A TikTok Trend is Encouraging Women to Celebrate *All* Their Wins and I'm Here for It

For so long, women were only celebrated when they got engaged, got married, or had babies. And then, a new narrative started to blossom: People online started saying things like "normalize congratulating women when they get new jobs, start businesses, or secure promotions — not when they get married or have babies". And a lot of people agreed: "Getting married and having a baby is not an accomplishment!" they said.

But here's the thing: It's up to us to define our goals and claim them as accomplishments if we see fit.

That's why I love the “celebration cake” trend I’m seeing on TikTok: If you haven't come across it on social media, it's essentially a trend featuring people sticking candles into a "celebration cake" — some do it with a group, others do it solo. In either case, the people get to decide what accomplishment they want to celebrate.

Some give themselves props for getting married or having a baby or breastfeeding for a year or finding love. Others celebrate promotions, hitting a follower goal, leaving a job they hated, and other professional wins. And others still celebrate the things that are neither professional nor relational: Things like finishing chemo, becoming more financially responsible, freezing their eggs, moving into their own homes, walking 10,000 steps every day...the list goes on and on.

What's so refreshing here is that people — mostly women, because like most social media trends, this one is being carried by the ladies — are deciding what they get to be proud of — and they're shining a light on all the options. It's not only about celebrating the "traditional" stuff women are praised for, but it's also not about counting those out as “non-accomplishments” either.

We all have different dreams, goals, timelines, and priorities — and what seems really important at one phase of life may be deprioritized at another. On top of that, we’ve been conditioned to think accomplishments are only things that can be visible to the outside world (like the wedding or the promotion or the cute bouncing baby). But accomplishments can also be the things that are only apparent to you: Like working on your mental health, being kinder to yourself, or advocating for yourself in a health setting.

Accomplishments and milestones worth celebrating are for you to define. And we love that in this trend, women are defining their greatest moments of 2025.