About

How My 2022 Really Went, also known by its most viral example of the Pandora Ring Girl, is a catchphrase used in a TikTok trend where women recount their life events from the past year or two, often relaying less than positive stories involving abuse, infidelity and tumultuous life experiences. The trend became popularized near the end of September 2022, with one participant going viral after relaying a shocking story about being shot in the stomach by their would-be baby's father and returning to date him after receiving a relatively cheap "Pandora ring" made with "lab-grown diamonds." This particular story subsequently sparked a viral debate and widespread reactions and commentary over the following weeks.

Origin

The 2022 recap trend emerged from a similar TikTok trend about undergoing "healing journeys," both of which are collected under a TikTok audio called "spread thin" by user @audiosbykayla.^[1] The audio is a sped-up remix of the song "Spread Thin" by Mariah The Scientist.^[2] The trend follows TikTokers using the TikTok Photo Slideshow feature to recount the events of the last year or two with the earliest known slideshows made by TIkTokers @iamkaleahh^[3] and @marayahli^[4] on September 24th and 27th, 2022, respectively.

On October 2nd, 2022, TikToker @Swagaliciousangel posted a Photo Slideshow where she described getting pregnant, being shot by her baby's father "on accident" and returning to be in a relationship with him after receiving a Pandora diamond ring. The original post gathered over 16,000 likes and an unknown number of views before being deleted, which can be accessed via a reupload by TikToker @spitweaver on October 3rd (seen below).

Spread

TikTokers began reacting to the absurdity of some of the 2022 recap slideshows, with some noting the "Pandora Ring Girl" story as a particularly egregious example of the trend. On September 30th, 2022, TikToker^[5] @yessleexo posted a video reacting to the general craziness of the 2022 recap trend and gathered nearly 800,000 plays and 200,000 likes in six days (seen below, left). Also on September 30th, TikToker @samhuncho13^[6] posted a video reacting to how traumatic some women's years seemed, gathering over 300,000 plays and 60,000 likes in six days (seen below, right).

Other users began to parody the trend by making up bizarre life incidents. For example, TikToker^[7] @thebestliaever posted one such parody video on October 1st describing a fictional account of her experiences over the past year. This included describing false life events such as becoming an escort, meeting her pimp at "the trap," being offered bad meals by him and eventually making his car explode. The slideshow was posted on October 2nd, 2022, and gathered nearly 2 million views and 300,000 likes in three days (seen below).

On October 2nd, Twitter^[8] user @amayamariieee posted screenshots from TikToker @swagaliciousangel's slideshow, saying "I really don’t understand y’all 😭." Her tweet gathered over 400,000 likes and 80,000 retweets and quote retweets in three days (seen below).

I really don’t understand y’all 😭 pic.twitter.com/pRVjtoa7l6

— mymy (@amayamariieee) October 2, 2022

Other users began to respond to @swagaliciousangel's slideshow as well, with TikToker^[9] @chubby_hoochie posting a reaction on October 3rd that gathered over 3 million plays and 500,000 likes in two days (seen below, left). Other users criticized the memeification of what they considered to be a victim of abuse. TikToker^[10] @thebutterflychild posted a video noting this and gathered over 3 million plays and 500,000 likes in a day (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References