Who Is the Hawk Tuah Girl?

Once upon a time, somewhere along Nashville’s Honky Tonk strip, a young woman became a viral meme. Her name was Hailey Welch , but now she's better (nay, forever) known as the Hawk Tuah girl . Chances are you've seen her pop up on your TikTok and Instagram feeds. You may have even seen her on stage at a Zach Bryan concert in Nashville . But who, exactly, is the Hawk Tuah girl? Here's everything you need to know.

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Who is the Hawk Tuah girl?

"Hawk Tuah" is a viral meme born out of a man-on-the-street interview with Tim & Dee TV. "What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?” one of the hosts asked a then unknown 21-year-old Hailey Welch. Her answer: “You gotta give ’em that ‘hawk tuah’ and spit on that thang.”

Watch for yourself, if you haven't already:

Why is the Hawk Tuah girl famous?

The Hawk Tuah girl (birth name: Hailey Welch) is famous for giving a man-on-the-street interview that went viral. When asked by creators Tim & Dee TV what "makes a man go crazy every time," she replied, "You gotta give ’em that ‘hawk tuah’ and spit on that thang." A star was born.

Where is the Hawk Tuah girl from?

The Hawk Tuah girl is from a town called Belfast in rural Tennesseee. She was attending the CMA Fest in Nashville when she gave an interview that went viral.

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Did the Hawk Tuah girl make money?

Not long after Hailey Welch went viral, rumors started circulating that she was fired from her job as a teacher. But there was a catch: Welch was never actually a teacher. She was an employee at a spring factory, and she quit her job after becoming internet famous. Now under the wing of a management team, she's working to spin her drunken night into a full-blown career, as one does.

So far, she's made a decent chunk of change from a merch line by Fathead Threads, a family-owned business based in Marshall County, Tennessee. The company, which sells Hawk Tuah hats, is run by Jason Poteete , a man Welch has known for years.

According to a Rolling Stone article published on June 26, Poteete's sold just over 2,000 hats already. With the cheapest hat going for $32.78, that comes out to a minimum of $65,000.

“Of course she hasn’t gotten a dime from the first viral video that went out,” Poteete told Rolling Stone . “Nobody was asking permission for her to do nothing, neither. I just wanted her to get some profit off of this deal.” Although Poteete declined to share what percentage of his proceeds are going to Welch, she claimed in an interview with Brianna Lapaglia 's podcast "Plan Bri Uncut" that "he's split all of what he's made off of it with me." That would mean she's raked in at least $32,500 (before taxes) from merch.

Welch also told Lapaglia that Poteete was offered $600 for her to spit in a jar and sell it, but she passed on the opportunity.

What has the Hawk Tuah girl said about being a meme?

Although she laid low at first, Welch has since come out of hiding to clear up some rumors and enjoy her time in the blue light. On "Plan Bri Uncut," for example, she assured fans that her family thinks her viral moment is "so funny" and that her father is far from a preacher.

"They know how I am," she said of her loved ones. "You can never tell what comes out of my mouth. It's a hit or miss what comes out of my mouth."

She also pointed out that she was "being a little bit of a smart-ss" in her Tim & Dee TV interview. "Because you're gonna come up to me with a microphone and ask me something like that?" she said. "I'm gonna hawk tuah and spit on it, you know?"

Put that way, it's only a matter of time before Miss Tuah goes from meme to feminist icon. That's the power of the internet!

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