What I Would Tell Stephanie Jenkins of Resilient Jenkins Fame

(If she would bother to listen)

(TikTok/@jenkinsresiliencecrew)

If you’ve been within six feet of a social media platform (or a gossip rag) in the last six months, then you have probably heard of the Resilient Jenkins. They took the internet by storm when a pregnant Stephanie Thompkins got on TikTok to “bravely” share their living situation. She had four children, with another on the way, living with her and her partner, Andrew, in a one-bedroom apartment. That wasn’t the shocker, though.

The shocking part was the state of the family’s living conditions and Stephanie and “Drew’s” plans for the future.

The one-bedroom was impossibly small for six (soon to be seven) people. Stephanie and Drew took the bedroom at the back of the apartment, where they enjoyed a king-size bed, mood lighting, and a flatscreen TV with his PlayStation 5 setup. The children didn’t have a room. They slept on mats on the floor in the kitchen, which Stephanie also admitted was infested with lice and fleas, requiring the children’s makeshift sleeping pallets and bedding to be sprayed daily with insect deterrent.

“If I go viral, Drew said he’ll pump as many babies into me as I want,” Stephanie proudly proclaimed. “I want twelve, and we want to live in a tiny home.” The family went viral.

Since then, life has seemed to only get tougher for Stephanie and her viral “Resilient Jenkins” family journey.

At the time of writing this, Stephanie and her baby-daddy, Drew, have been evicted from the one bedroom apartment that all seven of the family were living in. When they left the apartment, they abandoned 3 cats outdoors, all of which appeared to be ill and/or emaciated. The family bounced from motel to motel before landing in what appeared to be sheltered or assisted accommodation. There’s not even a single bedroom anymore. Now, the family (yes, all seven of them) is crammed into a single studio room, with the children living on top of one another (literally) and Stephanie and Drew sharing the bed with 2 babies.