Nikkie de Jagger is a famous influencer on social media. She has created beauty and make-up related videos for her YouTube channel for about 11 years. Over the years she has become increasingly popular in the beauty community having a little over 13 million subscribers. In January 2020, she uploaded a video of her coming out. In this video she explains “her decision was forced by someone attempting to ‘blackmail’ and publicly out her”(NikkieTutorials 2020). Her coming out video was 17 minutes long. She mentions in her video that she always planned on coming out, but on her own terms. In her video she “reveals she was born male but had always identified as female growing up”(NikkieTutorials2020). After her emotional video, she received a lot of support from not only her fanbase, but others as well. A few individuals were angered at the fact that she wasn’t ready to come out. There were tweets created that it is a persons own choice to decide when to come out if they ever want too, and sad that she was forced to do it. Tweets also mentioned that she was brave for creating a video considering the circumstances.
This article explained the coming out story of Nikkie de Jagger. Nikkie came out as a transgender in her 17 minute long video. To be transgender means that an individual does not identify or express as the sex they were born with. For example, Nikkie de Jagger was born male, but identified as female since she was six-years old. Nikkie de Jagger had her right of coming out on her own terms taken away from her. She created her video so her fans could hear her story from her, and not from the person blackmailing her. She states in her video “‘If you feel like you’re trapped and there’s no way out, know that it gets better.'”(NikkieTutorials 2020). She comforted her fans as well as others watching her video. For anyone in the LGBT community, it is a hard decision to make about if they want to come out and when.
From this article I learned that it is a hard process to come out. I’m not apart of the LGBT community therefore I don’t know what it feels like to have to come out to anyone. From watching her video, and reading this article, I feel empathy towards Nikkie de Jagger. She didn’t get to come out on her own terms, she was blackmailed into doing it. Anyone in the LGBT community should have the right to come out on their own terms if they ever want too with out being blackmailed or feeling like they will be discriminated against.
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Sociology 201 