Kalamazoo Mom Gains Millions of Tiktok Views with Viral Challenge

It's Tiktok Tuesday!

This week's featured content creator is @hockey_wyf, a Kalamazoo mom who accidentally went viral thanks to a challenge her family did over Thanksgiving.

The video, which you can see below, shows each member of the family laying on the floor as they attempt to pull themselves onto a chair. Take a look:

That video quickly gained over 10 million views. Going through her account, I noticed she was sporting a KWings sweatshirt in many of her videos so I reached out to learn more.

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As it turns out, @hockey_wyf lives right here in Kalamazoo and has been here for about 15 years. And yes, they are indeed a hockey family thanks to their son's involvement with the KWings. According to @hockey_wyf, he's a goalie for the 12U A, KWings traveling hockey team. I'm quoting her directly because I know nothing about hockey.

When I asked if he plans on going pro, hockey_wyf, who asked that her name remains private, said,

Of course! I think every kid has that dream to one day go pro, to get noticed, and do big things. It’s part of the magic of being a kid and anything being possible. But he also does a pretty good job of keeping his perspective in the present moment. He’s eleven years old, and hockey is still just a fun game that he gets to go play with his friends.

Outside of hockey, hockey_wyf says that she loves to do rock climbing at Climb Kalamazoo, bowling and ax throwing at Revel and Roll, and catching performances by local bands. And, doing challenges with her kid on social media:

I think mom won that round.

Going back to her viral video, I had to know who won the 'chair challenge' as I'm calling it. The answer? Her mom! And high five to everyone that was able to pull themselves up onto that chair from the floor because it did NOT look easy. Here's part 2:

Prior to that video going viral, hockey_wyf said she had about 10 followers which were mostly family members. Now, she's up to nearly 20,000 followers and tens of thousands of views on her videos. She ended our conversation by saying,

We never in a million years expected that video to blow up overnight, or ever! We weren’t out to get views. We are just a goofy family, that enjoys hanging out with each other, and making ridiculous videos for my cousins to laugh at. It’s been super fun playing this out and none of us can believe that anybody found the videos even slightly interesting!

Which just goes to show...you never know what will go viral on Tiktok. So, even if you think your idea is "silly"...post it!

You can follow @hockey_wyf on Tiktok here.

We're always on the lookout for our next Tiktok Tuesday content creator. You can nominate yourself or someone you know below. Remember, the account nominated must be in the southwest Michigan area and must have at least 10k followers to qualify:

It may be surprising but we have a lot of very popular Tiktok creators right here in the southwest Michigan area. Take a look: