Nikkie de Jager, known online as Nikkie Tutorials, is one of the most popular beauty YouTubers in the world. Posting since 2008, Nikkie has amassed a loyal following who tune into her impressive makeup tutorials, with a subscriber count of almost 13 million.
Today, however, she shared a very different video.
On Tuesday, Australian time, the makeup mogul uploaded a video titled “I’m Coming Out”. Nikkie Tutorials revealed she is a transgender woman.
“When I was younger, I was born in the wrong body, which means that I am transgender,” the YouTuber said in the 17-minute-long video.
“Ever since I was born, I have always thought that I was a girl. I just couldn’t understand why I had short hair, or why I had to wear trousers and a t-shirt. Why couldn’t I wear dresses?” Nikkie recalls thinking.
From barbie dolls to nail polish, Nikkie said "everything about me was girly".
"My mum knew immediately that I either was going to be gay, or a different type of story. And it turned out to be a different type of story."
Nikkie, who is from the Netherlands, added that by the age of eight, she was wearing "girls' clothes only".
At the age of 14, Nikkie began taking hormones and growth-stoppers. By 19, she had fully transitioned.
Throughout the video, Nikkie hailed her partner for his support.
As of August last year, Nikkie is engaged to a man named Dylan, who she was dating for a year before he asked her to marry him. Nikkie says that although Dylan did not know she was transgender at first, she has since been open with him about her past.
"At the point where I told him my full story, of course, he was shocked. But that is a private matter that we're dealing with and I am so proud [we're] able to deal with."
But behind Nikkie's "freeing" announcement was a sadder side.
The Dutch YouTuber admitted that a number of people had threatened to 'out' her to the press in recent times - hence leading Nikkie to tell her subscribers, or 'glow babies' as she affectionately calls them, sooner than expected.
She now hopes she could inspire others in the LGBT+ community to "do the same - to truly live your life, like you want it."
For 11 years, Nikkie has kept this part of her past out of the public eye - despite going through her transition while on YouTube in the early years of her career. As she continued to emphasise in the candid video, "I am Nikkie Tutorials. I am me.
"This feels liberating and freeing, but I, at the end of the day, am still Nikkie."
You can watch the full video by Nikkie Tutorials here.
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Top Comments
It's really gross that people were threatening to out her. Every time I see an article about something personal like this, and I read the comments saying "this should be a private matter", or "why do we need to know this" etc - this is why. Because some people are assholes, who will take advantage. Good luck to her, I'm just sorry she had to deal with jerks.