When TikToker Lily (@lilly.noelley) was a kid, she was evaluated for being a serial killer. Growing up in the early 2000s, she spent a lot of time in the woods, wandering around alone.
Her mother had issues with addiction, so there wasn’t too much parental supervision during her childhood.
She always tried to look for fairies, bones, and dead animals in the woods. She never found any fairies, but bones and dead animals were fair game.
“And if I came across bones, I would keep them because they’re neat, and they’re hard to find,” Lily said.
“Another option is an actual dead animal. What happens when you find a dead animal? To seven-year-old me, it made sense to skin it because the fur is cool and soft, and I wanted it.”
So, she learned how to skin animals on her own at a very young age, and she would keep the skins and bones in her room. When her mom found her collection of animal remains, she freaked out.
She thought Lily was killing animals and that it was a sign of her being a serial killer.
Lily clearly remembers being taken to the doctor. At that point, she had already been diagnosed with ADHD. She met with a special therapist, and a team of people brought her to the woods near the facility to observe her behavior.
The team had planted a dead animal in the woods to see how she would react to it.
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A couple of times, she went into the woods with a lady. Her mom told her the lady was her babysitter, and they were just going for a walk.
Soon enough, they realized that she just had a genuine interest in bones and animals and that she would never actually harm an animal herself.
Other TikTok users could relate to Lily’s special interest and talked about how they collected similar stuff in the comments section.
“I have ADHD, and I, too, have always weirded people out by collecting bones and dead bugs. It’s funny, though, now that I’m older, and I have a nice natural history collection, I’m reminded that people go to museums to look at these things,” commented one user.
“I found a bone once when I was like 9 and my dad and I went hiking, and I named it Hatchikawati (Hecheekawatee), and I had it displayed in my room on a little towel until we moved. My dad kept it for me, and when I moved back home, he had clear-coated it to preserve it for me,” wrote another.
“I found a spine in our driveway a few weeks ago. Guess what is now on the banister of my porch? I keep bones, rocks, and anything I deem to be cool. I’m 41 and finally fully embraced my weirdness,” shared a third.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
