Delilah Gregory is like a lot of five-year-old girls: wears a dress and cowboy boots, is quiet around strangers, but always seems to be smiling.
Unlike a lot of five-year-olds, however, she’s getting a lot of attention on Facebook and YouTube.
Well, that’s not five-year-old Delilah, that’s 18-month-old Delilah.
Years ago, Delilah’s mom Lauren Bartley captured an adorable video of her baby getting a phone call, talking to someone on the other line, and then hanging up. The video is not even forty seconds long, but it’s full of sass and giggles, and the star is undeniably adorable.
(Can’t see the video? Go watch it here!)
Taking a chance that others might feel the same way, Bartley sent the video to America’s Home Videos to try their luck at winning the $10,000 prize. She never heard back, but the video didn’t disappear.
On July 14th, Bartley’s aunt found the video on Facebook and sent it to her. “We were shocked to see it,” she said. At that point, the video—which was posted on the “Cutest Babies Videos” Facebook Page, had only been up a few days but had already accumulated 2 million views and thousands of comments. By the time this story gets published, the video is approaching 10 million views and nearly 7 thousand comments.
How does Delilah, now 5 years old, feel about it? She doesn’t say a word, but she offers a quick and definitive “thumbs up”—at least the attention hasn’t gone to her head!
Kody Gregory, Delilah’s dad, beams with pride about his daughter’s newfound fame. “It’s pretty cool,” he says.
Delilah’s parents say the majority of the comments have been positive, with the occasional negative comment regarding “kids these days and their screens,” etc. Lauren insists that Delilah’s life is not dictated by the phone.
“She loves to talk on the phone with her family and friends from school,” she says. “She has a tablet, but we try to limit her screen time.”
Delilah is very much your typical kindergarten girl. “She loves to swim, do her makeup, sing and dance,” Lauren says. She also takes dance classes at Patti Parrish School of Dance in Sapulpa. She says the thing Delilah is most excited about these days is starting school in the fall at Liberty STEM. “She’s very excited about going to kindergarten!”
