Sure

...

I guess, would be a good way to put it, and just slowly building that so that first point hits and we can just explode.

And I think it worked great.

I wanna say in the semi we started up probably 10-5, and in the final similar thing, like hit the ground running.

So that was important.

His pre-game speech, um, I-- he just talked about like really buying into the relationships that we have and buying into what we've built, and that this is accumulation, this moment is accumulation of what we've been doing since the fall, and really the last, like I talked about, three years.

Sure

Cauliflower.

C-A-U-L-I-F-L-O-W-E-R?

Okay.

Aub- aubergine, A-U-B-E-R-I-G-I-N-E.

Mm-hmm.

And, and so I think those moments, I'm, I'm actually really comfortable with.

And, and even, like, being here today talking about it, like, there could be somebody listening to this that does come in with preconceived notions.

There's, there could be people that listen to your podcast that were like, "Oh, I'm not gonna listen to this episode because it's Dylan Mulvaney." And so I think I, I love that there's still an element of curiosity in people, or, like, I, I just pray that the idea of open-mindedness can survive what we're all living through and in social media enough to at least go back to the source and go back to, to real people's experiences and, and-

Mm-hmm.

And I am...

I'm reclaiming trans joy in a way that works for me, and might not work for other people, but it feels so good to be back in, in trans joy.

And I hope that other people will let, um, maybe some of them have never claimed it to begin with, but- or feel like they can't claim it, because they're not trans.

What would 28-year-old Dylan tell 25-year-old Dylan?

Oh, honey.

I would say to, um, make sure to protect yourself and, and know who to listen to and when.

I would tell her to not l- listen and read the comments because that's where a lot goes awry.

Um, but I would think, I would honestly tell her what I would tell my four-year-old self, which is, "The parts of you that people are criticizing and trying to villainize you for are the best parts of yourself and that's your hyper femininity, that's your innocence, that is your camp, that is, um, your quirks, and, and I think, and s- my softness." I think a lot of people take my, um, my kind of ease and softness and excitement towards life as infantilizing myself when really I find it to just be constantly, um, being fascinated by the world in, in a world that kind of thrives off pessimism, (laughs) what feels like in 2025.

But, um, I- I think I would, I would say that to her.

Yeah.

And- and that's, um, that was the- the first day I- I came out publicly on- on TikTok and I was doing stand up comedy in Los Angeles and I had been on hormones for a number of months.

Oh, seriously

... like, a DM from, like, a girl that just went to college that's getting her bottom surgery or a parent that, like, they watch my videos together.

And, like, that, to me, is worth it.

Like, I think so often I feel like social media and, and content creation, it's so... can feel really icky sometimes.

It can feel like it's either selfish or that you don't know if it's actually helping anyone or b- that it's potentially hurting.

You know, like, I'd, I'd never want to put something out there that's a bad representation of the trans community.

But then when you've got the dolls surrounding you and rallying behind you, and that was my big takeaway from the backlash at Beer Gate, was like, oh, I got so burned, and the trans community and the queer community were the ones waiting to pick me back up.

And keep having these ongoing conversations with yourself because I know, Dylan, you had to do that for a very long time too.

Mm-hmm.

So I was like, "Well, I guess being gay is the next best thing," so I very much was, like, this little twink running about San Diego doing musicals, and that was kind of my safe place. And I remember the coming out process just, you know, I never had that much shame about it. It was the people in the church and everything that made me feel shame, and I remember, um, in Catholic school, I went to confession when I was 14, and one of the priests, I was like the best Catholic kid, and I told the priest my, you know, very few limited sins. Maybe I cursed, you know, maybe I, um, you know, disrespected my parents, and then one of my sins had to do with being gay in some way, and he was like, "Well, I can't absolve your sins." And I thought, "Well, that's just insane 'cause everything else I've been doing right." And, and so I kind of flipped a little bit, and I, I kind of had... That was a, a very bad girl era, I guess, 'cause I, I just felt so reckless, and I knew that puberty had brought up a lot of my trans-ness in what was happening to my body, and, and I knew that it was not the body that I was supposed to be in. But I, I lived out my dream of, you know, being in a Broadway musical, and I was playing this Mormon boy, and it was this very bittersweet thing of like, "Oh, I am technically doing what I love, but it's not, something's not right." So when the pandemic hit, I started seeing... You know, on TikTok was the first place that I saw trans people. Other than, like, Laverne Cox on Orange is the New Black, I didn't know trans people, and I was seeing these amazing content creators. I was seeing non-binary people, which was kind of this other foreign idea to me, and I decided that the idea of becoming or stepping into my, my womanhood was so far away and so scary, and, and how do I get there? Then I was like, "Oh, well, non-binary doesn't sound so bad." So I, I went by they them pronouns for about a year and a half before that first Days of Girlhood video, and I, I think of that as, like, kind of like if it was, like, Super Mario Kart, I, like, hopped onto, like, a little cloud for that second before-

Yes.

I will say, it's so easy to hear the negative. It's so much louder. And I think... I now look at my life and the people that are around me, and I'm like, "This is the people that you've looked up to, the people that you've loved." I sat in my... God, this is just so weird. I just remember, like, sitting in my... I was driving up to my West Hollywood apartment listening to this podcast and thinking, "Oh, what does this life now have to bring in this new chapter?" And I want to thank you so much because... And even with the book coming out, I, I think it's going to be a lot of, of some of that negative and I have to remember that there is a community here and the one you got here is a really good one and you've cultivated that, so that's no small feat. And, and I'm proud of you and I'm proud of all of us for showing up. But I just love you and I, I can't wait to keep talking.

Mm-hmm.

Like, if, if this is what I, how I have to do boyhood, then I'm down.

Because I was in a big cast, tapping every single night, um, and making people laugh, and that was the best feeling.

And then I moved back down to San Diego with my dad, and I was like, "Okay, it's time to start my transition."

[laughs]

And he goes, "But you're an actor, aren't ya?" And I said, "Yes." And he goes, "American?" And I was like, "Yes, how do you know?" [laughs] And in that moment, and then he goes, "Are you ready?" He goes, "What are you doing tomorrow?" And I go, "I'm going to the Cliffs of Moher." And he goes, "What if I take you?" And oh, my God, my mom would've killed me if she knew that I was going to the Cliffs of Moher with a random man that I just met in a gay bar.

And it turned into the, like, seven days of the best love affair I've ever had.

Mm-hmm.

And even this was an example.

I was getting my makeup done by a really lovely gay man last week, and he was talking about, um, this transvestigation over this, um, very famous woman that, you know, all these people are claiming is a trans woman and, and all the reasons why they think she's trans.

And I had to explain to him that it was, like, deeply problematic because-You know, whether this person was trans or not, they were trying to cast her as this, like, monster or this person hiding, you know, secrets or deceiving the, the public.

Mm

... and I'm going to take it on as part of me, or I'm going to acknowledge that what they're saying is not true about myself, because I know who I am, and the people that I love know who I am," and, and let that be the, the course that you take.

And, and I actually, even just yesterday, um, I, even, that, we were talking about the Elton John party.

I w- I was interviewing people on the carpet, and I was reading all these comments about, um, "Oh, you know, this girl's so annoying.