A lady on TikTok has gone batshit, bonkers, send-it-to-the-moon viral after she posted about a gift supposedly given to her by her ex-boyfriend. The internet is now viciously debating whether it was appropriate or straight-up cooked. Let’s chat about it.
The video, which at the time of writing has surged to over 15 million views, is titled, “You dump him and he makes you a gift”.
Classic, relatable situation that I’m sure we’ve all been in before.
Set to the tune of Girl in Red‘s “We Fell in Love in October”, the video shows its creator Rachel opening a present wrapped in pink tissue paper and a gift bag covered in love hearts.
We soon see that the gift is a book, “Fall in Love with Yourself: The Ultimate Guide of Self-Empowerment and Self-Love” by author Angel Gaudia.
Lots to unpack here.
Let’s just take it at face value for a second.
Part of the comments section reads like the transcribed version of the women’s bathroom in a nightclub.
The top comment reads, “We all want you to burn his gift”, “ITS A TRICK”, offers another, “I swear he’s making fun of you”, says a third.
Worryingly, a bunch of comments are seeing this as a genuinely nice act and not at all manipulative (intentionally or otherwise).
“GO GET UR MAN RN”, “RUN RIGHT BACK, AFTER YOU READ THE BOOK” and “that’s ur whole soulmate bro, 7 years” all feature.
For the record, gifting your ex a self-help book after a breakup is proper bonkers.
You may as well have gifted them a stick of deodorant. Even if the intention was good, it implies you think they stink and should set about correcting that.
We’ll say it once, we’ll say it a thousand times, your ex is not a part of your healing journey after a breakup.
Go six months no contact, babyyy. Play the long game, not the short one.
The path to flourishing as a single person is only made longer by an ex’s involvement, regardless of whether they’re trying to “help”.
Girl, this is about you and you alone.
Thankfully, she burned the book in a sequel TikTok. Lol.
It’s also worth noting that the Amazon link to purchase the book is now present in Rachel’s TikTok bio.
Now, I’m not alleging anything here, but that reeks of being an affiliate link.
What I mean by that is, there’s a chance the creator is getting commission payments every time someone buys the book using the Amazon link she listed.
Why do I suspect that might be the case? It’s such a general-purpose book and has only been reviewed 25 times on Amazon.
Therefore, it’s not super well-known and could be part of an influencer / creator-driven push to market it.
That brings me to the second point – this whole video definitely could’ve been fudged.
Maybe I’ve spent too much time on TikTok and my brain is overly wired for sniffing out setups, but this one feels borderline.
Really? He wrote a note on a piece of paper cut out to be the exact same height and width as the book? A MAN did that precise task? Be serious.
There are certainly lessons to be learned here – either about moving on for an ex, or, potentially selling shit on Amazon.
Be kind to yourselves, kids.
