All Aboard! The #BlackGirlFollowTrain Trend Is Taking Over TikTok

Thanks to the wide diversity of users on TikTok, everyone can thrive in their own little corner of the world-wide web. From FitTokers and foodies to swingers and contortionists, it’s not hard to find community through a variety of hashtags on the app.

This is especially true for the newly surfaced #blackgirlfollowtrain, which has gone viral. However, there are still a few users who are out of the loop as to what the trend means. So, let’s get down to the bottom of how the Black girl follow train came to be.

All aboard! Well, actually … not everyone should hop on this trend — and not everyone is thrilled about it. Here’s why.

If you have ever been forced to type the phrase “for Black girls” at the end of your Pinterest, YouTube, or Google search, this one’s for you. You see, finding content that caters to women in the Black community can be difficult given the massive amounts of information on the internet. This is exactly why the Black girl follow train was created.

Started by TikToker @craftyheauxx, #blackgirlfollowtrain rose to popularity in late 2022. In her original video, she uses the text-to-talk feature to say, “This one’s for the Black girls.”

“If you’re a woman and you’re Black, I’m following you back,” the video adds alongside audio of Glorilla’s “FNF.” And participating in the trend definitely paid off for more than a few users, who gained thousands of followers as a result.

The #blackgirlfollowtrain movement has since inspired several other hashtags like #blackwomanfollowtrain and #blackgirlfollowtrend.

The main hashtag has garnered more than 244 million views to date while more than 157,000 videos have been created using the sound — but not everyone’s happy about it. Following the trend’s viral success, a couple of Karens took to TikTok to share their thoughts.

According to the Karens of TikTok, BET, Black History Month, and Affirmative Action have successfully eliminated the need for a trend like #blackgirlfollowtrain. This prompted a number of responses from Black creators who explained why they were both loud and wrong.

“The pushback that we’re seeing on the Black girl follow train has been very emblematic of white feminism,” TikTok user Victoria Alexander shared in a video with more than 150,000 likes as of this writing.

“Not feminism,” she added, “white feminism.”

“So, on this app, we’ll have Black women or women of color say that they don’t get the same PR or the same perks on this app that white creators have. And then some white creators will say, ‘Yeah, you know what, that’s right, and it’s not fair.'”

However, Victoria pointed out, this effort to amplify Black creators' voices has left some users “annoyed,” which, in and of itself is problematic.

“White women get to be the center of positive attention on this app all the time,” she went on. “When you’re used to being privileged, equality — or anything close to it — feels like oppression.”

We couldn’t have said it better.