Leila Layzell, a British tourist visiting Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, went viral this week after sharing a clever tactic for fending off unwanted advances from men.
The video, which has more than 456,000 views, shows Layzell handling persistent requests for her phone number by immediately recording herself and the interested man and jokingly asking, “Can I show my mom, my husband?”
The sudden and unexpected nature of the question and the strange excitement with which she asks the question immediately put off the man who proceeded to cover his face, awkwardly trying to move away from the camera as his interest plummeted.
According to Layzell, she developed the extravagant tactic after being relentlessly hit on the beach by men who just refused to take no for an answer. However, some netizens have doubted her claims after discovering some inconsistencies in her testimony.
“Girls will understand. We can’t just tell guys to f— off or anything like that because it’s a safety concern,” she said. “You never know how they are going to react.”
A woman went viral after sharing a “genius tactic” to scare men who won’t take “no” for an answer
Image credits: leilalayzell
According to Layzell, that’s when she came up with the idea of recording and acting as if she was asking for the “approval” of her mother, which according to her “worked like a charm.”
Image credits: leila_layzell
“I always tell them I am married with two kids, both under the age of 3,” one commenter said. “It’s a big fat lie, but it works every time!”
“I tell them I can always give them my husband’s number!” another shared.
One user went for a more straightforward, fearless approach.
“Us Aussie women have no problem telling them to F off, believe me,” she said.
The video was a massive success, but some of her viewers doubted her claims, as previous videos see the woman using the “tactic” not to reject men but to approach them
Image credits: leila_layzell
“If a man is scared to show his face like that after asking for a number, he has a wife or has criminal thoughts,” one viewer wrote.
Image credits: leila_layzell
Others, however, noticed something strange in Layzell’s testimony, arguing her “tactic” wasn’t a recent finding, nor was it something she discovered trying to fend off men hitting on her.
Skeptical netizens pointed out how simply looking at her upload history one could see that her clips recording men and “presenting them” to her mother have been used to both hit on guys she seemingly likes, and to create viral content.
Layzell’s content initially revolved around videos of her looking for a “rich husband,” dressing as a bride and carrying a sign while walking around London
Image credits: leila_layzell
Several videos, dating as far back as September, have garnered Layzell tens of millions of views, all following the same pattern. These videos are playful in nature, with the men happily playing along.
Others, like the ones she recorded recently, were made seemingly uncomfortable after she started recording their faces without their consent.
“It’s funny how you complain about men approaching you when you literally put cameras in men’s faces saying ‘look at my husband,’” a user noted.
Layzell’s detractors have speculated that the men were actually not hitting on the TikToker at all, and reacted the way they did after she started recording in order to get content for her channel.
Image credits: leila_layzell
Upon further inspection of her uploads, one can see that her earlier videos instead featured Layzell recording herself looking for “a rich husband.” She filmed herself asking several men to marry her and even holding a sign with her intentions while dressed as a bride.
“Come on guys! Don’t just take a picture! Find me a provider!” she says to people on the street in one such video.
The TikToker’s content shifted once she went viral with a video of her “tactic,” which has since been featured in dozens of her clips
Image credits: leila_layzell
Another video shows Layzell recording and acting confused after one man refused to ask for her number. These videos garnered hundreds of views, but pale in comparison to the viral success she got after she perfected her ‘presenting random men to her mother’ routine.
Her channel exploded after one of her skits got her almost 37 million views, in which a confused man is approached by Layzell, who was already recording in the middle of a busy London street.
Netizens enjoyed the video for its portrayal of what they believed to have been genuine attraction between the stranger and the TikToker.
“You already look so cute. I could feel that you’re both attracted to each other!” one viewer wrote.
“I want to find my future husband like this!” another said.
The TikToker celebrated the attention brought to her channel by saying that her rejection tactics were “elite”
Image credits: leilalayzell
Layzell’s fans enjoyed her recent videos, with many vowing to try her method when experiencing unwanted advances by men in the future.
“Omg, this is brilliant! I’m definitely using this,” a fan stated.
“I’m gonna tell my sisters to do this!” another said.
“How funny! This is a genius tactic!” one viewer said.
“We love you in Australia, girl!” another stated.
“Yeah, that guy dodged a bullet right there,” a viewer wrote.
"They're divorced now." Netizens laughed at the video, joking about the trouble it might've caused the recorded men
