Nikkie Tutorials comes out as a transgender woman

The online beauty community is celebrating MUA and YouTube star Nikkie de Jager who revealed that she’s a transgender woman in a tear-jerking video posted last week.

2020 is off to an inspiring start as Nikkie de Jager – better known as Nikkie Tutorials – proves to us all the importance of staying true to our identities and fighting whatever negativity comes our way.

In a now-viral video that she posted last week; the Dutch make-up-artist came out as a transgender woman to her 12.5 million subscribers (as well as the rest of the world), and you’ll be hard-pressed not to tear up a little while watching it.

Explaining the unfortunate reasoning behind her timing, De Jager prefaces the emotional 17 minutes by saying that although she wanted to tell her very personal story on her own terms, the opportunity was ruined by blackmailers threatening to expose her to the press.

This is actually quite emblematic of a wider issue of anti-trans behaviour and stereotypes that help fuel violence and discrimination towards people in the LGBTQ+ community. Outing poses a serious threat to trans people and De Jager isn’t the first to experience it. Take Tracey Norman for example, who lost her job as a model after being outed in 1980, and actor Caroline Cossey, whose career was ‘destroyed overnight,’ by the same circumstances.

In De Jager’s situation, similar to Norman’s and Cossey’s, not being out was viewed as an omission and she was accused of lying. This can be especially harmful for those in the public eye, as branding them a liar can insight unreasonable hatred in transphobic sects of society against them, and even endanger their lives. Not being out is not a lie. Transgender people have every right to keep their gender history private, and those who have transitioned are living as their truly authentic selves. By standing up to this hate and sharing her experience, De Jager has become a role model for the transgender community, raising awareness of how difficult it can really be and helping us understand the necessity of letting people do things in their own time.

During the video, De Jager describes herself as ‘born in the wrong body,’ a realisation she came to at a very young age. The beauty guru shares that she began the process age six, growing her hair long and wearing only girl’s clothing.

By the time she was 14, she was taking hormones and growth stoppers which led to a full transition five years later.