Who Is This TikToker Middle Aged Moms Are Swooning Over?

Scrolling through TikTok can be enormously time consuming as I discovered when I started using it a few months ago and I’m not really sure I fully get it yet. My take-away so far is that people are enormously clever and seriously funny.  

Recently, I started noticing TikToks by William White (@Whiteyy18) kept popping up in my FYP (For You page). I’m not super into popular culture or anything that the under 40’s are up to, so whatever almighty algorithm landed this adorable young man in my FYP is completely beyond me. But thank you TikTok gods.  

William is a cross between Shaun and David Cassidy with a little Rob Lowe thrown in and perhaps a few other Tiger Beat 80’s heartthrobs for good measure. He lip-syncs, whips his long locks around, rolls his eyes and flashes a gleamy, ultra white toothed come-hither smile. And he does it all to the soundtrack of OUR youth, songs like Heaven by Bryan Adams and Mandy by Barry Manilow.

As one mom commented, “We are all Mandy now.”

Mandy by Barry Manilow is his trademark song.

@whiteyy18

Ohhh Mandy 🎶 @farmerdrew27

♬ Mandy – Barry Manilow

Heaven by Bryan Adams is a close second.

Then I noticed side-by-side or duet TikToks starring my own middle aged mom demographic and Whiteyy. These ladies in their comments and duets were literally drooling, looking for all the world like they are about to swoon (Is that even a word we use in 2021)?

Some say it’s the damn eye roll. We all want to know who taught him to roll his eyes like that????

@simplysarahdiy

#duet with @whiteyy18 ummm anyone else on repeat for the eye roll!? #TikTokMoms #Genxmoms #ohmandy #momsover40

♬ Mandy – Barry Manilow

Some moms are just praying that our guy is over 18 (word is that he is 21).

And some of the duets are just plain laugh out loud funny.

It’s not just the middle aged moms, grandma is getting into the action also.

And the teens…

Some moms are doing duets with William in groups…whatever floats your boat.

The comments from the hot and bothered cougars are hilarious. One woman whose last name is White said she needed a family reunion. And some apparently spend their whole weekend with Whiteyy.

Then some middle aged men tried their hand at being Whiteyy 2.0. This guy says “Bring it on Whiteyy18, gonna fight for my beautiful ladies out there.”

@spiritknighttiktok

#duet with @whiteyy18 #mandy Bring it on Whiteyy18, gonna fight for my beautiful ladies out there.

♬ Mandy – Barry Manilow

But they soon give up because well who can compete with this guy???

@spyderdawg

#duet with @whiteyy18 this kid figured it out! 👏🏻 #HoldMyMilk #mandy

♬ Mandy – Barry Manilow

This guy really threw in the veritable towel decided there’s no hope for guys his age with Whiteyy out there.

This guy decided to warn other middle aged men not to try and recreate what the kid is doing. This is a man who understands that his “Whittey18 days are over.”

@duggkenn

Sorry guys, the ladies will back me up here. Our @whiteyy18 days are over. #viralhack #fail #DoYouYuzu #over40 #imposter

♬ Mandy – Barry Manilow

The gay community got involved when a gay couple tried bringing the cougar TikTok over to the gay TikTok.

@just_john74

#duet with @whiteyy18 Bringing the #cougartok trend over to #gaytiktok #HoldMyMilk #forfun #fyp @justjimmy73

♬ Into The Night – Benny Mardones

There was a call for Whiteyy to reveal his dad. So he did and the ladies were duly impressed.

@whiteyy18

Answer to @halesbelles22 papa John ❤️

♬ I Go Crazy – Paul Davis

I couldn’t decide whether the whole thing was hilarious or as my kids say, cringey. Part of me wanted to say-ladies get a grip, this kid is younger than your sons, but the bigger part of me…well he is adorable, and it’s all in good fun.

William, Whiteyy, whatever moniker he goes by is obviously in on the joke so let’s just enjoy it.

More Great Reading:

Why I Loved Being a Teen in the 80s

About Helene Wingens

Helene Wingens has always been passionate about painting pictures with words. She graduated from Brandeis University with a degree in psychology and three years later from Boston University School of Law with a Juris Doctor. In a year long clerkship for an appellate judge Helene honed her writing skills by drafting weekly appellate memoranda. She practiced law until she practically perfected it and after taking a brief twenty year hiatus to raise her three children she began writing a personal blog Her essays have been published in: Scary Mommy, Kveller, The Forward, and Grown and Flown where she is Managing Editor. You can visit Helene's website here

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