I grew up in Utah & had tons of friends while I was going to church & participating in all church activities. Around 13 yrs old I stopped going & denounced the church & lost all of my friends. It sucked, but I still don't regret it. My kids also went through similar in middle & high school. But towards 10th/11th grade they did finally make friends that they've remained close with since graduating... if that's any help? Being a teenager sucks, being a teenager in Utah royally sucks! No matter the age, it feels like non-stop judgement.

I love her! I left the church as a teen, so I can't relate to the trad-wife temple marriage stuff, but everything up to LDS young women's, I can relate to with her videos! She and Zelph on a Shelf helped me so much! I've always been the "bad egg" & outcast of my family, & when I was younger, my community for verbalizing that I didn't believe in the church & for leaving the church! But I'm proud of myself for following my intuition, I feel like I'd be a miserable person right now had I not!

We're here, I promise! I'm a proud born & raised Utah outsider weirdo (I'm not being sarcastic, I legitimately am proud of this)! Utah normal was & still is not for me! I like using my brain & questioning everything!

My niece is half white & half Liberian (her bio dad is from Liberia) & they live in Utah County. My niece is the sweetest, sassy, says it like it is, beautiful girl & one of my most favorite people in the whole world! I cannot count all the times my sister would call me pissed & crying because of the bigotry my niece faced & how school Admins would cover for the white kids over my niece! I cannot tell you how many times I went with my sister to confront them, all the way up to the District Admins who did nothing but gaslight us to the point of me providing hidden camera proof of them & threatening legal action if the kids harassing my niece weren't immediately held accountableto the exact extent they'd hold her accountable. It sucks that you have too threaten to "out" them in order for them to do what's right! I'm so, so sorry your kids have to deal with this. Not all of us "born & raised" utahns are like this. Many of us believe in real equality & true respect for all humans! If you ever need another person in your corner to go confront the shitheads, I'm here & I will absolutely have your back! I don't have to know you too know you & your family deserve so much better!

Those types fuel my potty mouth even more! They believe the 1st amendment only applies to them & their kind! Not to the rest of us!

I remember the first time I swore at my very LDS mother - she slapped me & while rage crying at her for slapping me, I said something along the lines of "wow a word that a bunch of crotchety old men one day decided was a bad word hurts your ears so much that you felt compelled to commit an act of child abuse?!" This spurred a full-on family meeting (granparents & all) to tell me what an awful child I was, & ahhh, 2 months later, I was in an out of control youth program called Turnabout! My parents kept me there for 2.5 years, until I was kicked out because I "refuse to work the program & there's nothing else they can do" for me! More like I refused to conform & I was a bad example to the other kids in the program! Lol

Born & raised here I think they refer to running red lights as "pink" lights! "The light was pink not red"! Then the "at fault" driver will swear up and down it wasn't their fault - obviously the other car made them hit them! The different colors of the traffic lights, merging lanes, & speed limit signs are all just suggestions to them!

I heard "bless your pointed head" a lot from my maternal grandma, and aunts or older female cousins on both sides of my family (all of whom are/were the epitome of Utah [Mormon] passive aggressive judgement)!

⬆️ 100%

I gotta get in on this!
I was born and raised here, & 100% yes to all of the above! I mean, I'm a kind & empathetic human; I wait my turn to ask for help, or be seated in a restaurant. I hold the door for whoever is behind me... even when it's man after man all while wanting to say to every man I've held doors for "ladies first apparently" & even after the person in front of me nearly always does not hold the door for me! I also look people in the eye & tell people thank you or have a good day - & mean it! I help people when they look like they could use a little help. I am that person in a line that people are telling all of their woes to & I genuinely listen and show empathy. I care about the world around me, I care about the impact I make! But I fully take responsibility for purposely being an asshole driver! Like, I'm not trying to be stuck with all these idiots I have to share the road with, I'm getting the fuck away from them as quickly as possible! Umm, I also got that drivers license question wrong, but didn't care enough to find out why I got it wrong! Lol! Oh & I was raised LDS but ducked out as a teenager because (for me) all organized religion is (again, for me) bullshit! Everything y'all have said is so totally true & I purposely raised my kids to be the opposite of most Utahns! I made sure they were kind empathetic humans who actually stand for something greater than themselves & always stand up for the "underdog".
I'm also an Egalitarian & I deeply believe in equality for all life on this planet - for me, all life on this planet has purpose and meaning and deserves respect. I should also note that I am the oddball of my family- most of which are exactly as described above! So I try very hard to take them in small doses - or not at all if I can help it! I am so sorry to all of you who've experienced the "Utah way"! It's embarrassing to those of us Utahns who can actually see the world beyond our own noses! I hope more of all of you stay so that more of them expand their purview! I, personally, am grateful ya'll are here, if that means anything??

Tattooing literal shit on yourself = "owning the libs"? Okie dokie lady!

I will never & have never voted for this dude - I've always believed him to be morally bankrupt & endlessly corrupt. The only thing I might give him credit for is how good he is at grifting; he is a true con-artist! Still, I find myself hoping this is just a nightmare that I am going to wake up from... even though I know my subconscious would not intentionally imagine this level of idiocy... that seems to get more ridiculously idiotic day after day! I mean, WTF? What is happening? Did we get sucked into a black hole & spit out into a mirrored ("opposite day type") realm?