Chewbacca Mom Has Made Almost $500,000 Since Her Video Went Viral

She’s cackling all the way to the bank! Chewbacca mom Candace Payne has made $420,000 since she posted a video of herself wearing a Chewbacca mask from the Star Wars franchise, Time magazine reports.

The Grand Prairie, Texas, resident racked up the extra cash from gifts she’s received since the video went viral late last month. According to Time, she has received $3,000 from Kohl’s, $7,500 from talk show visits (she appeared on shows such as Good Morning America and The Late Late Show), a $7,500 Walt Disney World vacation and VIP passes to the Fan Expo Dallas convention worth $2,000.

The biggest freebie she’s received so far? Payne made bank when Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, gave her two young children college scholarships worth $400,000.

As previously reported, Payne went to Kohl’s to buy yoga pants, but instead left with the electronic Chewbacca mask, which makes the wookiee’s trademark sweet growling noise when the mouth opens. (The items retails for $29.99 at Target.) She posted the video on her Facebook page on May 19, and it’s since received more than 150 million views.

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Payne opened up about her overnight stardom in an interview with GMA on May 23. “I was thinking, ‘I’ve got 30 minutes before I have to be responsible and pick up my children from school, and once they see this I’ll never get to see it again.’ So I thought, I’m going to share this with my Facebook friends and family, and if anybody wants to see it, they’re going to have to see it now. And I’m going to document. This was mine to begin with. This was never theirs,” she said at the time. “In all honestly, I think the world as a whole is in need of a good laugh. I think we’re in need of somebody to lift our spirits, to not take ourselves so seriously, and to maybe break some cynicism worldwide.”

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