We have seen gender reveal parties many times, but it was recognized more when writer Jenna Karvunidis and her husband threw one 10 years ago to announce the gender of their baby, it was a relatively new idea.
The mom blogger who had the first viral gender reveal, but the mom who first sparked the trend has a new perspective on the popular parenting trend and recently shared her change of heart.
“It’s not the most important” factor, Jenna Karvunidis, 39, told BuzzFeed News.
Karvunidis lives in Pasadena, California, and raising three children, she had become famous in parenting blog circles as the person who “invented,” or popularized, the gender-reveal cake ceremony.
In July 2008, she baked a cake ahead of the birth of her first daughter, who’s 10 years old now, she revealed her daughter’s gender to her friends and family. The cake’s inside icing, of course, was pink.
“I was more the tipping point and gave a party structure to what people have likely been celebrating since ultrasounds were invented,” she said, adding that she doesn’t want to credit herself as the first person who had ever done this.
“I just gave form to having the doctor put the news in an envelope and revealing it through cake icing at a party.”
The mom of three from Pasadena, California, wrote a Facebook post addressing her “mixed feelings” about kicking off the ubiquitous baby trend.
“A weird thing came up on Twitter, so I figured I’d share here. Someone remembered it was me who ‘invented’ the gender reveal party,” she wrote, adding that the trend “just exploded into crazy after that.”
“Who cares what gender the baby is?” she added. “I did at the time because we didn’t live in 2019 and didn’t know what we know now, that assigning focus on gender at birth leaves out so much of their potential and talents that have nothing to do with what’s between their legs.”
The post ends on a sweet, surprising note: “PLOT TWIST, the world’s first gender-reveal party baby is a girl who wears suits!”
The post got more than 16,000 “likes” and supportive comments.
“Bravo to your child for being their true, authentic self, and bravo to you for finding the courage and love to support,” one woman wrote.
“As a trans person who felt trapped and confined to those between the leg bits until I was approaching 30 ― Thank. You. For. This.,” another commenter said. “Bee is a rockstar.”
Karvunidis told HuffPost she’s thrilled that the post has reached so many trans and non-binary people. For years, she’s had complicated feelings about being an OG gender reveal party host.
“I’m glad gender reveal parties brought joy to some people, but that joy has been at the expense of non-binary and trans people,” she said. “Even if you say a problem doesn’t affect ‘me’ personally, we should all have enough humanity to realize we don’t have to cause pain for marginalized people to have a joy for ourselves.”
Karvunidis and her husband threw the gender reveal party in July 2008, the celebration includes the fact that she was well along in her pregnancy after experiencing multiple miscarriages.
“Parents get enough flak for every move they make as it is. I just urge people to pivot to a pregnancy reveal,” she said.
“It can happen sooner, and everyone still gets cake,” she said.