Kaomoji are considered kawaii, or “cute,” and often draw on anime and manga. Uwu is likely a simplified form of such kaomoji as (o・ω・o).
UWU girls are often defined as the living embodiment of the UWU emoticon, sometimes even saying "uwu" out loud in everyday speech and speaking in a high-pitched, childlike voice known as the "uwu voice." If playback doesn't begin shortly, try restarting your device.
Uwu and owo spread online in the late 2000s with the rise of social media and the increasing popularity of East Asian popular culture in the West. Uwu got a lot of mainstream attention in 2018 after Mark Hamill (you know, Luke Skywalker ?!) tweeted uwu as a fan request.
It was likely being used in East Asian digital communication well before it. Uwu and owo spread online in the late 2000s with the rise of social media and the increasing popularity of East Asian popular culture in the West. Uwu got a lot of mainstream attention in 2018 after Mark Hamill (you know, Luke Skywalker ?!) tweeted uwu as a fan request.
Uwu is an emoticon depicting a cute face. It is used to express various warm, happy, or affectionate feelings.
OwO, also stylized as owo, as a furry term, is a chat emoticon and meme used in furry text-based conversation and roleplay, normally with a sexual connotation, sometimes as a trolling term. The two Os represent wide and open eyes, and the w represents a cutesy anime-styled mouth.
uwu is known to date back as far as 2005, in an anime fanfiction. The origin of the word is unknown, with many people believing it to originate in Internet chat rooms. By 2014, the emoticon had spread across the Internet into Tumblr, becoming an Internet subculture.
Usage in furry fandom The uwu emoticon is especially popular among furries, as the “w” can be seen to resemble an animal's nose. Furries are people fascinated by anthropomorphic animals, and they often dress like (and have sex as) them.
Often, “uwu” will be used to describe being overwhelmed with cuteness, as seen in countless K-pop fandom posts.
According to Know Your Meme, the exact beginnings of uwu have not been sourced, but its use as an emoticon can be traced to fanfiction from as early as 2005.
In Internet slang and texting lingo, the UwU emoticon is used when the texter is experiencing an extra cute moment.
It's difficult to pinpoint when exactly UwU gained prominence in texting lingo.