About

I'm Baby is a catchphrase based on an auto-corrected text message from a mother to her daughter in a distressing situation. The phrase has since been used as a shitpost on a variety of websites, separating the meme from its original source, but it has also been used as a term of endearment and an expression of a desire for comfort.

Origin

On March 2nd, 2017, ABC^[1] reported that a California teenager who texted her mother during a home invasion. The mother responded to the text, "I'm baby. Call 911" (screenshot below).

Later that year, on June 5th, Tumblr ^[2] user darknetexclusivetouhouterrorcore posted a screenshot of the text with the caption "what does this mean." The post received more than 16,000 notes in less than two years (shown below).

Spread

The following month, Instagram ^[3] user aynalswag posted a screenshot of a Tumblr conversation about the post. The photo received more than 12,000 likes in two years (shown below, left). Over the next year, people would continue to post the news report with, highlighting the phrase "I'm baby" (example below, center).

On February 22nd, 2019, Twitter ^[4] user @Moeshayan tweeted a Kirby Explains image with the phrase "im baby." The post received more than 52,000 retweets and 109,000 likes in one month (shown below, right).

Several media outlets covered the meme, including Mashable, ^[5] Hello Giggles,^[6] Stay Hipp^[7] and more.

TikToks

On May 2nd, 2019, TikTok user @shleem uploaded a video of a person defending themself by saying "I'm baby" (shown below, left). The video gained over 163,300 likes and 17,400 shares in six months. On September 18th, TikTok user @smoltammy started a thread of videos in which people transform into a picture of their younger self or a picture of a baby (shown below, center). In October many TikTok user gained over 300,000 likes for jumping on this variation of the "I'm baby" trend on TikTok (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References