Woman shares brilliant cookie hack to captivate one's crush hook, line and sinker

Going through life with a crush is not for the faint of heart. From the butterflies in the stomach to constant dreams at night, they can take over one's entire being. Fia James–who goes by @fiajames_ on TikTok–understands this completely, having gone through one herself. To help others, she shared a genius hack, which according to her, would leave a lasting impression on someone's crush and kick-start the relationship. The hack was passed on to her by her mother and initially, the daughter was not that big of a fan. But after trying it out on her crush and future boyfriend, she was floored and had to give it to the world.

James starts the video by declaring how their weird, odd and stupid "dating hack" somehow worked seamlessly to enrapture a crush's thoughts. The hack goes like this: "When you invite a guy over, you should be baking cookies before they get over so that your apartment still smells of cookies." After that, James puts forward her personal experience with the hack. She used the hack on her now-boyfriend, who at that point was a crush. The first time he entered her apartment and had a whiff of the heavenly cookies, he was mesmerized. He went on an appreciation spree about how her house smells like heaven. She got him hook, line, and sinker. 

She told him nonchalantly, "This is always how it smells. This is natural. It's, like, always naturally like this." The crush must not know that "special arrangements" were made for him because let's not give them even more of an upper hand than they already have. She ended with, "We tricked them and we manipulated them and now every time they smell a cookie, they think of us. Bake your cookies."

James' video went viral, garnering nearly 12 million views and over 2 million likes. The comments section loved the hack. @zoealexb suggested what people can do if they don't bake cookies, "Three tablespoons of vanilla extract in the oven in a coffee mug for 15 minutes is the dupe if you don't have cookies." @performance_potential wrote how the hack is perfect, "This would work. We are simple." @rich.soupp shared what she does and wrote, "I wear vanilla perfume specifically when I'm with my boyfriend, so when he smells vanilla, he thinks of me (he doesn't know)."

Dr. Ken Heilman, Professor of Neurology and Health Psychology at the University of Florida and a member of AAN (American Academy of Neurology), shared her insights on why smell is so effective in triggering memories in her interview with NBC News. "Smells do bring back memories," she shared. "Smell goes into the emotional parts of the brain and the memory parts, whereas words go into thinking parts of the brain." Smell's connection with emotions is the reason why this hack works to perfection. Most people have good recollections about cookies as they usually give individuals a sense of warmth. Being able to create a place where your crush feels that warmth is like a battle half-won in the pursuit of establishing a relationship with them.

You can follow Fia James (fiajames_) on TikTok for more such hot takes.