Dougherty Dozen mom says her 11 kids ‘do not care’ about TikTok fame: WATCH

Dougherty Dozen mom Alicia Doughtery talks life with 11 children

Curt and Rosanna sit down with viral momfluencer-of-11 Alicia Dougherty, where she shares hacks for maintaining a large household on a small budget.

NEW YORK - Alicia Dougherty, the mom behind the viral "Dougherty Dozen," is raising 11 children, some with special needs, while sharing the daily chaos with millions of followers on TikTok.

Dougherty joined Good Day New York Friday to explain the secrets to keeping her family running.

The backstory:

The New York-based mom and her husband Josh are known as the "Dougherty Dozen" online, where they have built an audience of 7.5 million TikTok followers by sharing the everyday madness of life as a family of 13. 

The couple has four biological children, Zoey, Dash, Bodhi and Harlee, and seven children they have fostered or adopted, Alex, James, Jordan, Jason, Patrick, Bree and Dayshawn.

From infertility to adoption to 11 kids

Dougherty explained that their family grew out of years of struggle. "We had nine years of infertility, and so we decided to go into foster care adoption. There are 400,000 children in the USA foster care system. So it seemed like a good fit. And we got Alex. We were so lucky to be able to adopt Alex. And yeah, like seven days later, we were pregnant," she said.

"Infertility cured, I guess," she joked.

Life with 13 kids and pets

The Dougherty household is not just filled with kids. "[We have] three dogs, nine chickens, a rabbit and a fish too," she said.

And so feeding the family comes at a steep cost. 

Dougherty said they spend "about $1,200 a week right now for groceries." That adds up to nearly $57,000 a year. "I don’t like to do the math on that," she admitted.

When it comes to meals, speed and flexibility matter. "Tacos is definitely a favorite of ours. Yeah, it’s so easy. Just set up a taco bar. It takes five minutes," she explained. Leftovers also get reinvented. "If we did a pork loin for Crock Pot night, we’ve repurposed that to pulled pork. We do a lot of repurposing of leftovers to try and eliminate the food waste."

How it all started

Dougherty said her family’s social media journey began during the pandemic. 

"My kids were watching TikTok, laughing. I’m like, what is that? I didn’t even know. I think I called it Tic-Tac at first," she recalled. After recording her morning routine and posting it online, the video went viral. "It just blew my mind. And then here we are."

By 2022, Dougherty realized it could become a career. "I was cleaning houses back then, and I realized if I put my energy full time into social media and content creation, that could be a career. So 2022 is when we went for it," she said.

Today, brand deals and sponsors are a regular part of the family’s income, though Dougherty insists she is "still doing the normal mom stuff."

Despite their massive online following, Dougherty says her children are not impressed. "They do not care. They think I’m boring," she said. "If I show up on their feed, I hear them scroll past me and they’re like, ‘Mom, I spend enough time with you. I don’t need to watch you too.’"

When asked for advice on staying organized, Dougherty shared a simple routine. "Weekly I go through, take out the empty stuff, and consolidate where I can. And then monthly I go through, check the expiration dates. Because you know kids, they love pudding cups one week, so you stock up, and then the next week they hate them."