Has Hooters been able to change its perception among the public? Two former Hooters girls are out to prove that the company has changed and that the girls who wear those famous tiny orange shorts are more than just an image.
During Gianna Tulio’s senior year of high school, she moved down from Pennsylvania to South Florida. With few friends, she visited her one friend at work and saw how the girls got along and how they all seemed like family. That place of work? Hooters.
“I applied because I thought making friends would be the best thing for me to do since I just moved to a new state [where] I didn't know anyone,” she said. “And I'm so happy I did that, because I still, to this day, have the same group of friends and I wouldn't be where I am today without them.”
Where she is today is Miss Hooters International 2021. Not too bad for a small-town girl who joined the company looking for a family.
Her question when she was crowned was how she speaks to people who assume Hooters has a bad reputation, especially among feminists and conservative Christians.
“I would bring them into Hooters and have lunch with them and sit them down and explain to them why Hooters is more than just a restaurant,” she said. “We have all of our four corners. We do all different types of philanthropy all around the world. And we are so involved with our community that people in our community don't just look at us as a restaurant serving wings and cold beer, they look at us as a family that are here to help whoever needs help.”
That’s a sentiment that the company’s new chief people officer Cheryl Whiting-Kish shares. She was also a Hooters Girl, serving in the orange shorts in the 1980s when the chain first opened in South Florida. She’s been a staunch advocate for the Hooters Girl even when she was outside the organization for two decades.
“There is a common theme when you begin to take a look at the women who currently wear the orange shorts or [whether] they've moved on from the orange shorts,” Kish said. “And it's that they are just like anyone who hasn't worked for the brand. They have dreams, they have goals, they have choices that they're making for themselves in their lives. And they're accomplishing amazing things.”
By the company’s own estimations, over 400,000 women have worn those famous orange shorts — and been called “girl,” even in 2022. That’s become a point of contention among feminists for the brand — and other breastaurants — post the #MeToo movement. But Kish has a response for them.
“We probably have 100% brand recognition,” Kish said about the term ‘Hooters girls.’ But, she added, “what I am purposely doing is using language around the women of Hooters, the powerful women of Hooters and how we are celebrating, elevating, empowering and educating them. So [we] very purposefully use the term ‘woman’ when we speak about collectively, whether she's in the Hooters girl role or she's in a leadership role elsewhere within the company.”
Tulio doesn’t get the negativity on her channel regarding Hooters. She says that because her social media channels are so pro-Hooters, it’s become hard for others to send her hate.
“It's just more positive feedback that I've gotten, because I'm such an advocate for Hooters in the most positive way that I can be that I don't get any negative backlash. Because I don't give anybody a reason to be negative,” Tulio said.
