Forget gender reveals and back to school boards, one proud academic wanted to share the joyous news that she had finally produced her dissertation.
Florida-born, New York-based Dr Eve Humphrey was so tired of people asking her when she was going to have a baby while she completed her doctoral program at Florida State University.
Likening the grueling six year research program to pregnancy, Dr Eve, 29, decided to create a tongue-in-cheek baby reveal when her hard work had finally come to fruition.
It’s a… Doctor! Announcing her newly minted status as a doctor following a six-year PhD, Dr Eve Mitchell shared a hilarious tongue-in-cheek ‘dissertation reveal’
All the stats: Dr Eve, 29, joked that her ‘baby’ aka her research paper drinks the tears of grad students and eats statistics
Walker: For the images, which have gone viral on Facebook, the New York-based biologist posed with her dissertation in a baby walker
Sharing the photos, shot by Korie Mitchell of JessaCole Photography, the newly-minted Dr Eve said on Instagram,
‘Six years ago I started on a journey and I didn’t know how hard it would be to finish. I gained weight, I experienced back pain, I cried a lot…was I pregnant?’
‘Perhaps pregnant with anxiety and fear as I tackled courses, proposals, preliminary exams and those wretched committee meetings. I had many restless nights and sacrificed time with family and friends to birth this crazy little baby of mine called a dissertation,’ she joked.
For the images, Dr Eve posed with a customized chalkboard and the dissertation itself (which, she added, ‘took six years of pushing’) titled ‘Stress Response and Coloration as Mediators of Behavioral and Physiological Variation’.
The board revealed the crucial details about the newborn – such as that the baby ‘drinks the tears of grad students’ and feeds off ‘statistic, citations and substantiated claims’.
The humorous scientist even joked that ‘the baby’ made her put on 35 lbs as she completed her doctoral program and dissertation at Florida State University.
The big reveal! The photo shoot was intended to be a ‘fun’ way for Dr Eve to celebrate the major achievement
Joke: As friends and family would always ask the Florida-native when she was going to have kids, she wanted to show them the ‘baby’ she had been working on for six years
Dr Eve explained that people would always ask her over the years when she and her husband were planning to have children.
‘The idea [for the shoot] came from a joke I would make with my husband, family and friends,’ Dr Eve told DailyMail.com.
‘Doing research and creating my dissertation took six years of late nights, lots of emotion and sometimes physical pain, like back and shoulder pain, as well as time away from family and friends.’
‘It took all of my attention and I felt like I was giving birth to my work. So I would say my research/dissertation was my baby.’
‘The idea stuck through the years and it made me think that I needed to celebrate/commemorate finishing. So I decided to do a baby ‘reveal’ or maternity shoot of my work,’ she added.
The resulting images show the ecology and evolution scientist lovingly cradling her research and cooing at the papers in a baby walker.
The images, which were shot in Florida last month, quickly went viral on Facebook.
What a cutie! The hilarious photos were praised online – particularly by female grad students who commended Dr Eve for celebrating herself with the funny photo shoot
Achievement: While she joked that the ‘baby’ made her put on 35 lbs, Dr Eve smiles to show it was all worth it in the end
‘Online, it’s been crazy: People talking about women in academia, and if women are celebrated for their professional achievements, and can women juggle having a child and being in academia,’ Dr Eve said – proud to have opened up a conversation about women celebrating their success in a fun, unexpected way.
‘I think it’s great because I’ve had an opportunity to talk to graduate students. They’ve messaged me and I’ve had an opportunity to encourage them.
‘It’s all a little overwhelming. When I open my phone or my computer, it’s just more and more people and I’m like, ‘Whoa! What is happening?”
Sharing the hilarious images online, photographer Korie commended her ‘beautiful friend’ for dedicating her time, energy and talent.
Korie concluded, ‘Time and time again, the talk of children would come up for her and her husband. She knew what she was doing and accomplishing. Everyone help me congratulate the birth of a defended dissertation by Dr E. Humphrey.’
‘I saw this on line and I think it is SO clever and just fantastic! What a great idea to celebrate such a momentous life occasion with a sense of humor and a photo shoot,’ a Facebook commentor praised.
Many others tagged their female friends and said they planned to do something similar after graduating.