the Pink Ballet Flats](http://ideas.time.com/2012/12/14/the-lesson-of-the-boy-in-the-pink-ballet-flats/)) I’ve watched these stories come out of nowhere and cause massive public reactions. People either despise the mothers — and sometimes the kids — or they celebrate them. There’s rarely a middle ground. And then, as quickly as they arrived, they disappear. But they aren’t isolated cultural phenomena, and they shouldn’t be treated that way. They are brief glimpses into the lives of a few boys who are part of a much larger group that faces much bigger problems than the occasional insult during a shopping trip. As the mother of a gender-nonconforming boy, I’m not so sure that turning them into miniature lightning rods is what they really need. Neither one event nor all of them as a whole has had the power to inspire and sustain a lasting conversation that raises awareness, understanding and acceptance of little boys who don’t conform to traditional gender norms. (**MORE:** [Manning Biographer: Media Should Respect the Trans Experience](http://ideas.time.com/2013/08/22/manning-biographer-media-should-respect-the-trans-experience/)) Gender variance or transgender identity occurs in [as many as](https://www.genderspectrum.org/about/faq) 1 in 500 births, making it more common than childhood diabetes. Gender-nonconforming boys have the [highest rate of suicide](http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/reports/reports/ntds%5Freport%5Fon%5Fhealth.pdf) attempts and are [three to six times](http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/129/3/410.full.pdf+html?sid=13343859-26e8-493e-838a-535f11543cc8) more likely to suffer from major [depression](http://topics.time.com/depression/), addiction and unsafe sexual behaviors. More than 80% [report](http://glsen.org/sites/default/files/2011%20National%20School%20Climate%20Survey%20Full%20Report.pdf) being harassed at school and, even worse, many are harassed at home. Life can be dangerous for boys like my son. In her book [_Gender Born, Gender Made_](http://www.amazon.com/Gender-Born-Made-Gender-Nonconforming-Children/dp/1615190600), psychologist Diane Ehrensaft wrote, “To be gender nonconforming is to risk being killed, but on a daily basis it more likely means being harassed, confused and misunderstood in the community … There is no doubt that these children are among the ranks of minority individuals in our society who must anticipate bigotry and antipathy from those who either do not understand, are ill-informed, govern their thinking with myth rather than reality or … project hatred onto those who are different from themselves.” These at-risk children and their families are not getting the help, empathy, acceptance and support they need, because for a lot of people it’s easier to live with phobias than to get educated about sex, gender and sexuality. Often those same people think gender-nonconforming children should change the gender identity they were born with — which is as much a part of them as their eye color and handedness — to avoid the problems they face. I argue that it’s never the job of a child to make an adult feel comfortable and that we as a society should be working to eradicate bullying behaviors, not the behaviors that prompted the bullying. (**MORE:** [Transgender People: The Next Frontier in Civil Rights](http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/12/transgender-the-next-frontier-in-human-rights/)) As they grow, gender-nonconforming children need to feel safe and understood. We help them when we stop seeing femininity in males as weakness and realize that colors, toys and clothes are for everyone regardless of whom they are marketed to. But that’s just a start. Hopefully soon, stories about gender-nonconforming boys can start a lasting conversation and move the public toward launching all children healthily into adulthood, no matter their sex, gender, sexuality or color, clothing and toy preferences. I don’t want children like my son to be short-term media sensations; I want them to be inspirations for change that is long term and much needed. **WATCH**: [A Perfect Daughter: One Child’s Gender Reassignment](http://lightbox.time.com/2013/08/26/a-perfect-daughter-gender-reassignment-by-gillian-laub/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7131793/boys-who-wear-pink-arent-just-internet-sensations/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7131793/boys-who-wear-pink-arent-just-internet-sensations/"},"headline":"Boys Who Wear Pink Aren't Just Internet Sensations","datePublished":"2013-09-03T09:45:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T09:13:44.071Z","description":"In November 2012, a blogger wrote about her son dressing up as Daphne from Scooby-Doo for Halloween and got more than 4 million views and...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7131793/boys-who-wear-pink-arent-just-internet-sensations/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte24f62b0a43d9f7f/698a9144e6e84a60c22b8db2/photo-1-e1377204610782.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lori Duron","url":"https://time.com/author/lori-duron/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte24f62b0a43d9f7f/698a9144e6e84a60c22b8db2/photo-1-e1377204610782.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Kid pink","caption":"The author's son, C.J., at age 5","creditText":"Courtesy of Lori Duron","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":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7131793/boys-who-wear-pink-arent-just-internet-sensations/","name":"Boys Who Wear Pink Aren't Just Internet Sensations"}}]}] ```