Struggling Mom Who Can’t Get A Job Because Of Her Smile Receives Help From Kind Strangers
Kindness always pays off.
Hannah Nelson / Pexels Jimmy Darts, an influencer on TikTok who changes lives for the better, asked Lulu for a dollar to catch the bus. She gave him $2, saying, “It’ll help you more than it'll hurt me.”
When asked why she helped him out, Lulu replied, “Anytime you need help, if I have it, I can, I will.”
As it turned out, Lulu was the one to be helped that day, she just didn’t know it yet.
The struggling mom, who couldn’t find work because of her smile, received help from kind strangers.
Darts offered Lulu her money back, then gifted her $1,000. At first, Lulu didn’t believe Darts’ kindness. Tears filled her eyes as she tried to refuse the money, saying, “That’s not true.”
“I was trying to find the first person to help me,” Darts replied, before asking if the sum would help her out.
“I got 5 kids at home,” Lulu said, explaining she was “going through a lot, trying to find a job. It gets hard to maintain everyday life.” Darts asked Lulu what the hardest part of trying to find a job was, and she told him, “I don’t have the smile.”
Photo: luizclas / Pexels
“They act like they wanna hire you, but then when you got a messed up smile, they think about different things, and they say they don’t hire you because of that,” she said.
Lulu shared that her dream was “to be stable with her kids and make sure they have everything they need.”
Yet Lulu’s story didn’t end there. As Darts explained, he met up with Lulu a day later, “to give her the surprise of her life.”
He’d raised over $42,000 to help her, so she could access the dental work she needed to fix her smile.
“I don’t even know what to say right now,” Lulu said as she teared up.
We’re often told that appearances don’t matter, yet we’re also told that finding work relies on us looking 'professional.'
The definition of looking professional often comes down to the people in charge, and workers in various places are penalized for things like having hair that's dyed a certain color or in this case, not having the perfect smile.
Dental work is especially expensive and isn’t covered under regular medical insurance. Forbes estimates that the total cost per tooth of dental implants runs about $3,000 to $4,500. Therefore, for someone who needs a full mouth of implants, the final price could be between $60,000 to $90,000.
Lulu’s request for stability is telling of the nature of life in the United States: So many people have hit hard times and wish for nothing more than being able to provide for their families.
Photo: Christina Morillo / Pexels
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in January 2024 held steady at 3.7%, which it’s been for the past three months. The total number of people who are unemployed in the U.S. came in at 6.1 million.
For people in similar situations to Lulu, receiving money with no debt can be truly life-altering. That so many people were willing to donate money to help her shows that there are charitable forces at work in the world, and most people want to help their fellow humans out when they’re in a hard place.
While Darts hasn’t provided any update on Lulu and her job search, the money he collected for her surely set her on a different path than the one she’s been walking along.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.