About

Pink Screen refers to memes about girls putting pink screens on their TV or computer when they FaceTime or video chat with their crushes, the theory being that the pink lighting makes them look more attractive. The theory about pink lighting from screens has been spreading online since as early as 2023, and memes about the theory were popularized on TikTok in mid-July 2025, garnering viral spread that month. Some of the most prominent versions of the meme are engagement bait, leaving out the context of why girls purportedly like pink screens to encourage engagement.

Origin

There are numerous "pink screen" videos on YouTube, which consist simply of a pink screen for hours. One of the most viral examples was uploaded on November 10th, 2016, by YouTuber^[1] Pictures of stuff for 10 hours, garnering over 10 million views in nine years.

On January 10th, 2023, TikToker^[2] @omg.cari posted a video captioned, "Ladies put on a pink screen before you FaceTime him. It makes everything look better," garnering over 968,000 views in two years.

Spread

In July 2025, a series of engagement bait memes alluding to the pink screen theory started going viral on TikTok.

For example, on July 14th, 2025, TikToker^[3] @pixelss1n posted a meme about pink screens captioned "only girls understand," garnering over 22 million views in four days.

That same day, TikToker^[4] @secretoreo_1 posted a very similar video, garnering over 12 million views in four days.

On July 17th, 2025, TikToker^[5] @bobbybchillin0 posted a video of himself staring at a pink TV screen captioned, "me tryna figure out why girls put a pink screen on," garnering over 10 million views in a day.

A screenshot of the video was also posted to Reddit on the /r/ExplainTheJoke^[6] subreddit on July 18th, garnering over 2,200 upvotes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References