The lonely life of trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney
‘Why will nobody kiss me?’ Dylan Mulvaney’s man-to-girl transition has won her TikTok fame, riches, and allies in the White House, but left her lonely and undateable
- Mulvaney’s zaniest clip to date asks viewers to ‘let dolls be dolls’
- She speaks about detractors and how her personal relationships are failing
- She also talks of her pain when a fan ‘doxxed’ her by posting her details online
It’s been a tough year for Dylan Mulvaney.
Twelve months since launching her hit TikTok series, Days of Girlhood, she’s earned hundreds of thousands of dollars, won allies in the White House, and is elbowing her way into the world of Hollywood celebrities.
Still, the rigors of social media stardom are taking a toll. The 26-year-old has endured painful facial surgery and been doxxed — when a fan published her personal phone number online.
Now the trans poster girl has revealed how her personal relationships have fallen apart, that she struggles to get a date — and is still to be kissed ‘as a girl’.
Mulvaney’s online transition series, which has 10.8 million followers, was always odd. But her recent imitations of a fictional six-year-old girl called Eloise, who lives in a high-end hotel, and her masquerade as a child’s doll, have taken that strangeness to a new level.
‘Let dolls be dolls, please,’ Mulvaney said in a recent clip, sporting a bright, patterned dress, braided hair, bows, and colored circles on her cheeks, before spinning for the camera. ‘Let dolls be dolls, please.’
‘Let dolls be dolls, please.’ Dylan Mulvaney’s man-to-girl transition series on TikTok was always unusual, but has grown stranger in recent postings
It’s all about the merch. Mulvaney sells pink sweaters for $54 each, in her girlhood-themed range
Mulvaney currently has 10.8 million TikTok followers — which is impressive, but still not in the platform’s top 10
The sequence makes little sense. It’s just another chance for Mulvaney to dress up and repeat a mantra of transgenderism — that people can identify as anything they want, and those who disagree are unpalatable haters.
From a business perspective, however, the series makes total sense. Mulvaney was left jobless when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and the Broadway musical she starred in, The Book of Mormon, shuttered.
Since then, Days of Girlhood has been her moneymaker.
Each time Mulvaney endorses a cosmetic, credit card or fashion brand, she earns some $75,000 — and perhaps double that when posted on Instagram as well, said Assil Dayri, a social media expert and founder of AMD Consulting Group.
That adds up to as much as $1 million a year for Mulvaney, who is represented by Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency (CAA), according to estimates provided by industry insiders. CAA did not answer our emails.
The University of Pittsburgh reportedly paid $26,250 for a Mulvaney speaking appearance this month, according to the campus newspaper. She also rakes in the cash by selling pink sweaters for $54 each, in her girlhood-themed merchandise range.
Dayri praised Mulvaney for keeping fans ‘extremely engaged’ with her ‘journey and its evolution’ and winning millions of followers as she morphs into a ‘public figure, rather than a content creator.’
The hard work has paid off. Mulvaney has bought a home in Los Angeles, shot videos from a luxury resort in French Polynesia, and spent a week at the $800-per-night Plaza Hotel in New York City.
Mulvaney’s rise among social media influencers was apparent this month when Vice President Kamala Harris wrote her an anniversary letter to celebrate her ‘365th day of living authentically.’
She’d already met the boss, President Joe Biden, at the White House, in October.
She’s also appeared alongside such celebrities as Paris Hilton, Drew Barrymore and Rachel Brosnahan, the star of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
But those pairings don’t always pan out. Barrymore was slammed for kneeling at Mulvaney’s feet on her chat show. Even more embarrassing was the moment Mulvaney cajoled Laverne Cox, the trans woman star of Orange Is the New Black, into a TikTok skit.
Laverne Cox, the trans woman star of Orange Is the New Black, appeared in one of Mulvaney’s TikTok skits — an awkward appearance in which she advises the TikToker that ‘everything cannot be for the public’
In one clip, Mulvaney dresses up as Eloise, a fictional six-year-old girl living at the upscale Plaza Hotel in New York City
‘I felt like I got stung by 1,000 bees.’ One of Mulvaney’s roughest moments this past year was her ‘facial feminization surgery’ in December, which left her with ‘insane swelling’
The lack of rapport between the two women was palpable. Mulvaney repeatedly interrupted Cox at last month’s Annual Grammy Awards, as the star offered some biting advice.
‘It’s insane that you’re documenting so much of your life,’ Cox said.
‘Make sure you keep things for yourself, everything cannot be for the public.’
There may be something significant beneath the surface here.
Mulvaney has won allies in the White House and Hollywood, but she’s struggled to gain standing in the trans community, and is often described as more akin to a drag queen, a pantomime performer, or a grifter.
Her authenticity is frequently questioned. Chloe Cole, a prominent de-transitioner, famously said Mulvaney was not a ‘real trans kid.’
She underwent ‘facial feminization surgery’ in December, and described the ‘insane swelling’ from alterations to her hairline, chin, jaw, cheeks, nose, lips, and trachea.
Though painful, the surgery was cosmetic, and is seldom the first gender-affirming treatment that most male-to-female transitioners select. Mulvaney does not appear to be taking cross-sex hormones, even though she can afford them.
Mulvaney is typically theatrical and buoyant in her clips. They seldom last more than a couple of minutes, while giving viewers a brief window into her everyday life.
She features hairdressers, stylists, singing tutors, and the performers who she paid to appear at her anniversary bash at New York City’s plush Rainbow Room earlier this month.
But she seldom interacts with any real friends.
Drew Barrymore came under fire for appearing to kneel on the floor beside Mulvaney, though it later transpired that this was a frequent maneuver on the celebrity’s talk show
Mulvaney, at her one-year anniversary party at New York City’s Rainbow Room this month, holds up images of her quirky man-to-girl transition
Assil Dayri, a social media expert and founder of AMD Consulting Group, said Mulvaney was morphing into a ‘public figure, rather than a content creator’
In one scene, she complains of ‘burnout’ and of hopes to ‘reconnect with my loved ones’ as her relationships have tanked over the last year.
She laments a moribund romantic life, and says that all her matches on the exclusive dating app Raya seem to have second thoughts and reject the pairing before they even go on a date.
‘I still haven’t been kissed as a girl. And I assumed that I would have had that happen before day 365,’ Mulvaney lamented.
‘Every day, I’m realizing that probably won’t happen.’
Elsewhere, she bemoans a fan who ‘completely breached’ her trust by sharing her phone number online, which apparently led to unpleasant attacks from Mulvaney’s trolls, who run the gamut from feminists to conservatives.
Right-wingers are alarmed by Mulvaney’s runaway success among TikTok’s young, impressionable users.
In a particularly vicious diatribe, Matt Walsh, an author and commentator, recently called her a sick groomer and ‘some kind of human deep-fake.’
On the other side, many women object to Mulvaney’s shrill approximation of femininity.
Others resent a biological male stepping into their shoes, and gobbling up paid work promoting cosmetics and other feminine products.
The criticisms clearly sting Mulvaney, whose typically peppy appearances have, one year into her journey, given way to moments of despondency and despair.
‘I’m not enjoying my womanhood as much as I was,’ she said in a recent post directed at her feminist critics.
‘And my pain … is very real.’
Mulvaney received a letter from the office of Vice President Kamala Harris, celebrating her ‘365th day of living authentically’
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