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#PuberMe for Puerto Rico -- like Ice Bucket Challenge, with acne

Comedians Stephen Colbert and Nick Kroll will donate to Puerto Rico hurricane relief for each gawky puberty pic tweeted by a star.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper
2 min read

Braces with headgear, ginormous glasses, ill-advised hairstyles -- everyone's got a teen or pre-teen photo hiding somewhere that they'd rather forget. Now those embarrassing moments can help victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Comedian Nick Kroll has co-created "Big Mouth," a new Netflix show about those awkward years that debuted Friday. On Wednesday, he appeared on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" and encouraged celebrities to share gawky photos of themselves.

Puberty is "so awkward. There's catharsis in sort of showing who we were and who we became," Kroll said before Colbert shared his own embarrassing teen photo, one in which he forgot it was picture day and had to wear the photographer's jacket and tie. 

Kroll responded with his own photo.

"I'm shouting you out, The Rock, I'm shouting you out, The Hillary Clinton," said Kroll, encouraging big names to participate.

Colbert then upped the ante by promising to donate money to Puerto Rican hurricane relief from his charitable fund, the Americone Dream Fund (related to his Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor) for every celeb who shares a photo with the hashtags #PuberMe and #PuertoRicoRelief

"And I'll decide who's a celebrity, thank you," he said.

Once Colbert had checked the balance in the fund, he agreed to Kroll's suggestion of $1,000 donation per celeb. "And I will match that," promised Kroll.

Since then, stars and regular folk alike have been sharing their throwback photos on Twitter and Instagram. Here are just a few.

Even 94-year-old actress Rose Marie got into the spirit.

"Hamilton" composer Lin-Manuel Miranda found a puberty video of himself with a Puerto Rican theme.

Miranda had a relevant photo too.

At press time, more photos were being added. Click on the #PuberMe link to see more.

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