Mothymyths - Mothy Myths Studios

Things I have learned about Fandom.

Tips for beginners.

I’m staring down my 9-year anniversary here on Tumblr, and I thought I’d share some thoughts from that perspective. I discovered fandom (and Tumblr) when I was 41, so I’ve obviously never been a teenager online, but I think these are pretty universal for newcomers of any age.

Pick a name that doesn’t reflect your current fandom, because the odds that you will move on in 1 or 5 or 10 years are very high, and changing your url often means that your old friends don’t recognize you anymore.

Keep your friends! Your current fandom friends are going to migrate to different fandoms than you will. You will generally not be able to convince them to love your Next Hyperfixation. Learn to enjoy the eclectic oddness that your dash will eventually become.

Don’t be afraid to move on. Fandom is Brownian Motion. You will drift from one space to another as the spirit moves you. It’s okay. In the beginning, it can feel like a betrayal to leave a fandom, to start reblogging things your current friends aren’t in to, to lose interest in their meta/writing/art, to change the feel of your dash. It’s okay! Everyone does it, although some take months and others take years. Just let them know that your hyperfixation has changed, but your heart and friendship has not. It’s that simple.

Be Kind. To everyone. You have no idea what they’re going through or who they are. Try to not say anything to others that you wouldn’t want aimed at yourself. (You’re going to fuck this up. Everyone does. Give yourself some slack and remember to absorb the lesson, if there’s one to be learned.)

You are going to stumble. Especially in today’s hypercritical climate. You are going to say something that starts a fire. Just say sorry (if it’s warranted) and move on. Delete that post and take a break for a couple of weeks if it gets too hot. LEARN from it, but don’t fixate on it. Make liberal use of tumblr’s Block feature.

Learn to recognize wank (“discourse”). Know that if you jump in with your opinion, you will very likely become some rabid person’s target. So make that choice with your eyes open. Try to avoid black-and-white thinking (we’re right –> they must be demons). It’s really not helpful.

Online stress is real. Online hurts are real hurts. So learn how to protect yourself. Curate your dash, block people and tags. Learn to recognize when tumblr thoughts follow you into your real life and affect your happiness. When that happens, take a break. Change the makeup of your dash.

Don’t make assumptions. Your friend might be older or younger than you, might be from an entirely different culture. It’s easy to assume everyone on the other side of your keyboard is a mirror image of you, with similar experiences. They very likely are not, so always tread lightly.

Guard your personal information. No one needs to know your real name! And probably, they don’t need to know your age, either. Especially if you’re young. You are your url, and in a fandom community, that is enough.

Being part of a fandom community takes time and effort. You make friends by commenting, reblogging, encouraging others in their writing/art/meta/whatever. If you are a creator yourself, please don’t be discouraged by a slow lift-off. That happens for everyone (except a lucky few).

It isn’t necessary to make friends with the BNFs out there: make friends with other newbies. Your shared experiences will be stronger for that!

Have fun! And if you realize it isn’t fun anymore, walk away. People take breaks from fandom all the time, and it’s still there when they return. Even if it’s been decades. 😉

any trans person reading this I love you

any woman reading this I love you

any poc minority reading this I love you

any queer person reading this I love you

girl something good has to happen at some point

to those of you who are moving here from tiktok, from someone whos used both tiktok and tumbr for years...

1. DO NOT censor your posts

dont censor sex, abuse, suicide, dont censor it. we dont have censors like tiktok does, you wont be banned for talking about these things and tagging them properly helps people avoid them (also, we dont have shadowbanning here)

2. we dont really have an algorithm

you follow who you follow, and you see posts from who you follow or what you search. the 'for you page' is basically useless here. this also brings me to my next two points

3. dont crosstag

we get it, on tiktok you have to crosstag for reach, but thats not really a thing here. just tag your posts properly (also posters often leave more info about the post in the tags!! and when you reblog stuff you can leave your own notes in the tags, kind of like the old "repost comments" on tiktok)

4. dont expect to go viral/be famous

"viral" isnt really a thing on here (at least not for the average blogger). your posts will probably get 2-10 likes and you wont get nearly as many followers than on tiktok. thats just how tumblr is

5. blocking is your best friend

tiktok is VERY discussion based, and while tumblr is much more discussion based than other social medias, its still not a good place for ragebait/discourse. dont interact, itll make your experience worse in the end, just block and move on

6. you cant go into someone elses house and start rearranging their furniture

this is tumblr, not tiktok. dont diss old tumblr users for how they use the site or try to change them, thats like going into someone elses house and trying to rearrange their furniture. we've been here longer and we're familiar with the site and its culture, either find your niche, adapt, or find a different app

chatgpt is the coward's way out. if you have a paper due in 40 minutes you should be chugging six energy drinks, blasting frantic circus music so loud you shatter an eardrum, and typing the most dogshit essay mankind has ever seen with your own carpel tunnel laden hands

UNICEF USA

10 Ways Investing in Children’s Well-Being Changed the World

Here are 10 major advances that UNICEF and partners helped make possible.

1. More children are surviving today than ever before.

Close to 8 million more children in the world survive to see their fifth birthday than in 1990 — a 60 percent decline in annual under-five child mortality. 

UNICEF and partners have contributed to this remarkable achievement through proven, sustainable solutions for improving maternal and child health care services and strengthening disease prevention — and delivering those solutions at scale...

2. Vaccines have saved 154 million lives in the last 50 years.

As the world’s largest vaccine supplier, UNICEF procures and distributes enough vaccines annually to immunize 45 percent of the world's children. In 2023, UNICEF supplied 2.8 billion vaccine doses to 105 countries, up from just over 2 billion to 102 countries in 2020. Through widespread immunizations, polio is on the brink of eradication.

3. Safe water is available to over 2.1 billion more people compared to 20 years ago.

Consistent access to a sufficient supply of safe water for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene is the foundation for child survival, healthier lives, stronger economies and more sustainable societies. With support from UNICEF and partners, more than a quarter of the world's population gained access to safe and clean drinking water in the past two decades.

UNICEF-supported programs help ensure access to safe water for 35 million people around the world every year. UNICEF also leads coordinated emergency response efforts related to safe water access in roughly 85 percent of countries affected by crises. In 2023, over 42 million people in 73 countries were reached with emergency water services, helping to prevent outbreaks of cholera and other waterborne diseases.

To help build community resilience to climate shocks, UNICEF has also supported the installation of more than 8,900 solar-powered water systems in 56 countries — an important climate adaption measure that also reduces the use of fossil fuels.

4. The number of children with stunted growth due to malnutrition has declined by 40 percent since 2000.

For more than two decades, UNICEF has been the world’s largest procurer of ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), procuring up to 80 percent of global demand, ensuring children suffering from severe malnutrition can be treated successfully.

5. Over 68 million child marriages have been averted in the last 25 years, giving girls their childhoods back.

In the late 1990s, 1 in 4 young women aged 20 to 24 were married as children. Today, it's 1 in 5. UNICEF has played an important role in global efforts to end child marriage, supporting 35 countries in implementing action plans, and working at the community level and across the health, education and other sectors to increase knowledge and change attitudes around the practice.

In 2023, UNICEF reached 11 million adolescent girls with prevention and care interventions empowering them to delay marriage and choose their own futures. 

6. Fewer kids are out of school.

The world stands on the cusp of realizing primary education as a basic right of every child. A world where more children learn is a world that is healthier, more prosperous and more resilient.

In the early 1950s, roughly half of all primary school-aged children were out of school. Now it's less than 10 percent. And every year, 23 million more girls are completing secondary school compared to a decade ago...

7. The world is on track to eliminate open defecation by 2030.

In the last two decades, 2.5 billion people have gained access to safely managed sanitation, while the number of people practicing open defecation has also declined by two-thirds — from 1.3 billion in 2000 to 419 million in 2022 — putting the world on track to eliminate the practice entirely. 

Ending open defecation drastically lowers the risks of diseases and malnutrition among children in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Child deaths from diarrhea — a leading killer of young children — have already decreased by 60 percent...

8. Birth registration rates are way up.

Today, 77 percent of children under 5 are registered, up from 60 percent in the early 2000s — a major leap towards ensuring every child has a legal identity and can access health, education and other essential services...

Countries that prioritize birth registration see rapid progress. In Côte d’Ivoire, birth registration prevalence rose steadily from 65 percent in 2012 to 96 percent by 2021, proving that change at scale is possible.

9. A future free from HIV seems possible, one baby at a time.

An estimated 1.9 million deaths and 4 million HIV infections have been averted among pregnant women and children in the past 25 years...

10. In times of crisis and emergency, UNICEF is there — helping to save more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization.

[Note: Okay, I think they're cheating listing this one, but the article header said 10 things, so if I included only 9 it would be weird. Obviously this is an article from UNICEF, but UNICEF's data, reporting, and statistics are considered to be of high quality.]

-via UNICEF, February 25, 2025

the Guardian

New Mexico made childcare free. It lifted 120,000 people above the poverty line

The state, which has long ranked worst in the US for child wellbeing, became the first and only in the country to offer free childcare to a

"The state, which has long ranked worst in the US for child wellbeing, became the first and only in the country to offer free childcare to a majority of families

There was a moment, just before the pandemic, when Lisset Sanchez thought she might have to drop out of college because the cost of keeping her three children in daycare was just too much.

Even with support from the state, she and her husband were paying $800 a month – about half of what Sanchez and her husband paid for their mortgage in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

But during the pandemic, that cost went down to $0. And Sanchez was not only able to finish college, but enroll in nursing school. With a scholarship that covered her tuition and free childcare, Sanchez could afford to commute to school, buy groceries for her growing family – even after she had two more children – and pay down the family’s mortgage and car loan.

“We are a one-income household,” said Sanchez, whose husband works while she is in school. Having free childcare “did help tremendously”.

...Three years ago, New Mexico became the first state in the nation to offer free childcare to a majority of families. The United States has no federal, universal childcare – and ranks 40th on a Unicef ranking of 41 high-income countries’ childcare policies, while maintaining some of the highest childcare costs in the world. Expanding on pandemic-era assistance, New Mexico made childcare free for families earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $124,000 for a family of four. That meant about half of New Mexican children now qualified.

In one of the poorest states in the nation, where the median household income is half that and childcare costs for two children could take up 80% of a family’s income, the impact was powerful. The state, which had long ranked worst in the nation for child wellbeing, saw its poverty rate begin to fall.

As the state simultaneously raised wages for childcare workers, and became the first to base its subsidy reimbursement rates on the actual cost of providing such care, early childhood educators were also raised out of poverty. In 2020, 27.4% of childcare providers – often women of color – were living in poverty. By 2024, that number had fallen to 16%.

During the state’s recent legislative session, lawmakers approved a “historic” increase in funding for education, including early childhood education, that might improve those numbers even further...

When now-governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced her candidacy in late 2016, she emphasized her desire to address the state’s low child wellbeing rating. And when she took office in January 2018, she described her aim to have a “moonshot for education”: major investments in education across the state, from early childhood through college.

That led to her opening the state’s early childhood education and care department in 2019 – and tapping Groginksy, who had overseen efforts to improve early childhood policies in Washington DC, to run it. Then, in 2020, Lujan Grisham threw her support behind a bill in the state legislature that would establish an Early Childhood Trust Fund: by investing $300m – plus budget surpluses each year, largely from oil and gas revenue – the state hoped to distribute a percentage to fund early childhood education each year.

But then, just weeks after the trust fund was established, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic.

“Covid created a really enormous moment for childcare,” said Heinz. “We had somewhat of a national reckoning about the fact that we don’t have a workforce if we don’t have childcare.”

As federal funding flooded into New Mexico, the state directed millions of dollars toward childcare, including by boosting pay for entry-level childcare providers to $15 an hour, expanding eligibility for free childcare to families making 400% of the poverty level, and becoming the first state in the nation to set childcare subsidy rates at the true cost of delivering care.

As pandemic-era relief funding dried up in 2022, the governor and Democratic lawmakers proposed another way to generate funds for childcare – directing a portion of the state’s Land Grant Permanent Fund to early childhood education and care. Like the Early Childhood Trust Fund, the permanent fund – which was established when New Mexico became a state – was funded by taxes on fossil fuel revenues. That November, 70% of New Mexican voters approved a constitutional amendment directing 1.25% of the fund to early childhood programs.

By then, the Early Childhood Trust Fund had grown exponentially – due to the boom in oil and gas prices. Beginning with $300m in 2020, the fund had swollen to over $9bn by the end of 2024...

New Mexico has long had one of the highest “official poverty rates” in the nation.

But using a metric that accounts for social safety net programs – like universal childcare – that’s slowly shifting. According to “supplemental poverty” data, 17.1% of New Mexicans fell below the federal “supplemental” poverty line from 2013 to 2015 (a metric that takes into account cost of living and social supports) – making it the fifth poorest state in the nation by that measure. But today, that number has fallen to 10.9%, one of the biggest changes in the country, amounting to 120,000 fewer New Mexicans living in poverty.

New Mexico’s child wellbeing ranking – which is based heavily on “official poverty” rankings – probably won’t budge, says Heinz because “the amount of money coming into households, that they have to run their budget, remains very low.

“However, the thing New Mexico has done that’s fairly tremendous, I think, is around families not having to have as much money going out,” she said.

During the recent legislative session, lawmakers deepened their investments in early childhood education even further, approving a 21.6% increase of $170m for education programs – including early childhood education. However, other legislation that advocates had hoped might pass stalled in the legislature, including a bill to require businesses to offer paid family medical leave...

In her budget recommendations, Lujan Grisham asked the state to up its commitment to early childhood policies, by raising the wage floor for childcare workers to $18 an hour and establishing a career lattice for them. Because of that, Gonzalez has been able to start working on her associate’s in childhood education at Central New Mexico Community College where her tuition is waived. The governor also backed a house bill that will increase the amount of money distributed annually from the Early Childhood Trust Fund – since its dramatic growth due to oil and gas revenues.

Although funding childcare through the Land Grant Permanent Fund is unique to New Mexico – and a handful of other states with permanent funds, like Alaska, Texas and North Dakota – Heinz says the Early Childhood Trust fund “holds interesting lessons for other states” about investing a percentage of revenues into early childhood programs.

In New Mexico, those revenues come largely from oil and gas, but New Mexico Voices for Children has put forth recommendations about how the state can continue funding childcare while transitioning away from fossil fuels, largely by raising taxes on the state’s wealthiest earners. Although other states have not yet followed in New Mexico’s footsteps, a growing number are making strides to offer free pre-K to a majority of their residents.

Heinz cautions that change won’t occur overnight. “What New Mexico is trying to do here is play a very long game. And so I am not without worry that people might give it five years, and it’s been almost five years now, and then say, where are the results? Why is everything not better?” she said. “This is generational change” that New Mexico is only just beginning to witness as the first children who were recipients of universal childcare start school."

-via The Guardian, April 11, 2025

"At the start of the 21st century, it was predicted that continuing carbon emissions would warm the planet by about 4 degrees C by the year 2100. This would be catastrophic [...], but preventing this future seemed impossible. Almost every human activity produced carbon dioxide, mostly because our energy was overwhelmingly supplied by burning fossil fuels [...] to generate electricity, produce heat, and move ourselves around. But the Earth was we knew it was at stake, so people all around the world got to work. This video is about what they did and what a difference they've made."

This was published in February 2025 and I highly recommend giving it a watch. Just since the start of the century, global climate mobilization has already brought the estimated warming from an 4 degrees C to 2.7 degrees, and if countries stick to their current legally binding pledges and targets that will likely go down to 2.1 degrees. Each tenth of a degree means a significant, tangible increase in the ecosystem health and human well being that humanity will experience in the future.

Yes, we need to continue to do this and more, but that is an insane amount of worldwide progress from something that was considered a fringe, "tree-hugger" issue not all that long ago. The public opinion around climate change and the action that is being taken today would've sounded beyond impossible only a decade or two ago and the momentum behind climate action has and continues to build exponentially.

We are making progress. If anyone tells you "no one cares and we aren't doing anything to stop it" they are either lying or misinformed.

Planet fitness is offering free showers, wifi, and charging stations to first responders and residents in the LA area who've been affected by the fires btw.