Mom from viral ‘baby name chalkboard’ meme shares her daughter is now 11 — making us all feel old
In 2012, a then-pregnant McKinli Hatch posted a photo of herself posing with baby names written out on a chalkboard. It immediately went viral — but not for the reason she wanted.
The image quickly became a meme that poked fun at the baby names, which included “Taylee,” “McKarty” and “Nayvie.”
But recently, Hatch surprised social media users everywhere by going viral again — this time by posting an update as “the ‘Chalk Board Mom’” with the “chalkboard baby” who is her 11-year-old daughter, Laikynn. (Savvy commenters also noticed that she decided to update the spelling from her original plan too.)
“When people realize you are the ‘Chalk Board Mom’ and Laikynn is now 11 years old,” she wrote in the video, which featured her and her daughter dancing on the beach.
The original meme
Back in 2012, the chalkboard image was part of a blog post that Hatch maintained about her life as a new mom. Hatch wrote on her blog that the “best” moments of that week were: “Deciding on the babies name, buying her more outfits, decorating a little more of the nursery, I love everything about getting ready for her to come!!”
Hatch’s original 2012 post was spurred into a viral sensation by Buzzfeed the following year, in 2013, when the outlet featured the image of the pregnant mom and her chalkboard in a listicle titled “10 Things Only Utahns Know.” The article described how the names she listed were “typical” baby names for people in Utah.
From there, Know Your Meme reports that the meme quickly spread to more places on the Internet, including Tumblr and Reddit.
A repeat of the viral chalkboard image occurred years later, when Hatch was pregnant again and recreated the image with boy names she was apparently considering for her future son.
Someone needs to take the chalkboard away from this lady... pic.twitter.com/IQkQMNJOr4
— Followers For Algernon (@bonerhitler) March 30, 2019
Later that year, Hatch even seemed to poke fun at herself and her viral fame by posting yet another chalkboard — this time for the dog that she adopted with her then-husband, Devan.
Buzzfeed interviewed Hatch in 2019 after the dog chalkboard picture, and she explained that the majority of the memes made about her photo hadn’t bothered her and that she was happy with the names she eventually chose for all her four children.
“Some of the memes, and even comments on the memes, are pretty funny and I can laugh along with them,” she told Buzzfeed. “Some people will like the name selection and some won’t, but either way I love my children’s names that I chose and that is really all that matters.
At the time, Hatch also told Buzzfeed that she had no plans to tell her daughter about the viral sensation her name selection process had spurred on.
What happened to McKinli Hatch?
The type of content and images that go viral often can’t be controlled, and in some cases, like with Hatch’s, the image goes viral in a manner that it wasn’t intended for. Sometimes, it invites potential downsides for the person in the meme, like harassment from strangers.
Hatch, however, posted an update to her Instagram page explaining that she was able to turn her viral moment into a successful online business. “Turned that traffic on social media into a business,” she captioned her post, tagging media outlets like Buzzfeed, People and Yahoo News.
According to her Instagram, she’s now a single mother and the founder and CEO of Mckie Rae Clothing (@mckierae). Hatch noted that because of her viral fame in 2012, she now “gets to create outfit videos for a living.” Her store even has its own app, where users can shop for clothes, shoes and accessories.
Many in the comment sections of Hatch’s post expressed surprise at realizing that she’s the “chalkboard mom,” and others praised her for building off a challenging moment.
“I dont know you but I just wanna say I’m proud of you and that you are doing a great job,” wrote @juliakmcpeak.
“Omg i never even realized that was youuu love it lol,” said @katiewion.
“So proud of you !!!” added @aoifemtimoney. “You have overcome so much adversity and your will to provide a happy life for you and yours kids is immense.”
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