Haliey Welch, better known as the “Hawk Tuah” girl is the latest person to go viral on the internet.
The Gen Z star gained fame after an interview of hers went viral, but it was her unique response of “Hawk Tuah” that caught everyone’s attention. This clip catapulted Hailey into internet stardom with her hilarious personality. She went from working at home taking care of her grandma and studying in college to being a full time content creator.
In an interview on the “Viall Files” podcast, she noted how new she was to this lifestyle, especially since she hadn’t traveled much before. “It’s been something I’ve never experienced before, like going everywhere. I had never been to New York before, today’s my first day in L.A.,” she told host Nick Viall. “I’ve been on a few plane rides but like two weeks ago that was my first time. It scared the s**t out of me.”
As her life changed overnight, she reflected on missing her past life. “It’s like a fever dream. It still doesn’t feel real to me yet like getting to do all this fun stuff and going out and doing this and that. It doesn’t feel real – I’ll wake up the next day like there’s no way I’d done that.”
The term she uses, “Hawk Tuah,” has its own meaning based on the context. Haliey revealed that this is a word she used in the past with her cousin. “So my little cousin that I’m really close with, we’ve always joked… We use it in a different way like you know I’m gonna ‘hawk tuah’ — we’re going to say it and spit on somebody because they made you mad. But I use it in a different tense at times.”
She plans to leverage her platform for good. “I want to kind of run with it for a little bit. I want to do charity work…We just did something with PetSmart. Like I bought a whole bunch of stuff from PetSmart and donated it to an animal shelter a little bit outside of Nashville… I want to do more stuff like that and we’re doing something up here with the orphanage.” She emphasized the importance of using one’s platform for greater causes. “I mean you’ve got all this money and you’re not doing anything useful with it. I want to do something useful with it, because what am I gonna do with it?”
Haliey’s rise to fame and her genuine personality have made her a relatable figure on the internet, and her aspirations for charity work reflect her desire to make a positive impact.