The “She deserved the purse” trend is a wholesome TikTok movement paying tribute to working mothers. Inspired by a lone purse spotted in a supermarket, the trend involves people hiding money in the baby aisles of stores for struggling mothers to find.
Creators are raking in millions of views from this. For instance, one video by Tabitha Swatosh (@tabithaswatosh) has amassed 55.2 million views. But as previously reported by Daily Dot, some shoppers are taking advantage and snatching the money meant for struggling parents.
A trend gone south?
When she went to Target, Tina (@tinalee____) purportedly witnessed this for herself. As she filmed the mother and baby aisle, a male voice could be heard exclaiming: “This is nuts! Like, how many 20s are in all this baby formula?”
He later added that it was his “lucky day” before, presumably, taking the money for himself.
@tinalee____ It is so sad that immature kids are taking advantage of this sweet and generous purpose. It makes me so angry, those teenagers are recording videos for social media taking that money that was for some family or mother. I don’t know if that was real or they were putting the money and then recording a fake situation but idc they were disrespectful and immature I am literally so disgusted and frustrated by this situation. ##shedeservedthepurse##momtok##thepurse##target ♬ original sound – tinalee____
Tina added in the overlay text, “Teenage kids at Target [are] making content taking money from the baby aisle because [of] the ‘she deserved the purse’ trend.”
In the video description, she shared her feelings further: “It is so sad that immature kids are taking advantage of this sweet and generous purpose. It makes me so angry, those teenagers are recording videos for social media taking that money that was for some family or mother.”
She continued, “I don’t know if that was real or they were putting the money and then recording a fake situation, but idc they were disrespectful and immature. Am literally so disgusted and frustrated by this situation [sic].”
Is everything as it seems?
However, numerous viewers claimed that the video was faked. Seemingly, they identified the person in Target as content creator Ollie Muhl. While several of them claimed that Muhl posted a video pretending to steal the money to “rage bait,” the Daily Dot was unable to find this video on his account.
However, we did find a video labeled “Part 2” which depicted Ollie hiding money in baby formula. This, in turn, corroborates at least part of what commenters are saying about Ollie rage-baiting to attract attention to the “real video” showing him donating.
Tina told the Daily Dot via TikTok message that she was an immigrant mother who admires the trend since it supports women and families in need. However, she admits it might just be too pure for the “world we live in.”
“Supposedly, that young man that you hear in my video, was making a fake video, for the views and likes,” she said. “Many people in the comments of my video defended him, because they said that it was a humorous video and that at the end he left the money for the people who needed it.”
However, Tina said she did not find it the least bit funny since the trend is “serious.”
Backlash from viewers
She then went on to describe how viewers commented “aggressively” asking her why she didn’t say anything.
“I am pregnant and the last thing I wanted was to go through a humiliating, violent or nervous situation,” she wrote. “I would have loved to have said something, but Target workers were listening to the situation and did nothing.”
She also claimed that she was from Argentina and English wasn’t her first language.
“That’s why I decided to share that video on TikTok,” she explained. “I thought that maybe more people could see what was happening with this trend. The video went viral and thanks to that I think more people will become aware that it is better to give the money in hand to mothers or families in need.”
Ollie didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via email and TikTok comment. We also reached out to Target via email.
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