Gender Diversity - Inspirational Trans & Nonbinary People

Nikkie De Jager

Nikkie De Jager, a.k.a. NikkieTutorials, is a Dutch makeup artist and beauty vlogger. A 4-part series on YouTube looks into her struggles, successes, and coming out.

Kim Petras

German singer and songwriter Kim Petras is the pop queen behind bops like 'Heart to Break', 'Icy', and 'Broken Glass'.  Ahead of the 2020 U.S. election, she worked with MTV, LogoTV, and Trans Lifeline on a campaign to provide grant money for trans people to update their IDs.

Chella Man

Chella Man is an artist, activist and model who openly  shares his experiences as someone who is part of the deaf and trans community. He recently launched a jewellery collection designed to accentuate hearing devices and cochlear implants.

Trevi Moran

Trevi Moran went viral on YouTube in the early 2010s, when she used to perform songs at the Apple Store. Trevi later found fame as part of the YouTube collab channel 'Our 2nd Life' (a.k.a O2L), and released several pop songs like 'Slay', 'Echo', and 'Faces'. Now, she's come into to her own as a pop singer and personality, opening up to a million plus YouTube subscribers about addiction, rehab, and her gender identity journey. Trevi came out in 2020 by posting a video to her YouTube channel, which has over 1.4 million subscribers. "I've dealt with this feeling my entire life, and I know that I’m a woman deep down inside". 

Zaya Wade

On any given day, 15-year-old Zaya Wade is rocking bright colored hair, interviewing Michelle Obama on IG and teaching her parents Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union how to be the best allies. "She has emerged as one of the young faces and voices for the LGBTQ+ community", her dad wrote in an Instagram post from the 2020 Truth Awards, her first red carpet appearance.

Quinn

Quinn publicly came out as trans via a heartfelt Instagram post in 2020. The mid-fielder played with the Canadian women's soccer team and won a bronze medal in the 2016 Olympics in Rio. "I want to be visible to queer folks who don't see people like them on their feed", they wrote. "I know it saved my life years ago".

Nicole Maines

She plays a superhero as a series regular on CW's 'Supergirl'. She made history when she was cast as the first transgender superhero on television. She was the anonymous plaintiff in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court case Doe v. Regional School Unit 26. In that case, she argued her school district could not deny her access to the female bathroom for being transgender. The court ruled in 2014 that barring transgender students from the school bathroom consistent with their gender identity is unlawful, the first such ruling by a state court.

Jazz Jennings

When Jazz Jennings was 6 years old, she went on '20/20' and talked to Barbara Walters about being transgender. Since then, she's been a fearless LGBTQ+ activist and has brought the world along with her transition on TLC’s 'I Am Jazz'. Jazz has helped bring transgender representation to the mainstream.

Sasha Allen

Sasha Allen is the first openly trans person to have made it past the battle rounds on NBC's singing competition, 'The Voice', in all seasons of the reality show. Sasha is part of the father-son folk duo, Jim and Sasha, and competed on Ariana Grande's team in season 21. 

Ethel Cain

Raised in an extremely religious Christian family, Cain eventually got into pop culture and pop music. At 20, Cain came out as trans on Facebook. That same week, she discovered a piano loop that inspired her to write the song 'A House in Nebraska', which was the seed for an entire project spanning "three albums, three books and three movies tracing three generations of women," as reported in The New York Times.

Ian Alexander

At only 21, Ian Alexander has been breaking ground on TV for years now. Alexander, who used to identify as a trans man but now identifies as transmasculine and uses they/he pronouns, appeared on 'The OA' as Buck. They also play Gray in the third season of Paramount+'s 'Star Trek: Discovery'. 

Indya Moore

In 2019, Time named Indya Moore one of its 100 most influential people. Today, Moore identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns. "My choice to identify as nonbinary - though I typically express in femme ways". Moore often uses their platform to speak out about the struggles faced by the transgender community. In 2020, they created TranSanta, a social media campaign which works to give presents to trans youth.

Check out some ideas about coping with gender dysphoria - written for young people

Watch a video series from InsideOUT celebrating the diversity of the rainbow community