The “17 Diapers” TikTok Controversy Explained

Like many online controversies, the “17 Layers” TikTok video started so simply. In it, Hannah Hiatt, an admittedly overwhelmed mother of two, decided to poke fun at herself after a weekend of solo parenting by counting the number of dirty diapers she had laying around her house.

Since posting the video earlier this month, Hannah has been called disgusting, gone viral and, more recently, become an icon of the crushing pressures of motherhood and the postpartum period. All this, counting the layers. This is the Internet for you!

Here’s everything you need to know about Hannah and her “17 Layers” video, in this edition of TL;DR.

Give me the TL;DR.

Mother of two Hannah Hiatt sparked a conversation about parenting and burnout after posting a tongue-in-cheek TikTok video in which she reveals she has 17 dirty diapers lying around her house.

Wait, I need more. What is the context here?

On October 5, Hannah, who has a two-year-old and a newborn, posted a TikTok video in which she asked viewers to guess how many dirty diapers she probably has lying around her house.

“I’m not kidding, I’m guessing it’s probably 15 years,” she said.

Hannah explains that she and her husband don’t own a diaper pail and usually just change their kids in various places around the house. Usually, she said, they pick up the diapers at the end of the day, but at that point she had been a single parent for an entire day.

So she takes the camera to collect all the accumulated layers. There are four of them on the coffee table, some scattered on the living room floor, then the rest are in his bedroom and on the landing.

“No wonder my fucking house stinks right now,” she says before ending the video.

The video was only a minute and a half long, but it has now been viewed more than 7 million times. And everyone, and we mean everyone, has an opinion.

What does the Internet think?

People’s (unsolicited) opinions about Hannah and her video fall into two main categories:

Those who call her disgusting and a shame, and those who encourage her to get through this moment when she is overwhelmed by motherhood.