Tag: News

• An 18-year-old founder told BI what it's like building an AI startup while still in high school.
• Although it was scary starting young, Ace Yip said she didn't want to wait.
• Yip added that she doesn't buy Silicon Valley's dropout myth, and she is still headed to college.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ace Yip He Hua, an 18-year-old founder and final year student at a high school in Singapore. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified her academic history.

I started building my career tech startup in March, and we launched in July with the initial prototype.

The product was to help with recruitment, which is a big problem in Singapore, the US, and China, where the workforce is saturated. Fresh graduates have difficulties trying to get placements into internships or jobs.

I experienced that because I was looking for a law internship. Sometimes, you have to apply to hundreds of firms just to get one spot.

Juggling school has been crazy, but compartmentalizing helps

I spend long hours in high school. It's difficult to balance my business commitments because I work with an international team. We have 10 members on the team, and three of them are interns.

Some are based in New York and San Francisco, and I'm calling collaborators, partners, and investors. Sometimes, they'll ask for a call early in the morning, and I'm supposed to be in a lecture at school.

I make it work by essentially compartmentalizing the two sides. When I'm in school, I focus purely on that unless there are situations where I need to take a call. When I'm working on the startup, I'm 100% thinking about that.

On an ordinary school day, I've got to be up by about 6 a.m. The commute to school is about an hour, and I usually spend that hour clearing work communications.

I go to school until 3 or 4 p.m. But every single lunch break of the past year, I've spent it working. After I'm home, I'm entirely focused on startup work. I'll study a bit at night, then I end up sleeping at about 2 or 3 a.m.

I didn't want to wait on entrepreneurship

I sort of jumped straight into the startup space. It was scary.

I went to my first event, Singapore Tech Week, last year. It taught me that if I could hold my own and be confident in a solid idea, merit speaks louder than any labels like my age, gender, or how much experience I have.

With the AI wave, we're seeing a lot of younger people make breaks in startup and entrepreneurship.

Many of them are college founders, but I didn't want to wait. At least in tech, it's a very open space, more so than traditional sectors like finance, where you have to get your college education.

I'm fortunate to be at the age where I can risk practically everything.

I'm not in a corporate job where I have to quit to start working on a startup, or have a spouse.

I know my age is a large focus point. Whenever I speak to people, they'll say, "Oh, you look really young."

You can see the way they speak to you, that they hold certain prejudices. Maybe they see me as someone who's just young and chasing a hype cycle, versus being someone who seriously wants to do this.

I didn't want to go about trying to fit in with people who had decades of corporate experience. I was leveraging what unique features I had, what could be things I was quick at learning, being up to date with the latest AI advances, and being able to build fast and scrappy.

Along the way, people noticed, and they could appreciate that I was so bold despite being younger.

It also forced me to learn really quickly on the job because I've never studied business or computer science, but I'm surrounded by peers and founders who are more knowledgeable.

I'm 100% going to university

It's common practice for young founders to drop out or skip university.

There's this term: NGMI, which means "not going to make it." They're always like, "If you don't drop out, you're NGMI." That means you're not fully committed, you're not going all in, you're not taking big risks.

I dislike the common narrative that to be a successful founder, you must look like this, move to San Francisco, or drop out.

What I'm building is for college students and fresh grads, and what better place to be than on campus? I am surrounded by my ideal customer profile.

There is so much room for me to grow personally, not just professionally, and college is a place that will challenge me.

Likewise, working under a structured, larger organization will give me product and management insights that I can bring to my own startup.

I am going to take a gap year before college because I know that it's important to move at a high speed at the start. After that, I will still go to university.

I applied to universities in the UK to study law. My rationale for pursuing a law degree is less about the content knowledge and more about the skill sets that it imparts and the thinking that it trains.

I'm also applying to universities in the US with a pre-law major and a second major in data science. I'm leaning toward the US programs for their flexibility and openness, as well as the existing startup network.

Do you have a story to share about being a young AI founder? Contact this reporter at cmlee@insider.com or Signal at @cmlee.81.

• Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis says scaling laws are vital to the tech's progress.
• Scaling requires feeding AI models ever more data and more compute.
• Some other AI leaders, however, believe the industry needs to find another way.

There's a debate rippling through Silicon Valley: How far can scaling laws take the technology?

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, whose company just released Gemini 3 to widespread acclaim, has made it clear where he stands on the issue.

"The scaling of the current systems, we must push that to the maximum, because at the minimum, it will be a key component of the final AGI system," he said at the Axios' AI+ Summit in San Francisco last week. "It could be the entirety of the AGI system."

AGI, or artificial general intelligence, is a still theoretical version of AI that reasons as well as humans. It's the goal all the leading AI companies are competing to reach, fueling huge amounts of spending on infrastructure and talent.

AI scaling laws suggest that the more data and compute an AI model is given, the smarter it will get.

Hassabis said that scaling alone will likely get the industry to AGI, but that he suspects there will need to be"one or two" other breakthroughs as well.

The problem with scaling alone is that there is a limit to publicly available data, and adding compute means building data centers, which is expensive and taxing on the environment.

Some AI watchers are also concerned that the AI companies behind the leading large-language models are beginning to show diminishing returns on their massive investments in scaling.

Researchers like Yann LeCun, the chief AI scientist at Meta who recently announced he was leaving to run his own startup, believe the industry needs to consider another way.

"Most interesting problems scale extremely badly," he said at the National University of Singapore in April. "You cannot just assume that more data and more compute means smarter AI."

LeCun is leaving Meta to work on building world models, an alternative to large-language models that rely on collecting spatial data rather than language-based data.

"The goal of the startup is to bring about the next big revolution in AI: systems that understand the physical world, have persistent memory, can reason, and can plan complex action sequences," he wrote on LinkedIn in November.

• A content creator set up a GoFundMe for an 88-year-old veteran working at a Detroit supermarket.
• Strangers have donated almost $2 million in less than a week.
• Economic uncertainty and financial pressures are prompting older Americans to delay retirement.

Before December, Ed Bambas was among the sizable swath of older Americans still working with retirement nowhere in sight. Then, he met content creator Samuel Weidenhofer.

Weidenhofer, who has 12 million followers across social media, set up a GoFundMe fundraiser for Bambas on Monday to help him leave his job at a Detroit supermarket and retire.

"I'm opening a fundraiser to help Ed live the life he deserves to finally give him some relief, comfort and the peace of mind that comes from knowing he can enjoy his later years without constant struggle," Weidenhofer wrote on GoFundMe.

The fundraiser had a $1 million goal. As of Sunday, over 65,000 people have donated, reaching a total of almost $2 million.

In a video shared to Weidenhofer's social media accounts, Bambas said he's an 88-year-old veteran who works at the supermarket five days a week, eight hours a day. Bambas said he retired from General Motors in 1999, but lost his pension after the company went bankrupt in 2009.

Bambas told Weidenhofer that his wife, who died seven years ago, had been sick around the time his pension stopped. Without his pension, Bambas had to re-enter the workforce.

Nearly 550,000 Americans 80 and older are still working, according to 2023 US Census data.

As part of Business Insider's "80 over 80" series, reporters interviewed nearly 200 workers over 80 — in addition to conducting surveys and receiving emails — in an effort to understand why.

While some older Americans are driven by a personal desire to work, others take on jobs to combat financial insecurity. Some workers over 80 told Business Insider that they use their income to supplement their Social Security and other retirement payments. They fear that without the income, they can't afford the cost of living.

Weidenhofer shared a video of Bambas receiving his GoFundMe check on Friday.

"It's something dreams are made of," Bambas said in the video.

Bambas also thanked everyone who donated to the fundraiser.

"I cannot express in any words how thankful I am to all the people," he said.

• Katie Lynch, 41, from Brisbane, is divorced but lives on the same property as her ex-husband.
• People are bemused when she tells them, but understand it from a cost-of-living perspective.
• It all came down to putting their daughter first.

This story is based on a conversation with Katie Lynch, 41. The account has been edited for length and clarity.

It's unconventional, but I currently live on the same property as my ex-husband. When we divorced, we decided to prioritize our 9-year-old daughter, whom we had together, rather than our own needs.

My other children, aged 18 and 14, also live here and get along well with their ex-stepdad. They're from another marriage. The relationship with my first husband lasted from when I was 20 till I was 30. My second husband was from 30 to 40.

When my second marriage ended, it was a mature parting of ways, which very much set the tone for what was able to happen next.

We tried to make it work before we divorced

The relationship wasn't working anymore. We spent a couple of years trying to make it work, but in the end, we realized it wasn't to be, and began the process of splitting up.

We started by splitting bills and assessing what was left to pay. We wrote down all our assets and loans and realized we both need to pay off some debt.

Then we had another realization. If we were to live on two separate properties, our shared daughter would need two of everything: two beds, two sets of things for her room. It made much more sense, from both a financial and emotional support perspective, for us to still live on the same property. It helped that we already lived somewhere with an in-laws apartment that my ex-husband could move into.

People's reaction to my unusual living situation is usually to chuckle and ask, "Why?" When I explain the pressures of bringing up a kid in the cost-of-living crisis, their bafflement usually softens. My advice for anyone considering this in a similar situation is not to worry about the stigma and what people will say. It's about being creative and looking at your own unique situation.

We both respect each other's privacy

What's funny is, for my ex and me, it isn't an issue at all. We respect each other's boundaries, privacy, and right to a new life. We've both been on dates with other people. He currently has a girlfriend he's been with for over a year. My daughter helps braid her hair; they exchanged gifts on Mother's Day.

I'm happy to see him happy. That's why we were separating, because we were no longer happy together.

Neither of us suggested this co-living arrangement; it naturally evolved — we transitioned from separate rooms to separate houses, all on the same property. He's gone from my husband to my neighbour.

Our daughter doesn't have to move around between homes

It also saves us from having to drop the kids off at 5 o'clock in the morning to fit around our busy work schedules.

Our shared daughter was still just a young kid when we separated — it would've been a huge pain for her to pack up all her playthings, her bike, her school uniform, and things and shuttle from house to house. We knew she'd be happier this way. It minimises stress and any disruptions to the routine she should be able to take for granted.

Having said that, I also want her to appreciate this move we've made for her. As adults, we set the tone. When we show respect, our kids learn respect.

I hope I'm teaching them responsibility, about putting others first, and about compromise. I'm always checking in with them, but usually they can't wait to get out the door to see their friends. They're kids after all. They might not understand what it took to do this until they're older.

There's this narrative that you should hate your ex and never want to see them again, and that divorce and co-parenting are doomed. We demonstrate a new approach, a different way. It's not traditional, but it works for us because we prioritize kindness, respect, balance, and creating a supportive environment for our kids. They may not thank us right now, but I'm confident that this'll pay off in the future.

• With so many options available on streaming services, family movie night was getting stressful.
• Choosing a few DVDs from the library limited my kids' options and streamlined family movie night.
• This practice has helped introduce my kids to classic family movies and has kept bedtime on track.

More often than not, Friday is family movie night in my house. It's a time for the four of us to relax after a busy week, snuggle up, and eat food we all enjoy and actually agree on, like pizza, popcorn, and maybe a pan of brownies.

The idea is simple enough, so the execution should have been simple, too. But it rarely was.

While I was putting the finishing touches on our homemade pizza, I could usually hear my kids bickering in our family room over movie choices and my husband trying to be a calm-ish referee. Some nights, voices got louder; many nights, tears were shed. This wasn't what family movie night was supposed to be.

I was fed up. So I turned to an old school device to restore sanity: A DVD player.

It actually worked

I decided to limit my kids' movie choices to just a few DVDs I hastily grabbed at our local library one Friday afternoon. When I got home, my husband helpfully pointed out that our dusty DVD player wasn't even hooked up to our television, but he was able to remedy that easily enough. The late 90s and early aughts were back — at least in our living room.

The night went smoothly. The kids picked a movie and watched it without incident. Two years later, this is still a strategy I use to keep movie night low-stress.

Streaming services have too many options for kids

The streaming services we currently subscribe to — Netflix, Disney+, AppleTV, and Prime Video (plus YouTube TV) — offer way too many choices for my children's 8- and 6-year-old brains to reasonably process. Add to that some differing interests, and it's a recipe for a guaranteed sibling squabble.

My kids could not be more different in their movie preferences. My daughter loves anything that she could imagine herself playing a part in, while my son has yet to meet a nature documentary he doesn't want to nerd out over. Luckily, my husband and I enjoy both of these genres, but let's be honest, we know our opinions don't really matter in this scenario.

Week after week, choosing a movie took way more time than our patience could reasonably handle at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday. In the back of my mind, I was selfishly wondering, "How long is this movie-picking process delaying their bedtime, after which my husband and I can actually relax?"

Having fewer movies to pick from was a game changer

My kids love books, so I'm already at the library at least once a week. Now, I always make time to browse the DVD section and pick out a few family-friendly movie options. Sometimes my kids get to have a say in what I grab, but I often try to do this without their input. I usually try to pick one that will cater to each of their interests and then one oldie but goodie from the past that my husband or I enjoyed as kids.

More often than not, my kids choose to watch the older movie, which has led to us watching many classics from the 80s and 90s, such as "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," "Beethoven," and "The Sandlot." Both kids loved them all and have requested to watch them multiple times since their first viewing. These are definitely not films that would have won out if we were searching for our Friday night entertainment on streaming services.

Of course, we still stream movies and shows

Sure, many of the movies we watch could be streamed, but my kids don't necessarily know that when I present new DVD options to them each Friday. For me, it's all about limiting their choices and making it seem like they are getting to see something special.

Sometimes my library picks are complete duds, and my kids aren't interested in watching any of the options I bring home. It took two attempts, several months apart, for them to get into the Tom Hanks classic "Big." That's fine by me, though. We need time to watch newer favorites like "KPop Demon Hunters" (for my daughter) or the "Penguin Town" series (for my son), both of which are streaming on Netflix.

We're about two years into this family movie night experiment with DVDs, and I'd consider it an ongoing parenting win. Our kids bicker less over choices, and we're able to get the movie started more quickly, which means bedtime can happen almost on time. Then the real Friday night relaxation can begin.

• Anduril cofounder Palmer Luckey defended the use of AI on the battlefield on "Fox News Sunday."
• "There's no moral high ground in using inferior technology," Luckey said.
• Anduril secured an Army contract in February to develop advanced wearable technology for soldiers.

Anduril cofounder Palmer Luckey defended the use of AI technology to make life-and-death decisions in war on Sunday.

A group of defense tech startups that includes Anduril, along with traditional defense companies, is developing autonomous AI weapons and tools for use in conflicts around the world, worrying some who say the technology is not ready for such high-stakes environments.

"When it comes to life and death decision-making, I think that it is too morally fraught an area, it is too critical of an area, to not apply the best technology available to you, regardless of what it is," Luckey told journalist Shannon Bream on "Fox News Sunday."

"Whether it's AI or quantum, or anything else. If you're talking about killing people, you need to be minimizing the amount of collateral damage. You need to be as certain as you can in anything that you do."

Luckey added that it's important to be "as effective as possible."

"So, to me, there's no moral high ground in using inferior technology, even if it allows you to say things like, 'We never let a robot decide who lives and who dies,'" Luckey said.

Anduril Industries, founded in 2017, is a defense tech company focused on developing autonomous systems. The company's mission is to modernize the US military through various technologies, including surveillance devices, air vehicles, and autonomous weapons. Lattice, Anduril's AI software platform, powers its tech.

Before Anduril, Luckey founded virtual reality company Oculus VR in 2012. He sold the company to Facebook two years later for $2 billion in cash and stock.

In February, Anduril announced it would take over a $22 billion contract between Microsoft and the Army. The partnership, which the Defense Department approved in April, means Anduril now oversees the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, a program to develop wearable devices for soldiers that integrate advanced augmented reality and virtual reality technologies.

The company unveiled EagleEye, which the company said "puts mission command and AI directly into the warfighter's helmet," in October.

During his "Fox News Sunday" interview, Luckey said he cofounded Anduril because he wanted to "get people out of the tech industry, working on problems that I thought were not so important — advertising, social media, entertainment — and put them to work on defense problems, national security problems. Problems that really matter."

Advanced technology is transforming the way the military operates, from administrative tasks to its on-the-field capabilities.

Drones have emerged as a crucial tool in recent years, helping new defense industry startups secure government contracts and funding. Under the Trump administration, which has invested heavily in AI and expressed interest in nuclear weapons testing, the technology defense sector is booming.

Luckey said in April that the United States had long ago opened "Pandora's box," and that there was no going back on the use of AI in war.

"I'll get confronted by journalists who say, 'Oh, well, you know, we shouldn't open Pandora's box,'" he said. "And my point to them is that Pandora's box was opened a long time ago with anti-radiation missiles that seek out surface air missile launchers."

• Growing up, my family's annual holiday photos were elaborate productions, with matching outfits.
• When I became a parent, I kept the tradition going, until the stress of perfect photos wore me down.
• Letting go of holiday cards lifted an unexpected weight, giving me back time joy, and time.

I grew up in a house where coordinated family photos were the norm. My mom would line up the four of us kids in matching outfits — one year, freshly pressed sailor suits; the next, velvet dresses, with my brother in a matching tie. Every stray hair would be tucked in or sprayed down.

We were bribed (or more like lightly threatened) to smile with our eyes open, something that's more difficult than it should be when you're a kid who just wants to be DONE.

Then came the card — glossy, cheerful, and perfectly posed — the proof that our family had it all together, at least for one photo.

I kept the tradition going with my own kids

So when I had my own kids, I continued this tradition without question. Every year, I'd book a family photo session well in advance of Thanksgiving, hoping that temperamental Chicago weather wouldn't put a damper on our outdoor photos.

I'd scour Pinterest for outfit inspiration, aiming for a coordinated but not totally matching vibe. The goal was to capture one frame of perfection — a photo worthy of the hundreds of envelopes I'd soon address by hand.

But the reality behind those photos was far from picture-perfect. There were bribes of hot chocolate and complaints about itchy sweaters. I'd smile through gritted teeth while the photographer tried to get everyone looking in the same direction. By the end, the kids were shivering, my husband was done, and I was wondering why we put ourselves through this every year.

And that was just phase one.

Once we had a "good enough" photo, I'd spend hours designing the cards online, tweaking fonts, choosing layouts, and agonizing over whether to include a photo of the whole family or the cuter one of just the kids.

Then came the addressing, stamping, and mailing — usually squeezed in between wrapping gifts, decorating the house, and trying to keep the ambiance somewhat festive. What was meant to be a joyful holiday tradition had turned into yet another item on my never-ending to-do list.

Quitting holiday cards lifted a huge weight

Two years ago, I finally asked myself, "Why am I doing this?"

When I couldn't come up with a satisfying answer beyond "because we've always done it," I decided to stop. No family photo shoot. No card design. No envelopes or stamps.

That first year without holiday cards felt strange at first, like I'd forgotten to do something important. December rolled around, and my mailbox filled with cheerful greetings from family and friends, each one featuring those perfectly posed families and braggy year-end recaps. For a fleeting moment, I felt a pang of guilt, like I'd dropped out of a club I'd been part of my entire adult life.

But then the feeling passed. What replaced it was a deep sense of relief.

Without the looming card deadline, December suddenly opened up. I had more time to actually enjoy the holidays — to bake sugar cookies in the shape of stars and drive through neighborhoods adorned in holiday lights. The pressure to present our family in a certain way — smiling, coordinated, festive — simply disappeared.

Now our photos (and holidays) feel more authentic

Instead of orchestrating a posed photo, we started taking more spontaneous pictures: messy, candid, real. A selfie at a local holiday market. A blurry shot of everyone laughing in front of our silver faux Christmas tree. A snowy mountain scene after a day of skiing. These pictures weren't perfect, but they were us. And when I looked at them later, they didn't remind me of how stressed I felt trying to get everyone to cooperate — they reminded me of how much fun we actually had.

Something else unexpected also happened: no one seemed to miss the cards. The people who truly wanted to connect reached out in other ways. It made me realize that keeping in touch didn't have to involve postage and cardstock.

Letting go of the holiday card tradition didn't make the end of the year any less special — it made them more so. It gave me permission to simplify and remember that the memories that matter most aren't ones you send in the mail. They're the ones you make together, no matching outfits required.

• Texas has become one of the top destinations for movers in the US.
• Its business-friendly climate and lower cost of living attract people from all walks of life.
• Supermodel Bella Hadid and actor James Marsden are among the celebrities who have moved to Texas.

Texas is popular for many reasons.

The second-largest US state is the birthplace of the iconic musician Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter as well as NFL star Michael Strahan and actresses Selena Gomez and Reneé Zellweger.

It's also home to a beloved football team, the Dallas Cowboys, and internationally famous festivals including South by Southwest (SXSW).

Beyond its cultural significance, Texas has a reputation for its affordability, largely due to its relatively lower cost of living and absence of state income tax. This personal finance appeal, combined with a business-friendly environment, has attracted entrepreneurs and their companies over the years.

Word has gotten out — and cities in the Lone Star State often lead lists of top places Americans are moving to.

According to a Business Insider analysis of individual-level data from the Census Bureau's 2022 American Community Survey, over 668,300 people moved to Texas between 2021 and 2022, the most recent time period for which data is available. This makes Texas the second-most popular destination in the US for movers, just behind Florida, which had about 739,000 inbound movers during the same period.

Several celebrities are among the hordes of movers to Texas. This reflects a broader trend of wealth realignment in the United States, where even the proverbial Joneses are moving to areas where their money goes further and the weather is more favorable.

Consider supermodel Bella Hadid, who moved to Fort Worth, Texas, this year to live with her professional horseman boyfriend, Adan Banuelos. Roseanne Barr and comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan have decamped from LA to Austin in recent years.

Many other stars have also relocated to Texas.

Business Insider has compiled a list of 15 notable celebrities and businesspeople who have moved themselves — and in some cases, their businesses — to the Lone Star State.

The list is presented in alphabetical order by last name.

Roseanne Barr traded the Hollywood Hills for 30 acres in Texas Hill Country.

Roseanne Barr's son, Jake Pentland, told Us Weekly in June 2025 that his famous mother had traded the Hollywood Hills for Texas Hill Country, a region in central Texas that includes cities like Austin and New Braunfels.

"My mom lives with me, my wife, and my two daughters — she's the best grandma," Pentland told the magazine.

In a separate June interview with Fox News Digital, Barr said living in Texas is a "dream come true" and described what her new life looks like.

"I'm doing a lot of mowing. I've got a really fantastic tractor out here, and I'm mowing," Barr said. "The only problem is I don't clear the trees quite as good as I should, and I'm always hitting a tree and knocking it over, and it always hits me in the head."

Haylie Duff admitted it took a while to realize she could still have an acting career without living in LA.

A native of Texas, Duff decided with her fiancé Matt Rosenberg to pack up the kids and leave California once the pandemic hit.

At first, she was nervous that the move would hurt her career.

"I think so much of my fear of moving out of Los Angeles was that my career was there and that I would never work again or something like that," she told Fox News Digital in 2022. "And, you know, I think this has all taught us that Zoom certainly can be a very powerful tool. And we can, you know, very luckily for me, get to continue to work from here, and I get to live near my dad. I haven't lived, here, near my dad in a really long time."

Scott Eastwood loves living in Texas because it "slows life down."

The son of Clint Eastwood, Scott has been methodically building his own career, showing up in the "Fast and Furious" franchise and Guy Ritchie movies.

During his downtime in Texas, he does everything from fishing to hunting.

"I think that's why people who come to Texas really can fall in love with it," he told Flaunt in 2021 from his home in Austin. "There's more community, people are more neighborly, people are nice. It slows life down a little bit. It's not this fast-paced living in a big city like New York or Los Angeles."

Bella Hadid said she moved to Texas for her health.

After spending most of her life jet-setting around the world trying to conquer the modeling industry, Hadid decided recently to take some time away from the spotlight.

In early 2024, she spoke to Allure about moving to Texas to focus on her mental and physical health (she was diagnosed with Lyme Disease in 2013), and be with her cowboy boyfriend Adan Banuelos.

"Just as I have styled myself for years now — which I still do — I love being able to do my own hair and makeup, be happy with how I look, and get ready with my girlfriends here in Texas," Hadid told Allure. "We have the best time, and I never feel like I need to do too much."

"For the first time now, I'm not putting on a fake face. If I don't feel good, I won't go. If I don't feel good, I take time for myself. And I've never had the opportunity to do that or say that before," Hadid added. "Now when anybody sees me in pictures and they say I look happy, I genuinely am. I am feeling better; my bad days now were my old good days."

Since James Marsden moved to Texas, he lives closer to his mother.

The star has enjoyed visiting Austin for decades but finally decided to live there in 2020.

"I love it. I've been coming here for 20 years," he told "Live with Kelly and Ryan" in 2020. "I'm much closer to my mom and everybody. I love it. It's great."

Keith Lee fell in love with Dallas' restaurants.

The former mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter turned TikTok food critic has set up shop in Texas.

After living in Las Vegas, Lee relocated to Texas in November 2024. In a December video reviewing the downtown Dallas restaurant The Wicked Butcher, he revealed that he now lives in Dallas.

"One thing I do love about the Dallas food scene — we've been here a month, a month and a half — they do have some nice fine dining restaurants," Lee said.

Matthew McConaughey wanted to be closer to family.

Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey and wife Camila Alves settled in Austin in 2012 after buying a 10,800-square-foot mansion.

According to a 2024 profile in Southern Living, the move to Texas was initially because of a "family crisis," when he needed to help his mother and two brothers. The couple decided to stay put and raise their three children there.

"Ritual came back," McConaughey said of being back in Texas. "Whether that was Sunday church, sports, dinner together as a family every night, or staying up after that telling stories in the kitchen, sitting at the island pouring drinks and nibbling while retelling them all in different ways than we told them before."

Elon Musk moved to Texas and brought his companies with him.

In July, Elon Musk vowed to move two of his companies, X and SpaceX, out of California and into Texas. He already moved Telsa to Texas in 2021.

In 2020, Musk announced that he had already moved to Texas himself at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council summit.

Musk has claimed to own a tiny home in Texas, and records show he bought a house in Austin in 2022.

Shaquille O'Neal has been buying up properties in North Texas.

In 2022, O'Neal bought a 5,269-square-foot home in Carrollton listed at $1,224,000 and sold it in 2024 for an undisclosed amount, though it was listed for $1.7 million, according to Realtor.com.

That year, Chexy Trust, tied to the Carrollton purchase, bought a 4,670-square-foot home in Rockwall County. In 2024, O'Neal opened a branch of his Big Chicken chain restaurant in Fort Worth.

As his footprint in the region grows, he told WFAA he plans to make the area his home base.

"I'm 75% going to move here full time," O'Neal said in June. "I have to see what's going on with TNT next year, but based on that, you'll probably be seeing a lot more of me."

Glen Powell got tired of the lack of freedom living in Los Angeles.

The "Twisters" star, who is also a native Texan, moved back to Austin from Los Angeles recently to be close to his family and for his own mental health.

"When all you do is consume movies and entertainment, you could become a little self-aware and maybe derivative of yourself," Powell told USA Today. "Your personal life, there's no sort of freedom there, there's storytelling around that, and I feel like that's just not good for you on the long term."

Jared Padalecki has a soft spot for Austin.

Padalecki ditched Hollywood for Texas before it was a trend. The "Supernatural" star, a San Antonio native, relocated from Los Angeles to Austin with his wife, Genevieve, in 2012.

In an Instagram video taken on Austin's 24th Street in 2020, he explained why he loves the city so much.

"Austin brings me a warmth and a happiness and a peace that I have been unable to find anywhere else in my travels," Padalecki said. "I love being here."

Christine Quinn's return to her home state has brought her closer to her family.

In 2025, former "Selling Sunset" star Christine Quinn relocated to her home state of Texas after splitting from her ex-husband, tech entrepreneur Christian Dumontet.

Quinn now lives in a suburb outside Dallas with her young son, Christian.

"I am really, really grateful to be living here," Quinn told People in January, adding that she's happy to be closer to family. "I have a sister who lives really close to me, and my son has a cousin. So it's really something that I needed as opposed to the chaos when I was in Los Angeles."

Joe Rogan ended up in Texas once the pandemic hit.

Like many other celebs, Rogan left Los Angeles once the pandemic hit.

In a 2023 episode of his popular podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience," he explained why he ended up in Texas.

"Then we went to the lake, and people are playing music and jumping in the water," said Rogan, adding that his kids "were like, 'We want to live here!'"

"That was it. Two months later, I lived here," he said in the podcast episode.

Jamie Lynn Sigler has felt more connected to her craft since moving to Texas.

"The Sopranos" star moved to Austin in 2021 with her family, husband Cutter Dykstra, and sons Beau and Jack.

"I almost feel more connected to my craft and why I love acting," Sigler told The New York Times in 2021. "When the calls come in, it's a beautiful surprise. I'm still on things and I'm still a businesswoman and it's still my career, but I don't feel the pressure around it because we took a stand for ourselves and we made decisions for our families."

James Van Der Beek wanted to get his kids out of LA.

A year after renewing his vows with his wife, Kimberly, in Austin, the "Dawson's Creek" star moved the whole family there.

They now live on a 36-acre property.

"We wanted to get the kids out of Los Angeles," Van Der Beek told Austin Lifestyle in 2021. "We wanted to give them space and we wanted them to live in nature."

• Soon after I had my son, I was shocked when someone asked when I was going to give him a sibling.
• Economic strain and limited support systems make raising a child a very big commitment.
• We might be one and done with our family. We want our son to have it all, and I want a life, too.

"So, when are you going to have another child?" I was freshly postpartum the first time I heard this question, and I couldn't even fathom a response.

Over a year later, it's still a question my husband and I receive frequently from family members, friends, and even strangers.

Raising kids is hard; everyone knows that. So why is there so much pressure from others to have more?

Why isn't one enough?

I've previously written about how coming to the decision to become a mother at all was difficult for me. Now that my son is here, I couldn't imagine life without him.

Raising a child in today's economy, where both parents often have to work, the cost of food and housing is astronomical, and healthcare is unaffordable, means we are spread thinner than ever. Add in more personal variables like a small village, and I'm realizing that I'm constantly doing more with less.

The pressure from others to have more kids feels intrusive and tiring. Quips like "They need a sibling" get old fast and can be easily discredited. My child has two loving parents, grandparents, and lots of friends. Besides, I know plenty of adults who don't have relationships with their siblings. It also isn't my responsibility to provide my child with a built-in playmate.

I get that it's easy for an outsider to make comments about us having more kids when they aren't the ones taking care of them, but these remarks only give me anxiety and make me second-guess myself.

I want my child to have it all

I love giving my son 100% of my attention. When I do consider adding another child, there is no doubt my heart could make room for them, but do I want it to?

Some families may not feel "complete" until they have a certain number of kids, but I don't feel like our family is missing anyone. My son fills my heart completely, and I want to be fully present for him, not busy tending to an infant.

I also want to have it all

This reasoning may be a bit selfish, but I don't believe being a mother means abandoning my other identities and aspirations. I want to enjoy my life and not spend a decade of it navigating sleepless nights, toilet training, and temper tantrums.

I knew that having a kid meant sacrificing leisure time, spontaneous date nights, and weekends away. But having another means starting over and resetting the clock. I'm excited for the coming years when my son is a bit older and outings, traveling, and visits to restaurants become easier and more enjoyable again.

I have to consider our time and energy

My husband and I are older parents; he's 40, and I'm 36. This comes with some benefits, like financial stability, but it also means our energy is limited. We are exhausted at the end of most days from chasing our toddler. Adding in a second stubborn, rambunctious tiny human sounds like a bad joke.

As an older mom, my window of opportunity to have more kids is closing. I have no desire to be a 40-year-old mom with a newborn, so that means we would have to have our second within the next couple of years. Call me crazy, but navigating a pregnancy and going through the newborn trenches again, now with a toddler, just doesn't sound appealing.

While my husband and I aren't 100% "one and done," as each day passes, that reality becomes more likely. It's our decision alone to make, without the opinion of others. I think it's time to normalize the concept of one being enough and recognize that having an only child can be just as fulfilling, intentional, and meaningful as having a larger family.

• Tamela Gill Davis is married to Demario Davis, a linebacker for the New Orleans Saints.
• She has a graduate degree in education and homeschools their six kids.
• The family does dinner together about four nights a week during football season.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tamela Gill Davis. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I always felt like there were two divergent paths for me to follow. One led to New York City, where I would live my best Carrie Bradshaw life, fiercely independent. The other led to a partner I really trusted, and a large family to structure my life around.

Soon after I met my husband, Demario Davis, I realized I was moving along the second path. Demario and I met in class when I was in grad school, and he was in his senior year of college. For about six months, we were just friends, but when Demario asked me to be his girlfriend, he explained he wanted to date me with the intention of getting married. It was like a mini proposal.

The next year, 2012, we got married, and Demario was drafted to the NFL. Today, he plays for the Saints, while I homeschool our kids.

Our 6 kids have two first names each

My mom and dad had many siblings, and I loved watching the dynamics between my aunts and uncles at my grandmother's house. I wanted five kids, like the Crosbys, but Demario said we should make it an even six.

I'm not having any more. After our fifth child, I had my first miscarriage. I thought that was a sign that my body was done, but soon after, I got pregnant again. It was a difficult pregnancy, and the delivery was my first C-section. My body has had enough after being pregnant or nursing for nearly 12 years.

All our kids have double first names, like Bailey-Grace, our oldest. It appeals to the vintage southern girl in me. They call each other by the first part of their names, but I always use the full name. I teach them that they can ask people to use their full names too, and correct others if it's wrong on paperwork.

I planned to be an educator, and now I homeschool

Before I met Demario, I was planning a career in education: I would become a teacher, then a principal, then a superintendent, before moving into higher education. However, after we were married, I quit my job when he was drafted by the Jets, and we moved.

I signed our oldest up for preschool, but it never lasted long. People would ask, "What are you looking for?" and I realized I was looking for a teacher like me. Because of my background in education, I had structured our home like a schoolhouse, setting up learning corners, without even realizing it.

Homeschooling fits our schedule and lifestyle, but it's about so much more than that: it feels like an assignment from God.

Another teacher helps me out

On a typical day, I require the kids to be "on" from 7 to 7. They wear uniforms Monday through Thursday. It's a way of teaching professional development. It's very important to show up in the world in a way that reflects who you are, and presentation is a big part of that. It's almost like etiquette training.

Today, the kids are 12, 10, 9, 6, 4, and 1 years old. We have a very individualized approach to learning, so sometimes they follow the same curriculum, and sometimes they don't. Right now, I have another teacher come in to help: she'll work with the big kids while I work with the littles, then we'll switch.

We want the kids to know they're our most important team

On game days, we get up early and have doughnuts for breakfast. The kids lay out their clothes the night before and complete their checklist. We aim to get to the stadium an hour before kickoff. The kids enjoy watching Dad, and especially love running onto the field with him after the games.

Even with our schedule, family dinners are very important to me. We typically have dinner together at 6 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays during the season. If we can't do that because a child has an activity, we find time to gather together as a family before bed. We use video chat if Demario is traveling.

The kids need to know that although life is busy, they're extremely important to us and they're important to each other. We always tell them: we're the team.