Relationships can get unnecessarily complicated. When people first fall in love, it’s always about enjoying simple things together—long walks, phone conversations, seeing a movie. As relationships grow, family, children, bills, and major life decisions are thrown into the mix and it becomes easy to forget about those simple moments you once shared. Relationships get so complicated that they’re often crushed beneath their own weight.
Andrew Hou’s artwork does a great job of reminding us how powerful simple moments are within relationships. His new comic series, HJ-Story, follows his relationship with his wife and the simple things they share together. “We’re all so busy and caught up in everything that we forget about the little moments that are important—myself included,” he told Bored Panda. “Drawing HJ-Story for me is not only to capture the moments of a relationship, but to remind me of the little moments that are easily forgotten.”
You can follow the ongoing adventures of H and J on Facebook and their official website.
Problematic homework question
A student’s brilliant homework answer outsmarted her teacher's ridiculously sexist question
From an early age, children absorb societal norms—including gender stereotypes. But one sharp 8-year-old from Birmingham, England, challenged a sexist homework question designed to reinforce outdated ideas.
An English teacher created a word puzzle with clues containing “UR.” One prompt read “Hospital Lady,” expecting students to answer “nurse.”
While most did, Yasmine wrote “surgeon”—a perfectly valid answer. Her father, Robert Sutcliffe, shared the incident on X (formerly Twitter), revealing the teacher had scribbled “or nurse” beside Yasmine’s response, revealing the biased expectation.
For Yasmine, the answer was obvious: both her parents are surgeons. Her perspective proves how representation shapes ambition. If children only see women as nurses, they internalize limits. But when they witness diversity—like female surgeons—they envision broader possibilities.
As Rebecca Brand noted in The Guardian: “Their developing minds are that little bit more unquestioning about what they see and hear on their screens. What message are we giving those impressionable minds about women? And how might we be cutting the ambitions of little girls short before they've even had the chance to develop properly?”
X users praised Yasmine while critiquing the question. Such subtle conditioning reinforces stereotypes early. Research confirms this: a study found children as young as four associate jobs with gender, with girls choosing “feminine” roles (e.g., nursing) and boys opting for “masculine” ones (e.g., engineering).
Even preschoolers avoided careers misaligned with their gender, proving sexist conditioning begins startlingly young.
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The problem spans globally. Data from 50 countries reveals that by age 15, girls disproportionately abandon math and science, while boys avoid caregiving fields like teaching and nursing. This segregation perpetuates stereotypes—women are underrepresented in STEM, and men in caregiving roles—creating a cycle that limits both genders.
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This article originally appeared last year.