Doing a degree is difficult enough with the distractions of clubs, house parties, and peer pressure to spend exam season loitering outside the library, chain-smoking and chatting to whichever acquaintance passes by in a bid to waste some time.
However, it's got to be loads trickier to do a degree while pregnant and then having given birth. That's why you'd have thought Karlesha Thurman, a 25-year-old recent graduate, would have been able to do what the hell she liked at her graduation, including breastfeeding her daughter, without any pricks on the internet getting themselves in a flap about it.
However, after a photo of the University of the California Long Beach graduate breastfeeding her daughter was uploaded to social media, she was the target of all sorts of mean comments, people calling her actions 'inappropriate', and others just going straight for the insults, calling her things like 'hoe' and 'weird [sic]' on Twitter.
Karlesha responded so well to the hate on Twitter, though, retweeting praise that she got from many fans – the best part of the internet is it brings together lovers as well as haters, right? – and then posting a short message on Facebook about taking her daughter to her graduation. She wrote: 'I found out I was pregnant my last year of college, had my daughter one week into my last semester, she was my motivation to keep going, so me receiving my BA was OUR moment, so glad I captured the moment and so glad you shared it with the world so thank you again,' reports Buzzfeed.
Karlesha didn't explicitly mention the breastfeeding, but as one Twitter user put it: 'Babies gotta eat too'. Which is exactly why she should be able to breastfeed her baby wherever she damn pleases.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.