YouTube star Nikkie de Jager, a.k.a. NikkieTutorials, appeared on Wednesday's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show and spoke about coming out as transgender.
As fans will recall, Nikkie posted a video called "I'm Coming Out" to YouTube last week after being blackmailed.
"A couple of weeks ago, I got emails from a certain person, and he was not OK with the fact that I was lying and wanted to expose that," Nikkie told Ellen DeGeneres. "So, he had a very pressuring tone of voice, and he was like, 'If we don't get an answer by tomorrow, it's out.' I feel like his entire goal was, with this, to destroy my life. But, plot twist, that didn't happen."
Nikkie said she cried before uploading the video but received a lot of support from her fiancé, Dylan. She also said the response has been "unreal."
"I was so happy that it's 2020 and the acceptance is real," she added.
At one point during the interview, DeGeneres asked the beauty guru at what age she knew she was in the wrong body.
"To me, I just always was so confused," Nikkie recalled. "I was like, 'Why do I have to wear that, or why don't I have long hair?'"
She also expressed her gratitude for her mom.
"Even when we went to the hospital to see what was going on, doctors were like, 'Don't push it too far. Let's see where it goes.' But then I came home and I was like, 'Mom, I really want to wear girl clothes.' And she was like, 'If you want to wear girl clothes, you're going to wear them'—even though doctors were like, 'You might want to wait with that a bit,'" Nikkie said.
Nikkie said she had "always wanted to come out" but knew it was "such a delicate thing."
"There's never the perfect timing," she said. "So, in a way, because I'm not thankful to the person who did this, I am thankful that it happened now. Now, I get to be free."
She also expressed her hope to inspire others in the transgender community.
"As long as I get to be myself and inspire little Nikkies to be theirselves, that's all I can do," she said.
At the end of the interview, DeGeneres surprised Nikkie by donating $10,000 to the Trevor Project in the YouTuber's name.
Watch the video to see the full interview.