Newborn Was Called Ugly & ‘Like a Villager’ — Now She’s Grown into an ‘Absolutely Beautiful Little Lady’

Lucy Baehr was like all mothers who expected their newborn babies to be cute. However, the Arkansas resident joked that her baby arrived looking entirely different, and her story went viral for how unique and hilarious it was.

For a long time, Baehr battled to conceive and experienced several losses before letting go of the idea of expanding her family. The woman was already a parent to her daughter, Harper, and her stepson, Cole.

Hoping to fill the gaping hole in her life, in September 2019, she and her family got their third dog. However, fate decided to deal her a different outcome when in February 2020, she discovered she was pregnant with a daughter!

Baehr felt her newborn daughter, Reese, was a miracle, but the child’s arrival was something she wasn’t soon to forget. Recalling the first time she saw her baby girl, the mother of three said:

“I’m pretty sure I looked at my husband and was like, ‘She’s healthy?'”

Seeing how different her daughter looked, the new parent was surprised as she’d imagined giving birth to her lookalike. The Arkansas woman recalled how Reese had a huge nose, and when Harper held her younger sister for the first time, she also saw the striking difference.

As much as Baehr’s daughter was probably thrilled to be an older sibling, she couldn’t help but glance up at her mother and note how Reese looked “weird.” Her mother eased her conscience by stating that Harper wasn’t actually wrong in her outlook.

As most people know, it is taboo for mothers to admit their children aren’t good-looking, but Baehr bravely ventured down that path using TikTok. Speaking about a trend where people admitted that they expected a cute-looking newborn and got the opposite, the mother of three laughed when saying she’d won it hands down!

The movement was dubbed “The Ugly Baby Challenge,” and the woman’s post led to massive attention on TikTok. At one point, her clip had been viewed by more than 22 million people. She laughed as she revealed that some were saying her daughter looked like “Mr. Bean” or “Harry Potter’s” Dobby!

After going viral, in July 2021, Baehr appeared in a “Today” show clip where she shared her hilarious story. Many of the comments she got from her TikTik followers were clean fun, with one saying Reese looked “like a villager.”

A second person laughed and speculated that the little girl sure was “her father’s child.” Someone else lamented about women having to go through nine months filled with nausea and all sorts of drama only for their children to come out “looking like their dads.” Another apologetically said:

“Sorry, but she looks like ‘Mr. Bean.'”

While many social media users saw Baehr’s post as good old fun, some people didn’t see it that way, saying making fun of the child was in bad taste, and adding a clip on social media wasn’t welcomed either.

Why Was Lucy Criticized?

Baehr revealed that some people would make comments about her being a “horrible mom.” Critics felt the viral post would lead to Reese struggling with her self-esteem, but her mother defended her actions saying she was trying to be honest.

The mother of three explained that she was trying to normalize the way babies really looked when they were born. She insisted that Reese was “fine,” promised to tell her about the post one day, and said the whole thing would be featured in the little girl’s baby book.

Baehr also believed her daughter would mimic her by having a great sense of humor. What the Arkansas woman was trying to achieve was to remind mothers that not all newborns were born perfect-looking, and that was fine.

The parent explained that her clip wasn’t meant to be malicious and that she knew Reese wasn’t ugly. However, the attention she received from the video has led to companies reaching out to send the baby girl toys for the recording.

On October 31, 2022, Baehr gave her Instagram followers a glimpse of Reese’s appearance…

On October 29, 2020, Reese’s mother shared an Instagram picture of her newborn baby. In the caption, she explained what the child’s name meant, and showing how much she adored the little girl, she said, “You were loved long before you got here.”

A troll focused on Baehr’s TikTok clip noted how beautiful Reese was and hoped that the TikTok video had disappeared from the internet by the time she was older. The person accused the little girl’s mother of being “shallow” for calling Reese’s nose “so big” and wondering if she was healthy.

Despite all the negativity and attention Reese received, she’d passed toddlerhood and had changed drastically from how she looked at birth. Some might even say she looks more like her mother now.

How Does the Viral Baby Girl Look Now?

On October 31, 2022, Baehr gave her Instagram followers a glimpse of Reese’s appearance, almost three years after her birth. The little girl featured in several images in a cute Little League outfit for Halloween and even swung a bat in some of them! Reese had grown into her features, leading one person to note that she was an “Absolutely beautiful little lady.”

In January 2023, the little girl’s mother shared more images and even a clip showing how pretty and lively her daughter is. Someone described the child as a “beautiful baby girl,” while another thought she was “absolutely precious.” A third follower expressed that Reese was “a doll.”

On November 4, 2022, Baehr uploaded an Instagram video showing how her daughter had changed over the years. The Arkansas resident revealed that the clip took her two years to complete, and it made her want to cry. Reese was seen laughing, smiling, learning to crawl, playing with the dog, learning to walk, feeding herself, exploring, and turning into the gorgeous little girl she is now.

In May 2023, Baehr shared another update about her daughter, showing the little girl enjoying herself with other children in an inflatable swimming pool over the holidays. That same month, Harper and Reese appeared together in a black-and-white Instagram photo. In the post, the siblings bonded with a tablet while enjoying popsicles.

A few months later, in September 2023, Reese appeared in another one of her mother’s Instagram posts. This time, she was featured alongside her friends, and they were dressed for soccer with balls in hand.

Later that month, the three-year-old girl, her parents, and siblings went out to White River for a boat ride, with Baehr confessing she didn’t recommend doing such an activity with a child that young.

On National Daughter’s Day, Baehr revealed in a post that each day was a celebration of the holiday in her home. The post included a lovely picture showing how Reese is bonded to her older sister, who carried her in the image, causing the younger child to break into laughter.

Despite having a bit of a rough childhood because of her looks, the little girl appears to be thriving and growing into a gorgeous child. It goes to show that judging a book by its cover is never a good move.