Dylan Mulvaney Talks About Moving her Transition Offline
The world has only known about Dylan Mulvaney for about a year, but she’s already taken the world by storm.
Ivy Griffith
The world has only known about Dylan Mulvaney for about a year, but she’s already taken the world by storm.
Since she first burst onto the scene as a trans icon and influencer, Mulvaney has started her transition, met the President of the United States, performed at an iconic New York venue, and infuriated all the bigots on social media.
But Mulvaney recently sat down with Them for an introspective interview, and shared her thoughts on where she’s at – and what’s next.
The magazine wrote of her entrance, “The 26-year-old arrives early, in pink, and perches herself on the sunny corner of a sumptuous suede banquette.”
“Bougie, right?” Mulvaney leads with.
As they speak, Mulvaney turns to her ambitions for the future – which look less “influencer,” and more “movie star.”
Mulvaney tells Them, “No matter your gender, people will project things onto you about who you’re supposed to be. And I think we equally have to tell people our actual purpose. I think so much of my purpose could be elevating others’ voices. I would love to do that through Hollywood, where we still haven’t seen enough exposure.”
She adds, “Right now, the headlines call me ‘TikTok Trans Activist Dylan Mulvaney.’ I want to be ‘Actress Dylan Mulvaney.’ I want to be ‘Comedian Dylan Mulvaney.’”
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Mulvaney also alludes to her “author era,” saying, “I’ve been doing a lot of typing in my backyard, which gives you a little wink wink.”
When the 26-year-old first started posting on TikTok, her account gained little traction. But when she launched her “Days of Girlhood” series, she took off like a rocket. Mulvaney said of the experience, which wrapped up earlier this year with a special day 365 live, “When I was living that project, when I was living those days, I mean, it was joy. And what I saw from viewers was that it was what I think we all need a little bit of right now — something to combat the darkness.”
The series has earned more than a billion views by now.
But things happened quickly, which isn’t without its pitfalls; “There’s a level of me that knows I wanted success…but I didn’t know it was going to be for my transness. And I just kind of wish I could tap myself on the shoulder, right before I made that video, the first one, and just be like, ‘Hey, let’s not…,’” She paused.
Mulvaney then adds the rest of her thought, “‘Let’s make sure you’re in a good place and you are safe and that you’ve had the conversations with the people that you need to talk to before you talk to everyone.’”
And of course, being Dylan Mulvaney means that the conservative right really, really hates you. By just living her truth and joy, Mulvaney has sparked fury and hatred among the bigots who can’t seem to grasp someone else’s happiness.
And it weighs on her heavily. “I’m scared. I never expected to have people following me, or experience such negative media attention. I walk into a room and I never know if somebody is going to really love me or really hate me.”
@dylanmulvaneyITS DAY 365!!!!!!!!!!
As a result of the attention, Mulvaney has been reconsidering her approach to social media. Mulvaney once made a TikTok at the Grammy’s with trans superstar Laverne Cox. In the video, Cox suggests Mulvaney should ease up on the sharing. “It’s insane that you’re documenting so much of your life,” she warned. “They love it, but everything cannot be for the public; you must keep things for yourself.”
And Mulvaney was listening. “When we met, I’d already made a video talking about the physical experience of getting FFS, and I was planning on making another about the mental side. But I never did it, because what I took from meeting Laverne was that once I described that euphoria in a video and put it online, a piece of it goes away.”
Now, as Mulvaney eyes the future and the hope that she launches her acting career, she’s changing things up with Cox’s advice in mind. “I don’t regret any of the things that I’ve posted, but I want to make sure that my transition is for me now. It’s kind of like redefining a relationship — when it gets too personal, or too hands-on, it can be hard to scale back. I’m hoping that the people that do love me will be ready when I start doing things that aren’t just me trauma-unloading onto a camera.”
The young star adds, “I really do like being me, but you can get to a point where if you read enough things about yourself, you could be like, ‘Screw Dylan Mulvaney. Who is this b—h.’ So, right now, I’m thinking about longevity — how do I hopefully have a career that goes on for the next 40 years? And how do I be happy outside of social media? Because that’s what I think I’m retraining my brain to figure out: All the other aspects of my life have to be just as important as that one.”
While we hope Mulvaney doesn’t leave social media altogether, she deserves all the happiness she can find.
To read the entire interview with Them, click this link.