Gender reveals. What used to be a small and intimate event shared between a mother and father, has turned into a large, extravagant, and in some cases, deadly, occasion. Only about a month ago, a pilot crashed and died while announcing the gender of a baby for a couple. Thirteen years ago, influencer Jenna Karvunidis posted a video of her cutting a cake, with the inside icing being blue, revealing her baby’s gender. This one act started the worldwide phenomenon of gender reveals! Due to the events of late, she has been saying that she never meant for them to become extravagant or as deadly as they have.
In October 2019, a grandmother was killed at a gender reveal party after being hit by pieces from a homemade pipe bomb. In 2020, the El Dorado, California wildfire was sparked during one of these events, burning over 90,000 acres of land. The parents of this event wanted to use pyrotechnics to reveal the baby’s gender. Instead, the reveal, and subsequent forest fire, took a firefighter’s life, destroyed five homes, and decimated fifteen other buildings.
In 2021, in New Hampshire, a family set off 80 pounds of explosives for a gender reveal party. Neighbors from surrounding areas say it shook the foundations and blasted chalk into their homes. In February of the same year, Chris Pekny was killed and his younger brother, Micheal Pekney, suffered a leg injury from an explosion while making the device for a gender reveal.
More recently on September 2nd, 2023, a gender reveal party resulted in a plane crash and a dead pilot. A family planned an extravagant gender reveal for their small group of family and friends in Sinaloa, Mexico. The loving couple kissed as pink dust flew out of the bottom of the plane. Suddenly the plane started rolling– the one of the wings detached mid-air! As the horrifying event unfolded, the family continued to embrace each other. The pilot, Luis Angel N, 32, was later found badly injured in the rubble. He was rushed to the hospital, but sadly passed away according to the Aviation Safety Network. Videos of this tragic incident were all over social media, for the days to follow.
Thirteen years ago, influencer Jenna Karvunidis posted a video of her cutting a cake; the inside icing was blue, revealing her baby’s gender. This started the worldwide phenomenon of gender reveals! Due to the events of late, she has been saying that she never meant for it to turn as extravagant or as deadly as it has. She has stated on many different social media platforms for people to stop doing such extravagant events, or to stop doing them at all for the safety of others.