{"id":369806,"date":"2026-10-10T15:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T15:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369806\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T15:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T15:16:11","slug":"sad-girls-crying-in-washington-square-park-brought-cupcakes-vapes-and-tissues-to-find-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/369806\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Sad girls crying\u2019 in Washington Square Park brought cupcakes, vapes, and tissues to find community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Every moisture-repelling compound in 18-year-old Angel Smith\u2019s waterproof mascara kicked into gear as she sat on a picnic blanket in Washington Square Park and told two strangers about recently losing her uncle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201cHe was the person I looked up to the absolute most,\u201d Smith said with glossy eyes. \u201cLife is \u2026 it\u2019s not life-ing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">A fresh high school graduate, Smith, who works as a caretaker for her great-grandmother, said she felt lost. Her uncle, like her, wasn\u2019t particularly gifted academically, she said, but he leveraged his artistic skills to build a career for himself as a painter, tattoo artist, and musician. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">He would have offered her guidance right now, but his heart stopped a few days after Christmas. He was 34. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Smith hadn\u2019t opened up about the grief to anyone, she said. But when she saw an event advertised as \u201cSad Girls Crying in the Park\u201d on TikTok, she felt drawn to go as did about 20 other women ranging from teens to women in their 50s. On a crisp October afternoon, they set up a patchwork of picnic blankets, passed around pink tissues, red velvet cupcakes, and vapes, and shared stories of loss, loneliness, money troubles, and heartbreak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">The group catharsis was envisioned by 26-year-old Megan Kwiecien. The idea hit her after she lost her cafe manager job and found herself crying alone on Third Street. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201cAnd, like, what else do you do when you\u2019re crying on the street other than record it and post it online?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">So she did just that on Sept. 10. Soon, the comments rolled. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201cU dont wanna know how many times i cried on septa,\u201d one read. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201cI\u2019ve cried on chestnut st,\u201d read another.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201csobbed next to elfreth\u2019s alley three times this summer\ud83d\ude1c\u201d someone wrote. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201cbeen there done that,\u201d Historic St. George\u2019s Museum in <a class=\"relative z-1 text-blue-mid hover:shadow-lightmode\" data-link-type=\"article-body\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/topic\/old-city\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Old City<\/a> added. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">As a joke, Kwiecien posted about a crying picnic. Commenters insisted she make it real. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201cYou asked, unfortunately I listened,\u201d Kwiecien wrote in the invitation textbox. \u201cOvershare to a stranger, enable someone\u2019s bad decision, stare into the middle distance, or say \u2018no literally I\u2019m fine\u2019 while clearly NOT being fine. Basically: sad girls, outside. See you there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Most of the women came to the event alone, courageous and open-hearted \u2014 trusting another woman, a stranger, would catch her if she came undone. And many did. For as many women who  came to get support, more came to offer it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Many participants found commonalities among themselves. Some helped each other nurse fresh heartbreaks of relationships spanning from five years to one week. Others shared frustrations over struggling to make friends in a new city. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Sitting around a black-and white-checked blanket on the leaf-dotted grass, Smith and 23-year-old Maya Mason quickly started tracing similarities between their lives. Mason, who lives in the Gayborhood, lost her mom to breast cancer a year and a half ago and the pain was as raw now as ever. Like Smith, she felt like she\u2019d lost her guiding light. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201cThe rest of my life without my mom \u2026 I\u2019m scared,\u201d Mason said. \u201cIf I fall apart, I won\u2019t have my mom to put me back together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Her friends offer wonderful support, but many are in relationships.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201cThey all have a person,\u201d Mason said. \u201cAnd my mom was my person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">When she\u2019s around her friends, she worries that talking about her grief will dampen the mood, but, surrounded by strangers who she knew were grappling with their own problems seemed safer somehow, she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Smith felt similarly. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">It\u2019s \u201c<a class=\"relative z-1 text-blue-mid hover:shadow-lightmode\" data-link-type=\"article-body\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/sonder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/sonder\">sonder<\/a>,\u201d Smith explained. \u201cThe realization that everybody\u2019s life is as complex as yours.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Smith told Mason she copes with her grief by continuing to seek advice from her uncle, even knowing he\u2019s not around anymore. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201cI still text his old number,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Every update, every challenge, every accomplishment \u2014 she shares. Maybe it\u2019s into the void, maybe someone whom his number has been reassigned to. Either way, it helps. She thinks about how he\u2019d respond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">She advised Mason to try something similar. The idea perked Mason up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201cI made her smile,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt made me feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Eric Spiegel, a psychologist who runs a group practice in Philly and co-authored the book Attachment in Group Psychotherapy, explained that group therapy and similar experiences like \u201cGirls Crying in the Park\u201d hold their power in simply making people feel less alone. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Someone expresses something they\u2019ve been struggling with to strangers, expects to be alienated, looks around, and \u201cthey see empathy, they see compassion, and they see curiosity,\u201d he said. \u201cThen they start to feel more confident like, \u2018Hey, you know, I could be this way with my friends.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">Kwiecien\u2019s vulnerability in posting the video of herself crying and hosting this event likely emboldened others to show up and be vulnerable, too, he said. Gatherings like this offer the participants perspective, a sense of normalcy and a sense of community, Spiegel said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">By the end of the afternoon, the women had made a group chat to keep in touch. Kwiecien smiled with satisfaction, surveying what she\u2019d created, already contemplating a Halloween version for spooky season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201cI was hoping it would turn out like this \u2014 making friends, community,\u201d Kwiecien said. \u201cTrauma dumping a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">She waved brightly to the several remaining women as she left. <\/p>\n<p class=\"inq-p text-primary  \">\u201cBye, sad girls!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Every moisture-repelling compound in 18-year-old Angel Smith\u2019s waterproof mascara kicked into gear as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63,136487],"class_list":["post-369806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-sad-girls-crying-washington-square-park-philadelphia-job-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}