Beginning on March 23, a women’s’ positivity chain was posted throughout Instagram stories in hopes to draw attention and stress away from COVID-19 and redirect it toward women empowerment. The chain’s post consisted of a picture of themselves, the people they were nominating and the messaging regarding the reasoning behind the chain. It was a nomination chain, meaning that each woman would nominate a few others after she was nominated to post. 

“When I saw the chain I thought it was a pretty cool and fun idea. Then after seeing people choose me to continue the chain, it made me feel happy to continue the positive message that was being conveyed,” senior Jaedyn Wint said. 

The chain focused on building yourself up instead of tearing yourself down. It also focused on having a positive outlook on life with all the negative events taking place. COVID-19 information is taking up much of the news and social media platforms, leaving users only viewing this. It is also forcing residents to stay in their homes allowing them to spend more time on social media throughout the day. 

Instagram stories were flooded with the hashtags “#24hours” and “#ChallengeAccept” to help the spread of positivity. People were spreading encouraging thoughts about one another throughout their pages and it distracted people from all other posts that may have been discouraging. 

“I think this affected people by boosting their confidence and maybe even putting a smile on their faces,” sophomore Hayli Siegal said. 

Hundreds of women across the social media platform participated in this challenge, whether they were nominated, nominated others or even just reposting others’ stories. Many other challenges were taking place throughout Instagram as well, including the puppy challenge, where when someone posted a picture of their dog and if you saw it, you were to post one of your dog, and the push-up challenge, where someone would record a video of themselves doing 10 push-ups and then nominate others to do the same.