Dylan Mulvaney burst onto the scene as a TikTok star, but what made her most famous was controversy. The trans influencer and performer was targeted after appearing in a campaign for Bud Light in 2023.
In her new memoir, “Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer,” Mulvaney shares journal entries documenting the first year of her gender transition.
“I think of the book as like a quarter life crisis. But at the end of the day, I think it has a lot more heart than social media ever can have,” Mulvaney said.
Her TikTok series “Days of Girlhood” became a viral sensation, attracting more than one billion views. As her profile grew, the 28-year-old became a regular on red carpets.
Mulvaney said she knew her gender identity from an early age.
“I knew I was a girl. That was one of the purest thoughts and intentions I’ve ever had throughout my entire life was to be brought into this world and to, so clearly, know who I was, and then to be told otherwise, is very conflicting,” she said.
She first came out as gay at 14, but it took another decade to embrace her identity as a trans woman.
“I settled into the identity as gay because that was all I saw around me,” she explained.
In 2023, Mulvaney joined celebrities partnering with Bud Light for a social media campaign. Her content was singled out by conservatives, leading to widespread backlash and boycotts. Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, saw its revenue fall by more than 10% after the campaign was released.
“It took a lot to not feel guilty about that experience because I felt like it was my fault. And that me taking this one brand deal was affecting trans people globally,” Mulvaney said. “I think extremists and transphobic media needed a poster child, but I would’ve never done anything or taken any deal that I thought could negatively impact me or the community.”
The experience affected her mental health, she said.
“It resulted in a lot of suicidal ideation and dissociation,” Mulvaney said. “I’m still battling with some of that guilt and that shame, and that dysphoria that was projected onto me during that time.”
Her new book comes amid renewed debate over transgender rights in the U.S. Last month, a group of transgender people filed a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s executive order that halted gender marker changes on passports.
For Mulvaney, the executive order doesn’t change how she feels.
“I’m a woman no matter what my passport says. We are not hurting anyone,” she said. “We’re less than 1% of the population. And the way that they speak about us so often is as if we’re taking over cities like Godzilla.”
“I am now realizing that this is life or death for a lot of people,” she added. “I want every trans person in this country to have the opportunity to thrive. And unfortunately, we’re living in a time where it is very hard to do so.”
