The lonely life of trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney trends now
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,
