About

7 Things Every Kid Needs To Hear is an exploitable image macro meme format based on a graphic created by motivational speaker and youth advocate Josh Shipp in 2014, which lists seven things that kids need to hear for healthy emotional development. The graphic began seeing recaption variants turning it into a meme in the following years, typically replacing one or more of the items in the list. After spreading on platforms like Reddit in the mid-to-late 2010s, it began spreading around TikTok sometime in 2025. The TikTok version of the meme typically adds a video or song overlaid on the list that someone thinks kids need to hear, whether genuine or ironic in nature.

Origin

The image was initially created^[1] by Josh Shipp, a public speaker and author who advocates for children, the thesis of his work being "Every kid is ONE caring adult away from being a success story." Shipp's "7 Things Every Kid Needs To Hear" provides a list of statements meant to reinforce the love, care and respect children need for healthy emotional development.^[7]

1. I love you
2. I'm proud of you
3. I'm sorry
4. I forgive you
5. I'm listening
6. This is your responsibility
7. You've got what it takes

On August 28th, 2014, Shipp added the image macro listing the seven items under the heading "7 Things Every Kid Needs To Hear" that would later become an exploitable meme to his Facebook^[2] page, which received 17,000 likes as of May 2026.

Reverse image searches^[3] show that the image began spreading across social media shortly after, usually unedited and shared in earnest.

The image began to be edited as early as March 2016, with people replacing some of the original "7 things" with their own.

The earliest known example of swapping out one of the originals comes from a post to the /r/Libertarian^[9] subreddit on March 12th, 2016, which replaced the sixth item with "Taxation is Theft." The post garnered nearly 100 upvotes and 20 comments in 10 years.

Spread

Additional edits of the original "7 Things Every Kid Needs To Hear" graphic spread in the following years as more users created their own versions of the meme.

An example posted to Imgur ^[4] on March 30th, 2017, by user itsabooper replaced the sixth item with "Communism has failed every time it was tried," which received over 159,000 views, 2,910 upvotes and 250 comments in nine years.

Another version of the meme emerged in 2019 when an image of the graphic above a map in a classroom started spreading online.

For example, on August 2nd, 2019, Redditor IXI_Bearzz posted a variant edited with the "Communism has failed every time it was tried" phrase replacing the sixth item on the poster, garnering over 200 upvotes and 35 comments on the /r/wholesomememes^[10] subreddit in seven years.

Sometime in 2025, TikTok users then began using the image macro intercut with videos of their favorite artists and songs in another version of the meme.

For example, on May 12th, 2025, TikTok^[5] @ilovekdot1 posted the 7 Things Kids Need To Hear template with a video of rapper Kendrick Lamar, which received about 381,300 views and 80,300 likes in about one year.

On November 30th, 2025, 2025, Tiktok^[6] user @trakcars posted the template with footage from a Forza Horizon 3 trailer, which received over 776,300 views and 126,400 likes in about five months.

On December 19th, 2025, TikTok ^[7] user @futurehndrx01 posted the template with the viral music video for Bobby Shmurda song "Hot N*gga," which received over 3.4 million views and 450,800 likes in a bit over four months.

The trend continued into 2026. On March 1st, 2026, TikTok^[8] user @spedox_1 posted the template with a video of Peter Griffin inspired dubstep, which received over 1.9 million views and 309,800 likes in about two months.

Template

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References