"Blondes 17 Or 18 Approach Me If" Shirt

Submission 1,122

About

"Blondes 17 Or 18 Approach Me If" Shirt, refers to a viral photograph of a man wearing a black shirt with yellow text that reads, "Blondes 17 or 18 approach me if:" followed by a lengthy description of the type of woman he wants to have a one-night-stand with, a description of himself and an explanation of how he wants to date a woman of the "youngest legal age possible." The photo, which was purportedly taken at a minor league baseball game, was posted to Reddit's /r/WTF subreddit in early August 2024 and went viral shortly after, inspiring memes and reactions online.

Origin

On August 3rd, 2024, Redditor u/lincunguns posted a photo to /r/WTF^[1] titled "Saw this shirt at a minor league baseball game" depicting the back of a man's shirt. The shirt reads, "Blondes 17 or 18! Approach me if:" followed by a long caption detailing how the man wearing the shirt wants to have a one-night-stand or friends-with-benefits relationship with a woman at the "youngest legal age possible," that being 17 in Illinois or 18 if they're from another state.

The shirt explains that the wearer has Asperger's syndrome, a type of autism. It also offers a detailed description of the man's physical appearance that includes "almond-shaped hazel eyes and angled eyebrows, a straight long and narrow upturned nose, downtruned lips, and a triangle face shape," which resemble reported physical signs of Down Syndrome.^[11] The post gained over 27,000 upvotes in two days (shown below).

Blondes 17 or 18! Approach me if:

You're 17 which is the age of consent in Illinois and you also live in Illinois or 18 if you live in a different state and you find me physically attractive and want to have a one-night stand or be friends with benefits. I'm a big handsome man who's 6'4", big-boned, and broad-shoulders with almond-shaped hazel eyes and angled eyebrows, a straight long and narrow upturned nose, downtruned lips, and a triangle face shape. Was born in 1998. I'm shy, I have social anxiety, and I have asperger's, and I'm mostly attracted to blondes and I want my first time to be with one who's the youngest legal age possible which is 17 if we both live in Illinois or 18 if we live in different states because it's illegal even if you're also a minor to travel interstate or internationally to have sex with minors and to transport minors to your state or to persuade, induce, entice, coerce minors to travel interstate regardless of the age of consent in each state or other countries.

Spread

The photo gained viral spread over the following days across sites including Reddit and X / Twitter. On August 3rd, 2024, it was reposted to the subreddits /r/sadcringe,^[2] /r/NotHowGirlsWork^[3] and /r/cringepics,^[4] garnering over 3,600, 6,500 and 630 upvotes, respectively, in two days.

That same day, it was posted by X^[5] user @scrumble_eggs, writing, "Look, it’s a guy who runs a libertarian party account on Twitter," garnering over 28,000 likes in two days (shown below, left). X^[6] user @ask_aubry reposted the image, writing, "When they are well versed on the age of consent 😐," garnering over 3,300 likes in the same span of time (shown below, right).

On August 4th, 2024, X^[7] user @leamaric posted the photo, writing, "Saw your oomfie at the DMV," garnering over 10,000 likes in a day (shown below, left). Later that day, Redditor u/Everythinger_Truten posted a screenshot of the image with an additional comment teasing the shirt wearer for the length of the text on his shirt to /r/clevercomebacks,^[8] garnering over 22,000 upvotes in a day (shown below, right).

Also on August 4th, X^[9] user @PicturesFoIder reposted the image, writing, "lock this man up immediately," garnering over 3,600 likes in a day. On August 5th, YouTuber^[10] More Puffle Point posted an edit of the meme setting the image to the Star Wars theme song and scrolling down the shirt slowly, parodying the opening text crawls of the films (shown below).