And with that, #girldad started trending worldwide, dads—and women posting pictures of dads and grandpas—using the hashtag to unite as one proud family, a network of people who may have been grieving a loss but who also were damn proud to be the fathers of daughters, joined by the girls-of-all-ages who loved them for it.
“I feel so blessed to be #GirlDad,” Alex RodriguezFather of Natasha, 17, as well as a 14-year old Ella, tweetedSharing the SportsCenter clip.
TweetedOlympic Decathlete Trey Hardee (a father of two daughters and, since this tweet, a son), “Being a girl dad has been the best part of my short life. This is what I wish I had known about Kobe. It will remain a lasting impression of him. This is not about the records or wins. #girldad.”
And when Vanessa stoically, inspirationally and heartbreakingly eulogized her husband and daughter at the February 2020 memorial held at Staples Center for Kobe and Gigi, she called him “the MVP of girl dads, or MVD.”