What does WLW mean? | Mashable [Video]

“I thought ‘WLW’ meant ‘winners love winning,'” said TikTok user @ihatebodhi. In a video with over a million views, @ihatebodhi said he was confused about why masculine lesbians started DMing him once he started putting #wlw in his Instagram captions.

What does WLW mean?

As @ihatebodhi learned, WLW means “women who love women” or “women loving women,” not “winners love winning.” It’s an internet shorthand for folks to signal who they like, or find others like them.

As is often the case within the LGBTQ community, WLW may mean different things to different people. To one person, WLW may refer to strictly women. To others, it can mean non-men who are into non-men, explained Melissa Fabello, a relationship coach for politicized people and PhD in human sexuality studies.

“When we’re talking about individuals’ way of understanding themselves, not assuming that a label or an identity means the same thing to all people who use it, and letting people explain what the …