TikTok
He may have been born in 2000, but he's mining the '80s for Internet gold.
update at 10:20am PT on Monday, June 24 2021
Barry Manilow is clearly a fanilow of William White, sharing his support for the viral star while also launching his own TikTok page this week. After White brought back his infamous eye roll while lip-syncing along to "Mandy," Barry edited the video with old footage of himself, adding, "Oh Mandy… who can do that eye roll? Welcome to #BarryTok @whiteyy18."
He then shared a second video of the duo, adding, "Thank you for all the love, this is fun!"
Since going viral, White has now racked up 1.6 million followers on TikTok, with more than 20 million likes and tons of videos with more than a million views each.
original story below
A 21-year-old male model from Canada has TikTok all hot and bothered thanks to his viral videos lip-syncing along to some of the biggest hits of the '80s.
Through May and into June, the follower count for model William White's account on TikTok has grown steadily -- before finally surpassing the one million mark this week.
While TikTok's For You Page has been recommending his clips like crazy, his profile also got an even bigger bump after writers Brooke Hammerling and Taylor Lorenz started posting about his videos on Twitter -- documenting how much of a hit he's been with women audiences of a certain age.
Looking like a young Tom Welling from his "Smallville" days and throwing the camera some smoldering looks at the camera while lip-syncing along to songs like Barry Manilow's "Mandy," Benny Mardones' "Into the Night" (one of his favorites), Bryan Adams' "Heaven" and, "another oldie" -- as he put it -- Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'", White has amassed quite the following in a short amount of time.
His videos have racked up more than 11 million views total so far, catching the attention of women in their 40s in the process. Many of them have shared reaction videos or even recorded Duets with his videos, spawning a second life for many of the clips.
Self-described "cougars" have also flooded his comments with messages comparing him to '80s heartthrobs like Robe Lowe and Shaun Cassidy, asking him to don bell bottoms and expressing slight shame for thirsting over someone so young. While he also lip-syncs to more current songs, he assured one woman who asked him to "not forget us old cougars" that he'd keep the videos coming for them.
Comments on a few of his most recent videos include, "I'm too old to be watching," "50 years old and feel like I am watching my high school crush," "Welcome to the Cougar Grandma side of TikTok," "You're getting all of us moms in trouble" and "So you're the boy who has reversed a generation of women out of menopause."
Many fans were also thrilled to see him share a recent clip with his father ... a move that also confused some, who weren't sure who they should be thirsting for more. He even seemed to poke fun at his following by sharing a clip set to Bowling for Soup's song "Stacy's Mom" earlier this week.
Check out more of his best videos below:
