Bored Panda reached out to one Twitter user named Bonnie, who goes by the handle @Bonniezzila, who shared a tweet for Fallon’s #MyFamilyIsWeird challenge. It read as follows: “My birthday falls on Thanksgiving occasionally, and when it does, my family puts birthday candles in the turkey.” When asked whether she sees his family as a bunch of weirdos, Bonniezilla said that she indeed does but added that “in New Jersey, we’re all weird here.”
“We like blowing stuff up for fun because every guy in my family is a firefighter. We are a family of helpers,” The Twitter user said and added that family is very important to her. So much that she decided to move back to New Jersey from Colorado “because I was so sad it was impacting my mental health."
Just like all the families, Bonnie believes that her family is full of weird little quirks. “My dad just retired from Amtrak and being part of the railroad is its own weird thing, '' she said and added that “I think we're particularly weird here because of chemical exposure from Dupont.”
The Twitter user is referring to the fact that for years DuPont manufactured PFAS-type chemicals, also known as “forever chemicals,” in a plant near the Delaware river. As a result, for decades, locals have been exposed to drinking water tainted by a group of chemicals called PFAS, used widely for decades in products like Teflon pans, stain-resistant carpets, even cosmetics. The exposure has been either from direct contact or from polluted ground and surface water and soil, and have been linked to debilitating health conditions, obesity, birth defects, and cancer.
More about the incident and the story of DuPont pollution in New Jersey can be read here. In her pinned tweet, Bonnie said that “I was seriously about to cry when they took pics of my teeth for this story, but the truth needs to be told” referring to this story. She also told us that “they have the highest incidence of autism per Capita in the US” which is likely related to chemical exposure.
