- A "big baby" became a meme on
TikTok andTwitter after a video of him bouncing on his dad's back in a freshly powdered diaper went viral with people asking why he seemed so "gigantic." - It turns out, the "big baby" is a 3-year-old named Gavin, and his mom told Insider that she wasn't expecting the outpour of attention, as she just downloaded TikTok for the first time on Saturday.
- "People can be cruel," she said about the mean comments. "There's no need to have this distasteful bitterness that a lot of people have. We have thick skin, we're raised tough, so I didn't let it bother me."
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The "big baby" has officially become a meme. But before you say anything cruel, you should know that he's not an infant – he's a 3-years-old named Gavin, and his mom wants you to stop saying mean things about him.
"I want to bring happiness to people, I don't want the negativity," Kathryn, who asked that her family's last name be withheld for privacy reasons, told Insider. "But every online famous person is going to get the negative stuff. Some people are just kind of demented a little bit, they want to make fun."
Kathryn, who goes by "kat.027" on TikTok, says she downloaded the app just three days ago for the very first time. She and her husband Galen – who is lying on the bed in the infamous "big baby" video – have a 16-year-old son named Caleb too, and he told his mom about the short-form video app that's popular among Gen Z-ers.
"I was like 'I'm going to post a couple of Gavin,' laughing to my husband like 'I'm going to make Gavin famous.' I didn't think it would happen," she said. "I'm not up-to-date with all these platforms besides Facebook, so my 16-year-old came in here like 'Mom, I mean you're getting tons of views, it's like a lot,' and I was like 'Really?'"
@kat.027 ♬ Woah - KRYPTO9095 feat. D3Mstreet
Their family lives on a small farm in the Midwest, and Kathryn has been working and
Gavin was born a normal-sized baby, but he's big for his age, and he has a lot of uncles and great-uncles over six feet tall
When Kathryn first downloaded the app, she posted a video of Gavin lying on the couch after devouring Easter candy, and has also uploaded clips of him on their tractor, next to a raccoon cage, and rolling around in the mud.
But it was a video of Gavin wearing a freshly powdered diaper that took off via TikTok's algorithm, gaining steam as a lot of joking and sometimes negative comments rolled in.
"With the baby powder, it was funny. It went perfectly with the song," Kathryn said. "That's what went viral and took off, and then everyone wants to make fun of him because he's big. He's just a big boy."
—James (@CaucasianJames) April 21, 2020
For people who watched the TikTok thinking that Gavin was a newborn, it's understandable that they would think he's a comically big baby. And while Kathryn says he's happy and healthy, he's also big for his age, spurting past the growth chart at doctor's visits. But that didn't surprise his parents, who have tall men on both sides of the family.
Gavin was 6 pounds, 15 ounces when he was born, but his height is no surprise, since Kathryn's two brothers are 6'1'' and 6'2'', and Galen's brother was 6'7''. She said they have "big genetics in the family."
"People can be cruel. There's no need to have this distasteful bitterness that a lot of people have," Kathryn said. "We have thick skin, we're raised tough, so I didn't let it bother me. I was kind of like 'That's mean,' because it's a baby."
—mr cant spell good (@KrangTNelson) April 21, 2020
Some people also thought Gavin was bald, or that his parents shaved his head, but Kathryn says he has light, reddish-blonde hair that's hard to see in the video. She recently trimmed some flyaways herself during quarantine, but says Gavin does actually have hair. Some comments predicted he'll play basketball; Kathryn thinks it'll be football.
"I like the positive stuff. Nobody likes negative stuff," she said, and she's encouraged the less cruel comments, like when she posted some snapshots of Gavin's "Boss Baby" Halloween costume after frequent comparisons. "Some of it is funny. I like the ones about him doing taxes and having a high credit score, those are cute."
—your own personal jesus (@Kappa_Kappa) April 21, 2020
Either way, Kathryn is going to keep posting clips of Gavin to make people smile. She's abiding by the "
"It's kind of hard to juggle everything with working and taking care of the boys already. And then with him going viral I'm like 'Oh my goodness.' It's unbelievable," she said. "We try to make the best of it."
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