This Teen's Viral "Glow-Up" Inspired Other People To Share Their Coming-Out Stories

A glow-up can consist of a lot of things, from a more typical physical glow-up to a personal growing process. While we all go through both versions at some point in our lives, what with going through puberty and just plain growing up, most of our glow-ups don't immediately go viral and inspire others to share their own coming-out "glow-ups."

On Sunday, Twitter user Caitlin Crowley tweeted her own version of a glow-up, posting two side-by-side photos of herself at a homecoming dance during her freshman year of high school with a boy, compared with a photo from a senior year homecoming dance, where she is kissing her girlfriend of one year.

"Freshman to senior year, does this count as a glo up??" she tweeted.

Crowley tells Refinery29 that the boy in the first photo is Dylan, a friend who asked her to the dance when they were freshman.

"We're still good friends to this day!" she says.

The second picture was taken at her girlfriend Kirrin's homecoming dance. The two don't go to the same school, but met through a college prep program during both of their sophomore years.

"[We] quickly became best friends, and then about a year later we realized we were actually romantically in love with each other and began dating summer of 2016," she says.

She may not have intended for her tweet to gain so much traction, but it soon went viral, with more than 30,000 retweets and more than 117,000 likes as people began tweeting her their own versions of their glow-ups.

Crowley also added to BuzzFeed that she was pleasantly surprised by the impact of her tweet.

"Hearing the stories of complete strangers and their own coming out fears really hit me hard, because when I was first coming to terms with my sexuality I didn't know a single lesbian," she said. "To anyone who's still in the closet: take your time, you are not alone, and you are valid!"