New Moms Want to Get Their "Pink" Back, but What Does That Mean?
Every new mom wants to “get her pink back” but it’s not that easy. And to the rest of us non-moms, we don’t even know what that means.
Published March 22 2024, 1:05 p.m. ET
Sometimes a new phrase or trend will go viral on TikTok and it’s hard to track where it comes from. But when it comes to the idea of “getting your pink back,” its inception is pretty clear. The phrase has been floating around TikTok for a while now, but unless you’re a new mom, it’s not easy to understand.
On March 19, 2024, influencer Allison Kuch shared a video about trying to “get her pink back” when a response video from Jasmine Odell went viral as she compared herself to Allison. Now, TikTokers around the world want to know what it means to “get your pink back” and if there’s any reason for competition.
What does “get your pink back” mean? It comes from flamingos.
Yes, that’s right. The viral TikTok phrase was first associated with flamingos. Basically, flamingos are one of the only creatures in the world that actually show the toll that being a new mother can have on your body. Many of us have seen flamingos in zoos, and we sometimes notice that certain flamingos are less pink than others.
This is because when a flamingo is a new mother, they become depleted by taking care of their young ones. In putting all their energy into caring for someone else, their feathers actually lose their pink color, and it can take a few years for flamingos to get their pink back. After sharing a video about this phenomenon in 2022, influencer Lindsey Gurk started selling merch with the phrase, “Get Your Pink Back.”
As the merch started spreading, more and more new moms took on the phrase as a way to get back to who they were before they were a mother. While they understand they’ll never be the same, so much goes into being a new mother that we could never understand. Lindsay shared on Instagram, “This message resonates with me as a mother, because oftentimes we feel as if we’re losing ourselves. Losing our ‘pink.’”
“But it’s really just us fighting that transformational process. That time when we’re so desperately trying to be who we once were, when in reality we aren’t MEANT to be that person anymore. It’s uncomfortable and disorienting at times, but it’s also necessary … The idea of ‘getting it back’ is when we finally let go of who and what we THINK we are, and allow the process to take place.”
New moms on TikTok are posting about trying to “get their pink back.”
When Allison posted about getting her pink back at three months postpartum, many other new moms had their own experiences to share. One person commented, “Took me 3 years to get my pink back. Just remember it comes in waves and everything is temporary.”
TikToker Jasmine Odell posted a quick video with the title, “Saw Allison Kuch’s video about getting her pink back and she’s still very much newly postpartum and I feel so behind because it took me a little over two years to finally start focusing on getting mine back.” She added, “And this is no hate to her or anyone else, just upset with myself.”
Being a new mom is hard! And now having to navigate social media in an age where everyone seems to be genuine but is also still putting out the image of themself that they want the world to see makes it even harder. As people all over TikTok talk about how long it should take to “get your pink back,” we’re reminded that every flamingo acts on their own timeline.
