In a viral video, a woman shows how making thousands of tiny hand-made paper stars helped her get through a stay in a psychiatric hospital.
In her video, TikToker Sophie Puchulu (@squishiesophie2) shows off her collection of stars while explaining that when she was in a psychiatric hospital, the “only thing” she did was make paper stars.
“I spent 12 to 16 hours every day just making paper stars,” Puchulu says in her video. By Tuesday, her video had over 51.8 million views.
@squishiesophie2 paper stars. #paperstar #squishiesophie #paperstars #origami ♬ original sound – Sophie Puchulu
As she continues her story, she empties cup after cup of different colored paper stars onto her bed. She explains that even when one girl stole the stars she’d made, she didn’t let it stop her, and would continue to make them.
Puchulu says in her video that she was in the hospital for one week. She then pauses her story to show how vast her collection is, by dumping out even more cups and bags of stars onto her bed.
“And then I got let out. What did I do with my new freedom? I made more paper stars,” she says in her video while running her hand through her collection.
“I kept making paper stars. I made them until my fingers were sore,” Puchulu says. “I made them until I could no longer fold the paper. And then, after all of that, I made more paper stars.”
By the end of her story, a mountain has formed on her bed. She runs her fingers through the sea of purple, yellow, pink, and green stars on her bed before quietly zooming out to reveal the massive pile.
“This is probably three weeks’ worth,” she says.
With over 78,100 thousand comments, people have been both confused and in awe of Puchulu’s dedication to her craft.
“‘I was there for 1 week-’ and did u SLEEP?” one person wrote.
“I wanna see these hung up and turned into an art installation,” one person commented.
In a follow-up video, Puchulu made a tutorial for commenters asking how to make her beloved paper stars. She shows how to make the stars out of regular notebook paper and out of “star paper,” which is specifically designed for crafting stars. As she finishes her tutorial, she shows off the tiny star she made.
“Then you have a paper star and then make a few thousand of them,” she says.
The Daily Dot reached out to Puchulu via TikTok direct message.
