Nikkie De Jager, a beauty vlogger also known as Nikkie Tutorials, came out as transgender today in an emotional video on her channel. The 17-minute video sees De Jager explain to her 12.7million followers that despite feeling ‘liberated’ in telling her story, she was blackmailed into making the video.
‘I can't believe I'm saying this today to all of you for the entire world to see. But damn, it feels good to finally do it,’ she says. ‘When I was younger, I was born in the wrong body, which means that I am transgender.’
Explaining that she always wanted to tell her followers but was scared and ‘could never figure out the timing’, she admitted, ‘I did not expect that day to be today’.
She continued: ‘I wanted to do this under my conditions, but apparently we live in a world where other people hate on people who are truly themselves. I have been blackmailed by people who wanted to leak my story to the press. It was frightening to know there are people out there that are so evil they can’t respect someone’s true identity. They said they wanted to leak it because I’m lying, or don’t want to tell my truth or because I’m too scared… I’m not scared.
De Jager did not reveal the identity of the blackmailer, instead going on to explain her experience of transitioning. With the support of her family, she began taking hormones at 14 and because of her height had to take growth stoppers (De Jager is currently 5ft 10). By the time she was 19, she had fully transitioned. She is currently 25.
‘I transitioned while on YouTube,’ she said, having started her channel 11 years ago. ‘Saying that now sounds so crazy to me because I have literally grown up and transformed into me in front of all of you.’
Read More: