The quick rise and downfall of Hawk Tuah girl Haliey Welch
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Haliey Welch skyrocketed to internet fame in mid-2024 as the “Hawk Tuah” girl, captivating audiences with a viral street interview that turned her into a meme sensation. Seizing the moment, she launched a podcast, “Talk Tuah,” and ventured into the cryptocurrency world with the $HAWK memecoin.
When coin soared to $500 million market cap when it launched, then plummeted 90%, people were left shocked and accused Haliey of running a “pump and dump” scheme on her fans.
While Welch denied any wrongdoing and was not named in the ensuing lawsuit, the incident sparked widespread criticism and prompted her to take a hiatus from the public eye. Now, as she reemerges, questions linger about the volatility of internet fame and the responsibilities that come with it.
Who is the “Hawk Tuah” girl?
21-year-old Haliey Welch, a 21-year-old woman from Tennessee who shot to internet fame overnight after she participated in a man-on-the street style interview with Time & Dee TV. Haliey’s meteoric interview was filmed on Broadway St. in Nashville, TN.
What did Hawk Tuah girl do before fame?
Before her viral moment, Welch was working at a spring factory. She soon quit her job to capitalize on her sudden fame, but says initially she asked the creators to take her interview down because she didn’t like the attention she was getting. The meme was soon even out of their control, however, because people were reposting the meme at an extreme viral rate.
What does “hawk tuah” mean?
“Hawk tuah” is an onomatopoeic sound meant to imitate spitting in reference to fellatio.
When Haliey was asked, “What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?” she replied “Hawk Tuah, spit on that thing!” to imitate the “ptooey” spitting sound. The phrase is silly, but also graphic and crude, which seems to have enchanted an
How did the video go viral, and how popular did it get?
After filming, the clip was posted to TikTok the very next day, and it exploded in popularityen.wikipedia.org. Within days, it had millions of views across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube as people shared it like crazy. Fans ripped the original video (even removing the creators’ watermark) and reposted it, and soon the audio snippet itself was used in countless remixes, memes, and reaction videos. The catchphrase “hawk tuah” became an instant meme; Welch was quickly nicknamed the “Hawk Tuah girl” on social media. It became one of summer 2024’s breakout viral moments, similar to past memes like “Damn, Daniel,” but with a more risqué twist.
How has she capitalized on her viral fame?
Welch quickly turned her 15 minutes of fame into a full-fledged brand. She racked up a huge online following (gaining over a million Instagram followers in short order,)and signed with a talent management firm to guide her new careert. She also began selling merchandise, notably “Hawk Tuah” hats and apparel, which sold thousands of units within weeks, netting tens of thousands of dollars.
By late 2024, Welch had trademarked her catchphrase, gotten representation, and was making paid event appearances.She even landed some mainstream gigs: in August 2024 she threw out a ceremonial first pitch at a New York Mets baseball game, and she launched a podcast called “Talk Tuah” in partnership with influencer Jake Paul’s media company.
What’s the story with the “Hawk Tuah” cryptocurrency (meme coin)?
Although Haliey initially enjoyed huge and sudden success, she also run the risk of over saturation. There were bigger troubles in store for Haliey, however. In December 2024, Haliey advertised the launch of a memecoin called $HAWK on the Solana blockchain. Thanks to hype from her fans and crypto speculators, the coin’s value skyrocketed to an astonishing $500 million market cap shortly after launch, only to crash by over 90% soon afterwards.
This sudden collapse led many to accuse the project of being a “rug pull” scam, where early insiders, also referred to as “snipers,” sold immediately, leaving regular investors holding worthless tokens. Panicked holders filed complaints with the SEC, accusing Welch’s partners of fraud and insider trading (one blockchain wallet made off with ~$1 million.)
To further damage her public reputation, Haliey participated in a Twitter/X livestream with Youtuber Coffeezilla, and the coin’s creator, Alex Larson Schulz, known as “Doc Hollywood.” After several hours of conversation, she abruptly quit the stream by announcing “Anyhoo, I’m going to go to bed, and I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Her voice sounded particularly cartoonish in this announcement, with many people likening her to Butters from South Park, or perhaps an animated squirrel.
Haliey went silent for several months after that, leaving many people to joke that she was still in bed. Recently, Haliey’s been staging a comeback on her “Talk Tuah” podcast, and interviews with Vanity Fair and FaZe Banks.
“It was one of those things that just happened, and I feel sorry for everybody that just lost money,” Haliey told Vanity Fair in an article published May 2, 2025.
