Dylan Mulvaney
Dylan Mulvaney | |
|---|---|
 Mulvaney in 2023 | |
| Born | December 29, 1996 San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Education | University of Cincinnati (BFA) |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 2015–present |
| Notable work | Days of Girlhood (2022–present) |
TikTok information | |
| Followers | 10.2 million |
| Likes | 500.1 million |
Last updated: January 29, 2023 | |
| Website | dylanmulvaney |
Dylan Mulvaney (born December 29, 1996) is an American TikTok personality who has detailed her gender transition in daily videos since early 2022. In October 2022, Mulvaney spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House about transgender rights.
As of April 2023, Mulvaney has more than 10 million followers on TikTok, while her video series, Days of Girlhood, has received over one billion views.
Early life and education
Mulvaney was born on December 29, 1996, in San Diego, California. She graduated from the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music in 2019 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater.
Career
2015–2020: Early acting roles
Mulvaney's first significant role was as Elder White in the musical The Book of Mormon following her graduation from college. The role led her to tour the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Other roles included How The Grinch Stole Christmas! at the Old Globe Theatre; 8 at the Birch North Park Theatre; Next to Normal at Arts Off Broadway; Legally Blonde; Spring Awakening; Bye Bye Birdie; and High School Musical at ACT San Diego. Around the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, she began posting videos to TikTok, which usually garnered a few hundred thousand views.
2021–2022: Transition and initial media appearances
Mulvaney came out as a trans woman during the COVID-19 pandemic while living with her "very conservative family" at her childhood home in San Diego. She began to document her gender transition in a daily series of videos published on TikTok titled "Days of Girlhood" in March 2022, and her videos began to gain in popularity. She said in an interview:
When the pandemic hit, I was doing the Broadway musical Book of Mormon. I found myself jobless and without the creative means to do what I loved. I downloaded TikTok, assuming it was a kids' app. Once I came out as a woman, I made this "day one of being a girl" comedic video. And it blew up. I really don't know another place online like TikTok that can make a creator grow at the rate that it does. Some of these other apps really celebrate perfection and over-editing and flawlessness. I think with TikTok specifically, people love the rawness. They love people just talking to the camera. I try to approach every video like a FaceTime with a friend.
In October 2022, Mulvaney appeared with genderfluid hairstylist David Lopez in a podcast for the cosmetics brand Ulta Beauty, during which she spoke about her childhood, her coming out as transgender, and her transition. The video led to the appearance of the hashtag #BoycottUlta in Twitter's trending topics section, and Mulvaney was targeted with transphobic comments. She also became a spokesperson for Kate Spade that year.
Later that October, Mulvaney met with President Joe Biden for a presidential forum organized by the online news outlet NowThis News. When asked by Mulvaney about recent legislation restricting gender-affirming care for transgender youth by Republican-led legislatures, Biden called it "outrageous" and "immoral".
According to NBC News, after meeting with Biden, Mulvaney became the target of a "vitriol campaign" by right-wing activists. Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn shared a tweet in which she attached a TikTok video created by Mulvaney and said "Dylan Mulvaney, Joe Biden, and radical left-wing lunatics want to make this absurdity normal". Conservative media personality Caitlyn Jenner, who is also a transgender woman, wrote on Twitter that she agreed with Blackburn's remarks and called Mulvaney's video an absurdity.
Several days later, Mulvaney posted a reply video to Jenner on TikTok as part of her Days of Girlhood series, with a written message: "To my followers, please do not send her any hate." In the video, Mulvaney directly addressed being misgendered by Jenner and Jenner's comments about her body, as well as what Mulvaney had learned from the experience.
2022–present: Dylan Mulvaney's Day 365 Live!, Bud Light advertisement
In December 2022, Mulvaney confirmed on Instagram that she had undertaken facial feminization surgery. She posted an image of her face on Instagram on January 27, and made her debut on the red carpet at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards on February 5, 2023. In late February, she accepted a Queerties Groundbreaker Award in Hollywood.
Mulvaney hosted a livestreamed variety show at the Rainbow Room in Midtown Manhattan on March 13, 2023, to celebrate the first anniversary of her TikTok video series Days of Girlhood, entitled Dylan Mulvaney's Day 365 Live!, with L Morgan Lee and Reneé Rapp as guest stars. An appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show that day in which Mulvaney spoke with Barrymore about "dealing with online hate" resulted in an "onslaught of online hate" directed at Barrymore, according to the Los Angeles Times. On Instagram, Mulvaney shared a letter from vice president Kamala Harris congratulating her for the first anniversary of her transition.
On April 1, 2023, Mulvaney promoted the beer brand Bud Light in an Instagram video commemorating March Madness, a college basketball tournament held by the NCAA. According to The Washington Post, the advertisement led figures in right-wing media, such as Fox News, to refer to Mulvaney in "disparaging and often in transphobic terms nearly a dozen times over the next three days". The sponsorship led to calls for a boycott of Bud Light from conservatives. In response to the sponsorship, singer Kid Rock filmed himself shooting several Bud Light cases with a MP5 submachine gun in a protest video. Several Budweiser factories also received bomb threats in response.
Mulvaney also promoted a Nike sports bra in a sponsored post on Instagram in April 2023, and in response, Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies called for a Nike boycott. This was shortly thereafter followed by backlash and calls for a boycott against makeup company Maybelline after Mulvaney posted a short video of herself applying the company's products.
In response to the events, Mulvaney stated: "What I'm struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel. I just don't think that's right. Dehumanization has never fixed anything in history ever." She explicitly discussed the events for the first time in a video posted in late June, speaking about the stalking and personal attacks she experienced and the lack of contact from the maker of Bud Light in view of the events. She stated, "I'm not telling you this because I want your pity. I'm telling you this because if this is my experience from a very privileged perspective, know that it is much, much worse for other trans people."
In August 2023, Mulvaney won her first Streamy Award for breakout creator. In October 2023, she won the Woman of the Year award from the LGBTQ magazine Attitude.
In November 2023, Mulvaney was named on Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
Personal life
According to her social media profiles, Mulvaney uses both she/her and they/them pronouns.