The term “glo up” is a phrase that many people have likely heard or seen, especially with the rise of social media presence. For those who are not familiar with the phrase, it was coined in 2013 but began to grow in popularity in 2015 after Urban Dictionary created a spot for it.

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Glo up was created as a twist on the phrase “grow up,” meaning to have transformed. At its start, it often referred to someone’s looks as if they had gotten more attractive, according to Urban Dictionary’s use of the word.

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However, since it has grown recently in popularity, it has commonly been used in many different forms. One example is from October of 2017 when now college student Caitlin Crowley posted a “glo up” on Twitter. The tweet reads, “Freshman to senior year, does this count as a glo up???” The tweet includes two side-by-side photos. On the left side is a picture of her from freshman year with a boy who she took as a date to a dance. The right right side shows a picture of her and her girlfriend kissing during their senior year.

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This tweet not only brought an overwhelming amount of support from fellow Twitter users, but gave courage to other same-sex couples to share “glo ups” of their own. Many people replied to the tweet with heartfelt responses or laughed at the seemingly amusing use of a popular phrase.

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Buzzfeed interviewed Crowley, along with many of the people that replied to the tweet with their stories, and each only had positive things to say. One girl in particular, Katy Nicholson, said that the most common reason these girls were sharing their stories on Twitter was to show the process of coming out. She said that she was inspired by the stories and felt compelled to share her own.

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With so many negative comments that members of the LGBTQ+ community are faced to deal with, it can be refreshing to some to see an entire community come together through Twitter to share their stories and help others do the same. Our society tends to jump to the negatives and hitting send before thinking. The internet is accessible to many and gives others an opportunity to build each other up and spread positivity. The fact that a thread like this can go on for millions of tweets and hardly see a negative comment shows how our society is growing together in the best way possible. Perhaps it has been long overdue, causing some to see many negative aspects and not see any light in the near future - but even the smallest of things, such as this thread, shows us that we have the ability to build each other up.