It’s been an eventful couple of days within the YouTube space, hasn’t it? Jeffree Star and his boyfriend, Nathan Schwandt, broke up after five years of dating. James Charles released a dramatic video detailing what happened in 2019 month by month. And now, Nikkie de Jager—best known as “Nikkie Tutorials” on YouTube—has news of her own.

Nikkie announced in a candid personal video on Monday that she is a transgender woman. She talked about it in a video titled “I’m Coming Out.” I fully recommend you watch the video yourself, but I must let you know that it’s filled with so many tear-jerking anecdotes about how people treated her that I nearly cried over my desk salad. You’ve been warned:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOOw2E_qAsE[/embedyt]

In the video, Nikkie said:

“When I was younger, I was born in the wrong body which means that I am transgender. It’s so surreal saying this. Filming this video is scary, but it feels so liberating and freeing. I’ve been wanting to share this side of myself to all of you for so long, but I could never figure out the timing.
I am Nikkie Tutorials, and I am Nikkie. I am me. We don’t need labels. If we are going to put labels on it—yes, I am transgender. But at the end of the day, I am me. And at the end of the day you are you.

I am here to openly share that I am transgender, and with this message I want to inspire little Nikkies around the world who feel insecure, who feel out of place, who feel misunderstood—I hope by me standing up and being free that it inspires others to do the same, to truly live your life like you want it and the way you deserve it. This world needs us. We need to accept each other. We need to respect each other, but most of all, we need to hear each other and understand.”

This is an incredibly beautiful story, though Nikkie wasn’t fully prepared to make today her actual coming out day. Because there are piece of sh*t human beings lingering on this planet, someone was blackmailing her and told her that they’d leak the information to the press. She said:
“Now, some of you may still question why in the intro I said that I didn’t think today would be the day. I’ve always wanted to share the side of my story with you, I just wanted to do it under my conditions. But apparently, we live in a world where other people hate on people that are truly themselves.
I have been blackmailed by people that wanted to “leak” my story to the press, and at first, it was frightening. It was frightening to know that there are people out there that are so evil, that they can’t respect someone’s true identity. It is vile, and it is gross. And I know you are watching this. They said they wanted to leak this because I’m lying or that I don’t want to tell my truth or because they feel like I’m too scared for people to know who I truly am, but I’m not scared.
So to the people who tried to blackmail me and thought that they could really mess up my life with that, this one’s for you. *puts up middle finger* I hope you can sit nice on it.”

While blackmail is such a terrible reason for Nikkie to come out, it’s beyond honorable that she’s living her truth. And as for that blackmailer? BRB, wishing debilitating diarrhea on them ASAP!