Long-Lost Best Friends Reunite on "The Ellen Show" After a Viral Tweet

This is the purest thing I've ever seen.
twitter childhood best friends reunion
Courtesy Brianna Cry

Updated Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 11:00 a.m. EST:

After Twitter helped two long-lost best friends reunite in what might have been the purest moment on the internet this year, there was just one question remaining: When would Brianna Cry and Heidi Tran get together in person? Luckily, Ellen DeGeneres stepped in to work her magic, and the sweet tale of the once-upon-a-time vacation besties just got even sweeter.

Brianna and Heidi appeared on the December 10th episode of The Ellen Show, where Ellen made their dreams come true. “We had a great time for this one night,” Brianna told Ellen of their chance meeting upon a dinner cruise in Hawaii when they were children. “I posted on Twitter, and I said, ‘Guys, please retweet this, help me find her so I can see what she’s doing now and what’s going on.’”

As Brianna told Ellen, it only took 11 hours for her now-viral tweet to reach Heidi. “When she commented, I was like ‘This isn’t her,’” the 19-year-old remembered, expressing her shock when she realized that it was, in fact, the girl she met on that fated ship so many years ago. “Oh my goodness, y’all found her,” Brianna exclaimed.

Sadly, Brianna and Heidi didn’t think they’d get a chance to reconnect face to face; as they told Teen Vogue earlier this year, they attend school on opposite sides of the country. Which is why when they did see one another — on the Ellen stage no less — the moment was the perfect combination of dramatic and adorable. In addition to recounting the infamous Twitter search, Heidi and Brianna took an official reunion picture to add to their scrapbooks. Check out the cute video below — and then consult your own family photo albums to see what long-lost BFFs you might have left behind in the past.

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Previously:

If you’ve ever wondered what happened to a long-lost childhood best friend, know this: The Internet just might be able to help you find them. Don’t believe me? This pure story is all the proof you need.

When 19-year-old Brianna Cry was browsing old family scrapbooks over Thanksgiving break, she came across a photo of a friend she'd met on a dinner cruise as a kid. While staring at the picture, she began to wonder what ever happened to the new friend she’d made that night in Hawaii over a decade ago — and so she decided to turn to the Internet for help.

“I thought, Let’s see if Twitter can find her for me,” Brianna told Teen Vogue, recalling that she was just seven years old when she met her friend on vacation. “I don’t think there were many kids our age on this particular dinner cruise, so we found each other and stuck together the whole time.”

Without getting her hopes up too much, Brianna shared the old photo in question, writing: “Hey Twitter, I met this girl on a dinner cruise in Hawaii in 2006. We were basically best friends for that night so I need y’all to help me find my best friend cause I miss her and I need to see how she’s doing now. Please retweet this so we can be reunited.”

Little did the 19-year-old know that the tweet would soon go viral; when this story was published, the tweet had racked up over 99,000 retweets and more than 211,000 likes. “I was shocked,” Brianna said of the Internet’s helpful nature.

With so many people jumping in to help Brianna in her search, it was only a matter of time before her cruise bestie was located. Enter: Heidi “Heii” Tran, the other child in Brianna’s cruise photo, who was made aware of the viral tweet by some of her classmates. “They directed me towards Twitter, and...I was blown away by the response Bri had gotten,” Heii told Teen Vogue. “I didn’t think so many people would be invested in a story like this.”

But invested they were, and when Heii finally responded to Brianna’s callout, the tale got even more adorable. “Heard you were looking for me,” the 18-year-old replied, adding a photo of her own from that now-infamous dinner cruise.

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Needless to say, the Internet soon erupted in squeals of sheer joy. “I’m crying, this is so beautiful!” one person wrote. “Coolest thing I’ve ever witnessed on Twitter,” another exclaimed. One devoted person suggested that Heii and Brianna start a YouTube channel, while another requested daily updates on their friendship.

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As you’d might expect, Heii and Brianna are beyond excited to be back in touch. “We messaged each other and caught up on life,” Brianna told Teen Vogue of their online reunion. Despite attending school on opposite sides of the country, the two students hope to meet again someday. “Until then, FaceTime and social media will have to do!” Heii said.

So there you have it: proof that the Internet (and Twitter in particular) can sometimes be used for absolute good. As Heii put it: “The moment has given me the opportunity to talk with a lot of people and reconnect with some old friends. I’m eternally grateful for that.”

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