Various cultures have different ages when it’s appropriate to get married. For some, it’s younger than others.
A girl on TikTok under the name @unknowngirl_119 recently revealed the story of how she got engaged at 17 and married at 18. She is an Irish Traveller, a community with roots in Ireland that’s known for its nomadic lifestyle.
While they exist across Ireland and the UK, they’ve also emigrated to the US. According to the Irish Emigration Museum, there are roughly 10,000 who identify as Irish Travellers in the US.
A 2011 story in the Irish Independent explains Traveller culture often includes marriage at a young age. Many marry in their late teens, welcoming their first children by their early 20s.
The user @unknowngirl_119, who has over 68,000 followers on TikTok, had a similar experience and thinks more should be practicing this as well. She detailed how it happened.
She said: “Obviously you have to keep [the relationship] a secret from your mommy and daddy until you’re the right age for him to pop and ask for you.
If you can’t see the video above, click here.
“So when I was 17 – it was a couple months before I was 18 – I let him call up to my father, basically for permission to marry me.”
Her father said yes, and the couple were married two weeks later.
“I know what you all are going to say, ‘You got married at 18 years of age, that’s very young.’ But in my culture, it’s actually not young,” she explained.
For all the latest news straight to your inbox, sign up for our FREE newsletters here.
She said she’s 19 now and knows women who already have three or more children. To her, 18 was a good age because it’s not too young, but not too old.
In a follow up video, she said it usually takes a man three or four weeks to ask a girl’s father for her hand in marriage after they begin to like each other. However, it’s not uncommon for a couple to be in a relationship for a year or so before getting married, just like non-Travellers.
“It depends on the boy and girl basically, the same as non-Travellers. Only Travellers don’t wait years and years and years – Travellers get married at 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, like around that age.”
For the latest local news and features on Irish America, visit our homepage here.