'It's not a dating app': How this couple found love on TikTok

For Sean Parsons and Charlene Allen, it was love at first "like."

It started with a simple TikTok duet — Allen posted her own video side-by-side with one of Parsons's, both lip-syncing Katy Perry's song E.T. 

Then the pair, each a single parent, got to talking. 

"I knew at that moment there was something there. It was like a magnet pulling me in," Allen said. 

Parsons, 36, sent the 37-year-old Allen more videos for a duet and two weeks later — the weekend before Valentine's Day 2021 — he was making the drive down from Ottawa to Niagara Falls to meet her in person. 

"I made a little sign for him saying don't miss the house," Allen laughed, remembering that first meeting. "Of course, he missed the house."

That first night, Parsons said he felt nervous, but the butterflies disappeared after he and Allen stayed up all night talking. 

"Before we knew it, the sun came up," he recalls. 

Three months later, Allen moved to Ottawa to be with him. 

"I've always said I'll never move out of Niagara Falls, until I met him ... [but] it just felt right to me." 

'Would you believe it's not a dating app?'

The couple realized early on they had a lot in common. 

Both were recently separated. She was raising four boys in Niagara Falls and he was raising four girls in Ottawa. 

"We were living similar lives but just in different cities," Allen said.

Neither were looking for love. 

Parsons wasn't interested in online dating and though Allen had tried dating apps in the past, she quickly deleted her accounts once it got to be too overwhelming. 

So it took their friends and family by surprise to learn they not only met online, but through the popular video-hosting app, where it's more common to connect over dance trends or music and comedy mashups.

"From an app that's just [for] making music videos, you really don't expect you're going to meet somebody, have a conversation with them and have so much in common," Parsons said, adding it's something of a joke for their kids, who range in age from six to 16 years old. 

"[There's this] line they use, when [Allen's] boys are explaining it to all their friends at school," Parsons said. 

"'Would you believe it's not a dating app?'" 

The 'Parsons Bunch' spreads hope

Two years later, and with a new addition to the household — 10-month-old baby Maria, nicknamed their 'TikTok baby' — the family of 11 couldn't be happier. 

"From the beginning, I've always called us the Parsons Bunch," Allen joked, adding she's been trying to make up her own lyrics to parody The Brady Bunch theme song. 

But the real story she wants people to take away from her family is one of hope and courage. 

"I've always said, if you have no hope, you have nothing. And hope is what brought me to Sean," she said. 

"There's always love out there, even when you don't feel like there's anything for you." 

Parsons echoes the sentiment. 

"Never be afraid to put yourself out there. If you think it's impossible, that's more of a reason to do it."