‘Hawk Tuah’ Daughter Reflects on the Trend She Started, But Is Eager to Move On | US News

When she went viral in a video clip showing her inventing the onomatopoeia “hawk tuah” to describe the intimate act that consistently drives men crazy in her experience, Hailey Welch considered hiding from the masses.

Rumors then spread that the photogenic blonde in the video, with the pronounced Southern accent, was actually the daughter of a humiliated religious leader. Another rumor was that the attention got the woman fired from her job in education. And social media users began creating fake accounts with photos of her.

Welch changed her mind about keeping a low profile and came forward for the first time Monday on the Plan Bri Uncut podcast, dispelling everything previously said about her as lies — and detailing how the clip upended her life, from celebrity cameos to offers from strangers to buy a sample of her saliva.

“What comes out of my mouth is random, I talk like I’m an idiot,” Welch told podcast host Brianna LaPaglia. “The only time I say something like that, of course, there’s a camera in my face.”

The 21-year-old had just quit social media and was working at a bed-spring factory in her Tennessee hometown when she learned she had reached a level of internet virality that was a relatively pleasant distraction for a country grappling with extreme weather fueled by the climate emergency and another contentious presidential election cycle.

The story originated from an Instagram video posted on June 11 by YouTubers Tim & Dee TV, which showed a street interview in Nashville, Tennessee, with two unnamed women. As KnowYourMeme.com noted, Welch was asked, “What’s the one move in bed that drives a man crazy every time?”

She responded with an obvious laugh, an allusion to oral sex, saying, “Oh, you have to give him that hawk tuah and spit on it – you understand me?”

In a short time, the clip has had repercussions in the digital world, far beyond the pun-driven memes that are the cornerstone of social media. One of the countless notable examples involved a country song about the exchange that was supposedly created using artificial intelligence – and which turned out to be a real earworm, in the opinion of many.

Readers gave the New Orleans Times-Picayune its own viral moment by headlined an article about the city’s NBA team acquiring a former Atlanta Hawks player with the words “From a Hawk to a Pelican.”

Over time, as some obsessed over the identity of the girl in the infamous video, clues about Welch’s identity began to trickle in. And by late June, she had signed a sales deal with the company Fathead Threads for hats emblazoned with the dank-sounding phrase she had immortalized.

The company reportedly sold more than $65,000 worth of merchandise almost immediately — though on Tuesday, owner Jason Poteete said Fathead Threads was so busy trying to keep up with demand for its wares that it hadn’t had time to calculate an accurate tally of sales, which are shared with Welch.

On Monday, Welch said “the guy (who) makes my hats” received an offer to pay $600 to have her spit in a jar and send it to the interested party.

“It’s just gross, right?” Welch told Plan Bri Uncut, comparing it to people wanting to buy used underwear from social media influencers they find attractive. “And I was like, ‘Should I do that?’ And I was like, ‘No, don’t do that.’”

On Saturday night, Welch was performing with country star Zach Bryan. Four-time NBA champion and TV commentator Shaquille O’Neal was on X two days later, bragging about taking pictures with her. She now has a publicity team.

But inevitably, the disinformation trolls came out of the woodwork. Some claimed that Welch’s father was a pastor who was mortified by her outrageous behavior. Others said she was a schoolteacher whose foul language cost her her job.

It was all as fake as the “slightly creepy social media accounts” containing stolen photos of Welch that prompted her to remove her veil of anonymity once and for all, she explained on Plan Bri Uncut.

Welch said her parents found it “so funny” that a video of her went viral on the Internet for much of the summer. “They know what I’m like,” Welch said.

However, she also suggested that she was looking forward to the moment when her 15 minutes of fame would be up.

“I don’t really want it to be my image,” Welch told LaPaglia of the Hawk Tuah craze. “I don’t see it as something that I enjoy, you know?”

“I don’t want to be known like that.”