Hailey Welch: Exploring Hailey Welch’s Unique Approach to...

Hailey Welch: Hailey Welch is a rising star known for her striking beauty and unique sense of style. With a captivating presence, she stands out for her natural grace and confident demeanor. She has gained recognition for her work in both fashion and social media. Her creative expression and versatility have made her a notable figure in the entertainment world.

Hailey Welch: The Unstoppable Rise of the Hawk Tuah Girl

If you’ve been anywhere near social media in the past year, you’ve probably heard of Hailey Welch—
better known as the “Hawk Tuah Girl.” This 22-year-old from small-town Tennessee went from working in a
bedspring factory to becoming an internet sensation, all thanks to a single, hilarious moment caught on camera.
But there’s more to Hailey than just a viral catchphrase. Let’s take a friendly look at her wild journey, her big wins,
and the bumps along the way—including that crypto controversy everyone’s still talking about as of April 2025.

The Moment That Started It All

Hailey’s story kicked off on June 11, 2024, in Nashville’s buzzing Broadway district.
She and a friend approached YouTubers Tim & Dee TV for a fun street interview. When asked,
“What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?” Hailey, with her thick Southern drawl, replied,
“You gotta give ‘em that ‘hawk tuah’ and spit on that thang!”—complete with a playful spitting sound.
The clip hit TikTok the next day, and boom—millions of views later, the “Hawk Tuah Girl” was born.

At first, Hailey was mortified. “I hid for two weeks,” she later told PEOPLE.
“I was embarrassed to death to come out of my house.” But as the video kept spreading—
remixed into songs, plastered on memes, and even mimicked by baseball star Bryce Harper—
she decided to lean into it. “If everyone else is making money off it, I might as well too,”
she said. And that’s exactly what she did.

From Factory Worker to Fame

Before all this, Hailey lived a quiet life in Belfast, Tennessee (population: 695),
with her grandma, who’s raised her since she was a baby. She worked at a spring factory,
waking up at 3:30 a.m. for shifts, and had zero social media presence. But post-“hawk tuah,”
she quit her job on June 27, 2024, teamed up with a local apparel brand, and started selling
“Hawk Tuah” hats. Within weeks, she’d made over $65,000—way more than her factory paycheck.

From there, Hailey’s ride got even wilder. She joined country star Zach Bryan onstage in Nashville,
hung out with Shaquille O’Neal, threw the first pitch at a New York Mets game,
and landed a spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live! by December 2024. She launched her podcast,
Talk Tuah, in September with Jake Paul’s Betr company, snagging big guests like Whitney Cummings,
Wiz Khalifa, and Mark Cuban. At one point, it hit No. 5 on Spotify’s charts. Not bad for a small-town gal who’d never flown on a plane before fame hit!

Love, Laughs, and “Pookie”

Hailey’s personal life added some sweetness to her story. In October 2024, she revealed she was dating a guy she calls
“Pookie”—later introduced as Kelby Blackwell, a plumber from a nearby town.
They’d known each other for three years, and on their first official date, he wooed her with balloons and a
“Be Mine” sign (though she accidentally popped the balloons with a ceiling fan—oops!). “I love you, Pookie! Forever!”
she gushed on Talk Tuah in November. Kelby’s low-key vibe balances her spotlight,
though he’s admitted to a little jealousy over her DMs.

She even turned “Pookie” into a business move, launching an AI dating app called Pookie
Tools in November 2024. It’s all about helping folks with convo starters and date-night tips—pretty clever, right?

The Crypto Crash Heard ‘Round the Web

But not everything’s been smooth sailing. In December 2024, Hailey dove into cryptocurrency with
$HAWK, a Solana-based memecoin tied to her catchphrase. It soared to a $500 million market cap on launch day,
December 4—then crashed 95% to $25 million within hours. Fans who’d invested big lost millions, and accusations flew:
Was it a “pump-and-dump” scheme? Did insiders cash out? Blockchain data showed 80-90%
of the supply was held by early buyers, and one wallet reportedly made over $1 million in a quick sell-off.

Hailey went quiet, her last Talk Tuah episode airing December 3. On December 20, she broke her silence on X, saying,
“I take this situation extremely seriously” and pledging to cooperate with lawyers helping affected investors.
She wasn’t named in a lawsuit filed against the coin’s creators, and her team blamed
“snipers”—bots that manipulate launches. Still, the backlash stung.
In a leaked podcast clip from February 2025, she teared up, saying,
“I feel really bad for all the people that got affected by it,” and admitted she trusted the wrong “friend of a friend.”

Back in Action

After laying low, Hailey bounced back in late
March 2025 with a funny Instagram skit poking fun at rumors—
#she was pregnant! She was in jail! She was dead!—before announcing
Talk Tuah’s relaunch on April 8. She’s cut ties with Betr and is running the show through her own company,
16 Minutes, promising a fresh start with comedy and pop culture chats.
Plus, an upcoming documentary, DocTuah, will dive into her whirlwind rise.