40 Things That Made Us Smile This Year, Because 2017 Wasn't All Trash

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Babies, animals, and more glimmers of light in the dungheap.

Instagram

Mikayla Holmgrem becoming the first woman with Down syndrome to compete in a state Miss USA pageant.

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This important reminder from the Girl Scouts about consent and not having to thank any creepy relatives/friends of the family with a hug, if you don't want to.

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Mi Canal Peru

When the 28 2018 Miss Peru contestants listed statistics on women's rights, sexual harassment, and violence as their "measurements" in a badass twist on pageants' bikinis-and-world-peace image.

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Wikipedia

When it was worth getting banned from Wikipedia.

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Adam Scotti

Justin Trudeau's essay about raising his children as feminists, written exclusively for us (brush, brush).

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Twitter

This joke, based on the only science fact we know.

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Instagram

Beyoncé announcing, in epic fashion, that she was pregnant! Beyoncé giving birth to twins named Rumi and Sir!

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YouTube

Thank you, Charli XCX, for giving us your "Boys" video.

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Twitter

Malala starting at Oxford.

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This dad joke to top them all.

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Sara Shakeel's beautiful, body-positive art.

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Around 2:08 of this song.

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Rihanna acknowledging that she knows you talk about her weight and responding with a wicked sense of humor.

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Chrissy Teigen's annual Showing of the Stretch Marks, which should just be declared a national holiday already.

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When we saw, first hand, why we need strong female leads. ("Made us smile" is used loosely here, because it's more apt to make you tear up.)

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Twitter

How much Stormzy loves his sweater.

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When this good boy lost his job but charmed the world (and found other employment) in the process.

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Shutterstock

All these dank memes.

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The entire two weeks Anthony Scaramucci was White House communications director, then lost everything like a modern-day Antigone. This time will be known as a great flourishing of Twitter and Internet jokes.

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Tina Fey capturing the kind of smash-your-face-into-a-sheet-cake depths of despair many of us felt earlier this year so accurately it makes you suspect if she's watching us.

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An estimated 3.2 to 5.2 million people in 600 cities nationwide taking part in the Women's March.

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Elle Fanning wearing this puff-sleeve Rodarte ensemble that haunts my dreams.

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Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber getting back together, which might've made you smile because that's the kind of going-against-everyone's-advice thing you would do. Or it made you smile because you're looking forward to the drama that could conceivably follow if/when they break up again.

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The International Union for Conservation of Nature removed the snow leopard from the endangered species list. (But only a slight smile for this one, as they're still vulnerable.)

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Meryl Streep kicking off the year with a legendary speech denouncing Trump and calling for protections for freedom of speech.

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Obama having so much fun on his well-deserved vacation that we began to think he didn't miss us.

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Blue Ivy wearing a tiny pink Gucci suit.

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Jenny Slate and Chris Evans getting back together, bless.

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Mariah Carey giving an interview in which she said the actual words "I was focusing on the food." And "I don't know where that motherf*cker is," in response to a question concerning ex-fiancé James Packer and some alleged illegal gift-giving.

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Drake hoarding Birkins for his future wife, even though she could be more into Kellys, just saying. But with that resale value, that's a fine investment.

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