What Are Twinks, And What Is 'Twink Death'? The LGBT Slang Term Turned Viral Phenomenon, Explained

"Twink" is an interesting slang term used to describe someone who has a somewhat homosexual look and/or demeanor. In LGBT communities online, Twink has been used extensively to describe a large number of celebrities including Timothée Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio, who are both known to be suffering from the so-called "Twink Death."

While it can be used as a derogatory term, "twink" has primarily lost most of its offensiveness due to how popular the term has become. But what is a twink? and what is Twink Death? Here's everything you need to know.

What Is A Twink?

The oldest definition of a Twink can be found on Urban Dictionary, posted by user DocLightning on June 13, 2004, and defines the term as "An attractive, boyish-looking, young gay man." (shown below). By that definition, many people in the LGBT community use it to refer to younger males between the ages of 18-22, with little to no body or facial hair. The user also theorizes that the word has two origins, one from an acronym, T.W.I.N.K, and another from the famous American Twinkie snack.

What Is Twink Death?

'Twink Death' is another slang term that started to appear to refer to the point of no return for twinks, where their age or increase in masculinity stops them from being referred to as twinks. It originated in conversations on 4chan's /lgbt/ board since the mid-2010s, but the term became mainstream as it started to spread on Twitter in December 2022.

Twink Death became a much more popular term in late 2022, as it became more widespread, especially on Twitter and Reddit. On November 29th, 2022, @wholesomeduos on Twitter posted artwork of a Catboy, captioned "twinkdeath." The post (below) gained over 13,000 likes on Twitter in just one month, which helped make the term even more mainstream.

How Is Twink Death Popular In Meme Culture?

The first set of memes to come out of the term "Twink Death" included a series of images of celebrities showing their twink-looking younger selves, and their older current selves, with a caption that read "twink death is a terrifying thing." The first and most popular example was posted on Twitter by @thenorthmens on February 6th, 2023, and gained over 110,000 likes in 3 days (shown below).

Soon, more examples started to spread online, with different celebrities, including Alex Jones (shown below, left) and even Joe Biden (shown below, right).

For the full history of Twink Death, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.