What does it mean when people comment ‘Heather’ on TikTok?

TikTok comments sections are full of repeated jokes that come as quickly as they go. Remember when everyone first jumped on the Tok and the “CEO of [insert dance]” trend was literally the top comment on every other video? Or how about the often-repeated: “Me looking at my phone like 👁️👄👁️“? However, something that hasn’t seemed to have disappeared from comments sections for a LONG time is the ‘Heather’ comment.

You know, when someone is particularly killing it or has had a mad glow up of some sort, people flock to comment telling them that they’re the Heather. But who is Heather? Where did she come from? And why is everyone on TikTok weirdly obsessed with calling each other Heather?

Where does “Heather” on TikTok come from?

You’ll get the rough gist already that to be a Heather is certainly a good thing – to be popular, stylish and attractive. However, what seems to evade most people (likely including most of the nearly two billion viewers of #heather videos on the app) is where the use of Heather as a descriptive word comes from.

It all originated with a 1988 film named Heathers, which starred Winona Ryder. In the black comedy high school movie, all of the popular and attractive girls were called Heather. Yup, all three of them. Heather Duke, Heather Chandler and Heather McNamara.

Although they don’t meet as glamorous a demise (one of the Heathers is poisoned and killed), the use of the word has gone on to be synonymous with people winning in life.

The phrase was used in the third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race which helped boost its popularity as a saying. Queens who had performed well were called Heathers, whilst the less successful were called boogers. Four of the contestants were so successful as Heathers that they even released a song, and you’ll never guess what they called their act!

The use of the word has spawned a number of challenges and audios, including a particularly popular one from Heathers: The Musical. You know the one: “Martha dumptruck in the flesh… shut up Heather!”

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