BBC Homepage
  • Skip to content
  • Accessibility Help
  • Your account
  • Notifications
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • More menu
More menu
Search BBC
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
Close menu
BBC News
Menu
  • Home
  • InDepth
  • Israel-Gaza war
  • War in Ukraine
  • Climate
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Culture
More
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Health
  • Family & Education
  • In Pictures
  • Newsbeat
  • BBC Verify
  • Disability
  • BBC Trending

Step up to the invisible box challenge

  • Published
    5 December 2017
Share page
About sharing
Ariel prepares to step upImage source, @ariel1220
Image caption,

Ariel prepares to step up

By Sherie Ryder
BBC UGC and Social News

As challenges go on social media, stepping over an invisible box has proved to be quite tricky for some people.

It might sound easy - there's nothing there - but it takes a fair amount of skill and strength to create the illusion there is a box present.

When Ariel Olivar, a cheerleader in Manvel, Texas, USA, showed off her dexterity at defying gravity, her video on Twitter was retweeted 136,000 times, external (and counting) and liked by over a quarter of a million users.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post by ariel

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post by ariel

The trick - which started circulating back in 2014 - is to touch the imaginary box, then keep one foot in the air while the other steps over it. Some people were close, like Maley Moak's friend Maggie, external.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post 2 by Maley Moak

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post 2 by Maley Moak

Some may or may not have had some help, like E J Valdez, external.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post 3 by E.J. Valdez

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post 3 by E.J. Valdez

While others - like Holly, external - didn't quite get it right.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post 4 by Holly

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post 4 by Holly

You might also like:

  • The teenagers behind the Mannequin Challenge madness

  • Vine star recreates Black Lives Matter shootings for Mannequin Challenge

  • When the Ice Bucket Challenge spread to Iran

Ariel's fellow cheerleaders also got in on the act, by kicking away the invisible box, external and, again, garnering tens of thousands of retweets and likes.

This X post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on X
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip X post 5 by ariel

Allow X content?

This article contains content provided by X. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read X’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of X post 5 by ariel

It is yet to be seen how this challenge will compare with previous, popular online trends.

The mannequin challenge gained worldwide notoriety and beyond, with the International Space Station filming their own astronaut challenge, as did recipients of the Presidential Medals of Freedom at the White House.

There was also the ice bucket challenge, where people from all walks of life, and a few celebrities poured cold water over themselves to raise awareness and money for the neurodegenerative motor neurone disease.

By 2016, the challenge had raised enough money to fund discovery of a gene contributing to the disease.

Another internet craze called 'planking' - where someone lies flat on their stomach in unusual situations and posts photos on social media - hit the news for the wrong reasons in 2011 when an Australian man plunged to his death whilst participating in a stunt.

Likewise, although hugely popular in 2013, recreations of the Harlem Shake dance craze saw a college librarian sacked, and police officers disciplined.

More on this story

  • Farc rebels do the Mannequin Challenge

    • Published
      8 December 2016
    Image the Farc used to promote their version of the Mannequin Challenge
  • 'One in six' did ice bucket challenge

    • Published
      12 September 2014
    Montage of ice bucket challenges

Around the BBC

  • BBC World Service - Sportshour, The Man Behind the Ice Bucket Challenge

  • 'Mannequin challenge' pauses university graduation ceremony - BBC News

  • Stabbed police dog Finn in 'mannequin challenge' - BBC News

  • Mannequin challenge at the White House - BBC News

Top stories

  • Violent Channel smuggling gang's French and UK network exposed by undercover BBC investigation

    • Published
      3 hours ago
  • Secret filming at UK rail station of cash payments to gang for illegal Channel crossings

    • Published
      3 hours ago
  • Titan implosion that killed all five on board was 'preventable', says report

    • Published
      1 hour ago

More to explore

  • Are we getting another UK heatwave or did Storm Floris end summer early?

    • Attribution
      Weather
    Woman carries child on shoulders along a path flanked by ferns, in the sunshine.
  • 'Totally torn apart' - how Morecambe decline threatens a whole community

    • Attribution
      Sport
    Morecambe fans hold protests signs during a match
  • Putin and Trump's relationship has soured - but behind the posturing, a Ukraine deal is still possible

    Two treated images of close up shots of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump
  • Disfigured, shamed and forgotten: BBC visits the Korean survivors of the Hiroshima bomb

    A composite image of three survivors of the Hiroshima bombing
  • Why Donald Trump is talking about actress Sydney Sweeney

    Sydney Sweeney at Lionsgate's "Americana" Los Angeles Special Screening held at Desert 5 Spot on August 03, 2025 in Los Angeles, California
  • Hemsworth on facing fears, ageing and return of Thor

    Chris Hemsworth attends the photocall for 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga' during the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival, in Cannes, France, 16 May 2024.
  • 'Tighter gun restrictions make me feel hopeful'

    A woman with a brown bob. She is looking at the camera and is sitting in a kitchen, with a red stove in the background
  • He is a human skeleton, Gaza hostage's brother tells BBC

    A picture of Ilay and Evyatar David
  • The Upbeat newsletter: Start your week on a high with uplifting stories delivered to your inbox

    A graphic of a wave in the colours of yellow, amber and orange against a pink sky
loading elsewhere stories

Most read

  1. 1

    Clintons subpoenaed in congressional Epstein investigation

  2. 2

    Police respond to council leader's 'rape cover-up' claim

  3. 3

    Violent Channel smuggling gang's French and UK network exposed by undercover BBC investigation

  4. 4

    Family pay tribute to Oasis fan who died at Wembley

  5. 5

    Bridgerton actress speaks of phone theft trauma

  6. 6

    Corbyn attacks Rayner for selling off allotments

  7. 7

    Titan implosion that killed all five on board was 'preventable', says report

  8. 8

    Netanyahu to propose full reoccupation of Gaza, Israeli media report

  9. 9

    £100m of premium bond prizes remain unclaimed

  10. 10

    Dad on cocaine jailed for son's M6 crash death

BBC News Services

  • On your mobile
  • On smart speakers
  • Get news alerts
  • Contact BBC News

Best of the BBC

  • From hippy origins to controlling cult

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Inside the Cult of the Jesus Army
  • Why are so many people taking ketamine?

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Panorama: Britain's Ketamine Crisis
  • Chaotic family comedy with the Jessops

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Here We Go
  • Annika returns to solve unfathomable murders

    • Attribution
      iPlayer
    Annika
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • Terms of Use
  • About the BBC
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Accessibility Help
  • Parental Guidance
  • Contact the BBC
  • Make an editorial complaint
  • BBC emails for you

Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.