Key Takeaways
- Hily’s new manchild-free profile option, inspired by Sabrina Carpenter’s new song “Manchild,” allows users to cut immature daters off at the pass.
- A marketing tool and a functional feature, the manchild-free option deters immature daters and helps people who use the option stick to their convictions.
- The manchild-free option appeals to the 78% of female daters who told Hily they would never date a manchild again.
Hily’s new “manchild-free” profile option, which debuted around the same time as Sabrina Carpenter’s song “Manchild,” lets daters say how they really feel about dating immature men. The option doesn’t filter immature users, but it does send them a clear message: “Man-children, do not inquire within.”
Hily’s “manchild-free” option is a marketing tactic, but it’s backed by genuine functionality. By sending a clear signal to immature daters, the option could lessen the number of man-children sliding into a user’s DMs.
It’s not the first time a dating app has worked with pop stars to connect with its users. In 2015, Madonna partnered with Grindr to promote her album Rebel Heart. And in 2025, Kesha worked with Feeld to spread the word about sex-positivity and her new tour.
Other apps, like Hily, in this case, simply make the most of viral pop culture moments. Similarly, Hinge jumped on the virality of BookTok in its recent “No Ordinary Love” campaign, and Tinder’s “Festival Mode” pops up when music festival season comes back around.
With the hit song “Manchild,” Hily can connect with the people with whom the song resonates, perhaps even the man-children themselves.
More Than Half of Surveyed Women Have Dated a Manchild
Hily insists that the “manchild-free” profile option, while inspired by a viral pop culture moment, can have long-lasting positive benefits to dating app users. Dr. Marisa T. Cohen, a relationship expert at Hily, defined a manchild as “that guy who acts more like a kid than an adult — sometimes on purpose, just to get you to baby him.”
And like Carpenter, Dr. Cohen doesn’t think there’s anything charming about it. “That’s not cute, it’s manipulative,” she said. “And Hily’s new feature is here to help you dodge that bullet.”
According to Hily’s research, today’s daters are just as sick and tired as Sabrina Carpenter of dealing with all the man-children of the world.
Twenty-two percent of men surveyed by Hily admitted that they’re man-children, and 40% said they used to be one. How to account for the 40% of former man-children who suddenly learned how to grow up?
There are lots of explanations, including therapy and/or supportive friends or family, but the 55% of women who have dated a manchild probably have something to do with it.
In her song, Carpenter wonders “Manchild, why you always come a-running, taking all my loving from me?” According to psychotherapist Marni Feuerman for VeryWell Mind, the 55% of women who Hily says have put up with man-children may have been strangely drawn to their bad habits.
Carpenter swears “they choose me, I’m not choosing them,” but in the same breath, she admits, “I like my men all incompetent.”
It’s true that for some women, supporting the manchild may fulfill a deep desire to “mother” someone. “His childlike behavior might have made you feel like you needed to take care of him, dote on him, or guide him,” Feuerman said.
It’s what Feuerman refers to as the Wendy Syndrome. In this way, the adult in the relationship can get sucked into an unhelpful parent/child dynamic. It happened to more than half of the women surveyed by Hily.
78% of Women Never Want to Date A Manchild Again
A “manchild-free” option on a dating app may not seem very significant, but it serves more than one purpose. It not only calls out the man-children of the world, but acts as a reminder to people using the option that they must assert their boundaries and cut man-children off at the pass — no more playing Wendy.
After all, 78% of women who have dated a manchild told Hily that they’d never do it again. The “manchild-free” option can help them stick to their convictions.
“Honestly, a manchild-free option has been needed for a long time,” said Liubomyr Pivtorak, Hily’s CPO. If one of the biggest pop stars in the world feels the need to lament her experiences with man-children in a song, then there’s no doubt it’s happening to other people, too — and that they’re just as fed-up.
“We figured it’s worth making it explicit — no man-children allowed, unless you want to be called out,” Pivtorak said.
Hily users can find the “manchild-free” option in the profile section dedicated to whether or not they want to have kids. According to the dating app, the “manchild-free” option on profiles will stick around “as long as ya’ll need it,” which, if Sabrina Carpenter is to be believed, may be for quite a while.
