Jess Waterhouse and their wife are Australia's new 'comfort' watch. They delete troll comments hourly.

On a plane home from an away game in Perth, a grinning air hostess stopped to compliment AFLW player Jess Waterhouse as they settled in for their flight.

"I loooove your TikToks. You're so wholesome. You're my comfort watch," the woman told them.

"I know you'll have two videos up every night, so I scroll and watch you before I go to bed."

It was an out of body experience for Waterhouse, who up until recently was only recognised publicly for their playing prowess as a forward for the formidable Adelaide Crows. But lately, they've been gaining a whole new fan-base.

In the space of just a couple of months, the 27-year-old's TikTok following has grown from 10,000 people to more than 160,000.

Their content is exactly as that air hostess describes — wholesome. Day in the life style vlogs where they invite people to meet their wife, Emma, and dog, Delilah, and follow them on shopping trips, weekend outings and their weekly juggle maintaining a footy career alongside a part-time job at a bank.

Perhaps their most popular series is the one where they ask Emma what they should have for lunch. The answers are always equal parts specific and delicious, based on the exact ingredients Emma knows they have tucked away in their fridge.

@jwaterhouse21

Emmy has the best ideas 🐐 #wife #lunch #wlw #marriage #alfw #aflwomens #havelunchwithme #snackplate #cottagecheesedip #everythingbagel #vlogging #mullet #lgbt #trending #trend

♬ original sound - Jess Waterhouse

"My wife always knows what to do," Waterhouse often muses, before kissing Emma's cheek with the remark, "another great suggestion from the Emmy girl."

The comment sections are full of compliments along the same vein of that from the air hostess.

"We never EVER skip a Jess Waterhouse video."

"I need an Emmy in my life."

"I am so comforted by your beautiful marriage."

But speaking to Mamamia, Waterhouse admits the comment section only looks like that because they spend hours meticulously deleting the horrible ones.

"I get a lot of homophobic, transphobic, horrible messages and comments….I just block and delete. It's not nice to read, but it actually doesn't affect me too much.

"But I've got such a diverse following group, so I would hate for them to come into the comment section and not feel safe. My block list is very long…"

Not an hour goes by without Waterhouse deleting a message. When they're away for footy, Emma does it for them. But she gets more frustrated by it.

"'They don't know you as a person….Why are they saying that nasty stuff?' she'll often ask," said Waterhouse.

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A post shared by Jess Waterhouse 🤠 (@jwaterhouse21)

Jess and Emma met six years ago playing footy.

"We kind of just blossomed from there as friends, and it actually started one night when we both got invited by a mutual friend to play bingo," Waterhouse told Mamamia.

From there they got engaged, travelled the world, and got married in February, 2023.

Tying the knot felt like a huge deal for Waterhouse, who remembers ticking 'yes' on the gay marriage plebiscite only a few short years ago.

"It doesn't feel different [to be married]. I think it's just special to be able to get married," they explained.

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A post shared by Jess Waterhouse 🤠 (@jwaterhouse21)

But perhaps their biggest personal challenge in recent years, is making the decision to cut out a few choice friends and family in their circles who don't support their lifestyle.

"[I've spent a few years] just being myself, identifying how I want to identify, getting the right haircut, doings things that align with my values…and over that journey, my wife and I made a special kind of commitment. If anyone in our lives doesn't have the same values as us, then I don't want to spend time with them."

While they've been hard discussions to have, Waterhouse says it's something they, "feel strongly about…and it's made our lives ten times better, [just] living authentically."

It's why they're so passionate about what they're building on TikTok. They want to be a positive role model for the young, queer community base they know are watching on.

"Obviously I present in a very different way with my mullet and my dress [sense], so I guess I just like encouraging people to be themselves. If I can showcase me just being my normal self — a nice person, having manners and presenting the way I do — I can kind of break down that perception of people with tattoos and mullets who are queer presenting."

Probably the strangest part of being TikTok 'famous' is getting used to footy not necessarily being a part of their online identity. It's been a beautiful realisation that their followers are following purely for who they are, rather than what they do.

"People are like, 'I don't follow football, I just love your content,'" Waterhouse laughed.

But footy is still front and centre on their page, and Waterhouse hopes sharing the reality of what being on the women's side of the AFL is like, will make audiences realise how far they've got to go to be truly equal with the men's teams.

"I am sitting here currently on my break from my part time job outside of footy….I can't imagine that a male counterpart would have to do the same thing," they told Mamamia.

Waterhouse is excited for the future of women's sport. They've long been an advocate, ever since they were the captain of the Young Matildas, aged 15. They completed three seasons of professional soccer before moving to AFL.

Watching the Matildas become household names (a team they were playing on ten years ago, when ten people were watching on in the stadium), is proof there's a bright future ahead.

@jwaterhouse21

Singing Delilah her bed time song 💜 #vlogging #vlog #comewithme #aflw #afl #training #adelaidecrows #mullet #dinner #wlw #wife #japan #travel #youaremysunshine #youtube #thingstodo

♬ original sound - Jess Waterhouse

"But I think we still have a lot of growth to do," they added.

Waterhouse is confident that the more an audience can connect with the athlete, the more people are going to come and watch them play. They're hopeful their TikTok success will inadvertently help with that.

"The more that we can share that insight into our lives and us as human beings, the more people connect," they told Mamamia.

"And if I can create that safe space for people while I am at it….what a dream. I think that's awesome."

Feature image: Jess Waterhouse/@jwaterhouse21