"You Are Not Special" Children's Book

About

"You Are Not Special" Children's Book is a 2023 children's book written by Steve Pikelny and illustrated by Haus of Decline that went viral on Twitter in March 2023 over its demotivational and nihilist nature. The book, presumably posted as bait, became a subject of parodies, memes and viral discussions online shortly after.

Origin

On March 19th, 2023, Twitter^[1] user @steviepxyz posted his children's book, titled You Are Not Special and illustrated by the artist Haus of Decline, in a 16-tweet thread (tweet and seven first pages shown below). The thread gained over 3,500 retweets, 19,100 quotes and 23,900 likes in two days, effectively being ratioed.

The book, which is demotivational and nihilistic, notably states that the reader is not special, that anything they can do someone else can do better, and that no one will remember them after they die.

Spread

Starting on the same day, March 19th, 2023, users on Twitter criticized and parodied the book over its nihilistic outlook. For example, Twitter^[2] user @blktomekurata posted a Mob Psycho 100 edit of the first page, recaptioning it, "if everyone is not special, maybe you can be what you want to be." The tweet gained over 8,500 retweets and 43,400 likes in two days (shown below, left). On March 20th, Twitter^[3] user @DipsymValley posted a drawing that made fun of the book and its author (shown below, right), with the post receiving over 5,500 retweets and 59,000 likes in one day (shown below, right).

On March 19th, 2023, Twitter^[4] user @vivbluetea edited nine of the pages to carry a positive message, posting them to the site. The first tweet in the thread (shown below, left) gained over 6,600 retweets and 30,400 likes in two days prior to being deleted.

More parodies of the book's first page were posted by users on Twitter in the following days. For example, on March 20th, Twitter^[5] user @itsaaudraw posted an All Star meme that gained over 1,100 retweets and 7,400 likes in one day (shown below, right).

On March 19th, @steviepxyz then tweeted^[6] that he was getting death threats because of the book (tweet shown below, left).

On March 20th, artist Haus of Decline tweeted^[7] about the discourse, confirming that the original book was meant to be a joke and writing that every comic artist needs their "Bike Cuck moment" (tweets shown below, right).

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References