Woman Looks at Baby Photos From the '90s, 'Shocked' by What She's Holding

Newsweek

02-05-2025

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A woman looking through her old baby photos from the 1990s was shocked to discover a picture of her holding something she definitely should not have been.
There's something magical about looking back through old family photographs. While nostalgia always plays a role in how we feel when revisiting days gone by, studies have highlighted the positive impact personal photographs of the past can play.
In 2019, a study published in Aging Clinical and Experiment Research found personal photographs were more effective at combating negative emotions than generic images because of their ability to elicit personal relevant memories.
When Renee Frawley from Derby in the U.K., sat down to look through old childhood photographs with her mom, she expected to laugh.
Renee Frawley as a baby holding a cigarette.
Renee Frawley as a baby holding a cigarette.
TikTok/renee.frawley
"We were trying to find pictures of the clothes I wore in the '90s," Frawley told Newsweek. "I used to love my outfits. Instead we came across this."
What they came across was a photograph taken of Frawley as a baby in 1994, holding a cigarette in her hand.
"We had already seen a couple of pictures of me with cans of beer in my hand and my nan giving me whiskey, but this one honestly shocked me," she said.
Frawley's mom was equally stunned by the image.
"You can hear her laughing in the background on the video, but she was as shocked as me and said: 'That's my mom doing that putting cigarettes in your hand,'" Frawley said.
Frawley decided to post a video to her TikTok, renee.frawley, revealing the two photos she discovered, including another of her holding a cigarette over an ashtray.
"The 90s really was a lawless time," she wrote in a caption accompanying the image.
It became illegal to smoke in enclosed public places and workplaces in England, including work vehicles, hire cars and public transportation, on July 1, 2007. According to campaign group Smokefree Action, the legislation led to 1,200 fewer emergency admissions to hospital for heart attacks in the following year.
"It was a different time back then," she said. "I remember people would smoke everywhere—restaurants, shopping centers—and my whole family have always been smokers unfortunately, so it just seemed normal to have a baby around it!"
Frawley had expected some to react negatively to the image in the post, but instead the video seemed to resonate with many viewers who went through similar during a time when "jokes" of this kind were more commonplace.
"There's a picture of me full-on drinking beer when I was like 1," one viewer said. "I made my dad an ashtray when I was at primary school while all the other kids made their parents cups." A third added: "I have the SAME pictures but my dad gave me a whisky bottle. We're doomed sis."
"To be honest, I shared the picture to TikTok because I thought it really was crazy," Frawley said. "But so many people have pictures like this from the '80s and '90s and all the comments are people commenting similar stories that have been fun to read."
Though the photograph may have presented a picture of irresponsible parenting, Frawley insisted people need not be concerned about how she was brought up: "I had a fantastic, happy, loved, childhood," she said.
Her grandma, the woman who orchestrated the photos, is no longer with Frawley and her family, but she likes to think she'll be "looking down, laughing" at the pictures going viral.