NikkieTutorials Comes Out As Transgender — Watch Her Touching Announcement Here
NikkieTutorials shared big news with her subscribers this week.
YouTubeAfter more than a decade on YouTube, NikkieTutorials is sharing a huge part of her life with her subscribers that, until now, she has kept completely private.
In an emotional video she shared on Monday, Nikkie — whose real name is Nikkie De Jager — came out for the very first time, sharing the full story.
So is NikkieTutorials transgender? Yes, she is, and now, she's finally able to be open about it, which she says has come as a huge relief.
1. NikkieTutorials is known for her beauty videos on YouTube.
Nikkie began her YouTube channel more than 11 years ago, and since then, she's built a following of almost 13 million subscribers. Not only does she review products and teach her subscribers different makeup techniques, but she's also known for her fun challenge videos, like when she recently let her family pick her makeup and when she collaborated with Lady Gaga and did her makeup for a video using Gaga's Haus Laboratories palette.
2. Nikkie's engaged to a man named Dylan.
Nikkie keeps what she can about her relationship as private as possible, but her fans are well acquainted with her fiancé, Dylan. He frequently appears on her Instagram as she shares the big moments of their lives together with her followers, and he's appeared in her videos, too — including a recent one where she let Dylan do her makeup on camera.
3. In her video, Nikkie revealed she's known she's trans since she was a kid.
In her coming out video — which you can see above — Nikkie explained that she's known she was born in the wrong body since she was very young, and by the time she was 14, she was taking hormones, well on her way to fully transitioning. She also credited her mom for supporting her every step of the way, and she then completed her transition while she was on YouTube.
“I’ve always wanted to live in a world where I saw myself as me, as Nikkie, as a woman, as a girl, as a boss lady. This was my way out,” she said in the video. “I started my channel back in the days where I still got really really bullied for all of this, and this was my way out. This was my free world where I could truly be me, and you guys didn’t judge me for anything.”
4. She wants fans to see her as the same person.
Later in the video, Nikkie said that she hoped that this announcement wouldn't change how her followers saw her, because she's still the same Nikkie.
“The last thing I want in my life is for you to not trust me anymore or to look at me with different eyes or look at me in a different manner, or think that I have changed,” she said.
5. She came out now because she was being blackmailed about her secret.
Although Nikkie told her viewers that this is a part of her life she had always planned on sharing at some point, it became more urgent to come out because she was being threatened by people who wanted to expose her secret. This way, she could get out ahead of it and share the news herself, in her own way.
“I’ve always wanted to share this side of my story with you. I just wanted to do it under my conditions, but apparently we live in a world where other people hate on people that are truly themselves," she said. "I have been blackmailed by people that wanted to ‘leak’ my story to the press. They said they wanted to leak it because I’m lying, or that I don’t want to tell my truth, or because they feel like I’m too scared for people to know who I truly am."
6. She thanked fans for the support on Instagram.
In a video she shared to her Instagram stories, Nikkie thanked everyone from the support — and according to the screenshots she shared on her story, not only were fans sending their love, but so were fellow makeup artists and celebrities including Ariana Grande, who commented on the above Instagram post with heart emojis and prayer hand emojis.
“What happened last night is something I never, ever would dare to dream about,” Nikkie said on her story. “The incredible amount of love and support and warmth means so much to me.”
Nicole Pomarico is an entertainment and lifestyle writer whose work has appeared in Cosmo, Us Weekly, Refinery29, and more.