(upbeat techno music)
- All right, Miss Kim.
Pop star, icon,
- Whop-Ah! - Diva.
- I love!
- Okay, wait, your question is,
how do you see your role in the LGBTQ+ community,
thinking of all the people that follow you,
and look up to you, what's one thing
you want to be known for?
- Bops
- [Nikita] Bops.
I really want to be known for bops.
- That's all I want to be known for.
- Um, I love making songs.
It's my number one passion in life.
My, like, favorite thing about what I do is just like,
people forgetting about their problems
when they listen to my music
- Oh, yeah.
- Before transitioning,
were there any YouTube creators that
helped you share your journey online?
- I've always been obsessed with YouTube.
- Same. - Like.
I definitely was on YouTube way too early,
I feel like I was just a little,
too like, green and innocent to be like going
as in as I was with all the questions that I had.
What about you, did you watch like, a lot of YouTube?
- I did watch a lot of YouTube,
but I feel like that was already like,
a little after I already like started transitioning.
It was really like TV stuff. - Cause you started--
You started young.
- Yeah, yeah, I was like twelve.
Oh wow. - I cannot relate.
I wish.
Prior to listening to your music, like
I didn't know like, that's what like,
was like one of your first like fame moments,
was like the fact that you were so young.
- Yeah, I don't know.
I was just always like, yo,
I am a girl, mom and dad.
(Kim laughing)
Like, I was, like really confident about that.
Like I think since I was a kid.
To me it was never as crazy as like people
- Thought it was - see it,
you know do you feel the same way?
- No, I agree, I thought it was like
I was going through the motions,
I was like, you guys like I'm fine,
like, It's really not that big of a deal.
- Yeah. - Like, my parents,
I was like don't worry about me,
I'm gonna do it on my own, like.
- My parents were just super supportive.
So my mom had a dance studio,
she's a dance teacher,
and she had prior to that had, like a couple like,
people she danced with - Oh, okay.
- That were trans, so
- Oh my god that helps
- She like, knew about being trans,
and she started talking to family friends about it
and they were like, yeah,
the earlier the better.
- I mean that's what kinda
I hadn't wrapped my head around with my parents
cause I feel like, you know,
their biggest actual concern was like not even like
me being trans, it was more so like my safety,
- Yeah
- they were so scared of like,
people saying stuff or like doing stuff.
We see like so much awful stuff happening in the media
like, around the world
- Yeah
- To like young trans youth,
so I think when they finally realized that you know,
me as a person is not changing,
if anything I'm becoming more of who I am,
- Yeah
- And they're not like technically losing a child,
cause I feel like that's how
like, they kind of looked at it for a second.
- Yeah
- And then everything like, really pieced together.
But it's a transition for everybody, around you,
you know, it's not going to happen overnight.
- Yeah, I mean I think school is like the hardest part
if your transitioning young or if you're transgender,
and I think school is like a big reason why a lot of people
don't transition young, because like they're scared
of other people reacting to that.
- During your transition,
did you ever worry that you weren't ready,
or had to prove that you were
girl enough to be trans?
- Yeah, I felt like that all the time.
I felt like I really had to be like,
extra extremely girly to make like people like
- See you as a woman.
- Yeah yeah, to see me as a girl
and to believe I'm actually trans,
so that kind of sucked as a kid
just because like, I'm trans,
doesn't mean I have to be
like the girliest person on the planet.
- Yeah, absolutely.
- You know, so I was definitely like,
felt pressure to overdo everything
and it kind of felt a little bit like an act,
just like being to everyone like, I'm a girl,
I really need to prove this.
- Oh I felt that too.
- I think that's like the beginning of being trans
then after a while you become more comfortable and
you just like,
you know you're like,
either you accept me as a girl or you don't.
My advice for younger kids that are going
through the same thing
would just be to like hold on,
it's normal to feel that way
- [Nikita] I know. - and to feel
really confused and to
worry and to go through all the emotions (laughing)
you know.
- But I think like when I finally just
came to the conclusion of like okay,
if I accept myself and like this is who I am
- [Kim] Yeah. - and I'm like
dead strong and like, you know
that's just me,
- [Kim] Totally.
- Then, you know, no one else is going to
be in my life and try to say anything else,
and if they do try to say anything else than you know,
(beep) them, like, they don't need to be in my life.
- I just think a lot of people just like get it wrong
they're just like, oh you just want to get like
comments, or people saying
You're hot - Yeah!
- or you know like, all of that stuff
and at the end of the day it's really about yourself
- Yeah.
- and you're matching your outside to your inside.
- Okay Miss Kim, who was some of your pop inspirations
while going through all of this?
- Um, always Madonna
- Really?
- Madonna is my like absolute favorite of all time
I think like, nobody did it quite like her.
I think she's just like, incredible.
And like the s#!t she did for like, the LGBTQ community.
- Crazy.
- I love Lana Del Ray. - Of course.
- Like a little like, sad girl moment.
- Yeah.
- I'm obsessed.
Lady Gaga, when she came out - Of course.
- was huge for me,
I feel like she was the first person to like,
ever mention transgender in like
- A song in general. - A number one song.
- Also what's been inspiring these like, new songs?
- I got my heart like, crushed, like cheated on.
- Oh.
- Which sucks
- I can relate.
- No.
So that was my initial inspiration for
writing these new songs.
Like "Broken", "All I Do Is Cry", and just
like, kind of that sad little trilogy,
- Yeah
- But then that kind of also led to me
like, going out, and so then I wrote like
"Got my Number" and then I wrote, "Do Me"
and "Sweet Spot".
Like there's going to be more songs dropping,
- Okay. - But it's leading up to
something but who knows.
It's a surprise.
- Hmm!
(Nikita laughing)
- All right, so do you feel like it was hard breaking
into the beauty community as a transgender woman?
- I would say yes, because I initially started it
without really telling anyone cause I just didn't
feel comfortable and I wasn't there in
that place in my journey to talk about it,
and I just wanted to talk about makeup
and my transformation and everything
and since so a lot of people just thought like
yo, this chick is like,
crazy like. - Yeah.
- She starts out like looking like a troll,
and then all of a sudden she ends up looking like this.
Like damn, like I need to know whatever she's doing
cause I clearly need it in my life.
But then it was actually kind of like
the beauty community pushed me to be honest
because before I truly didn't tell anybody
and it was always a question, you know,
people were commenting about it.
Finally I kind of just opened up about it
and instead of just focusing so much on beauty
I started focusing on my actual journey
as a trans women and--
- Yeah which is amazing
- Thank you, from beginning to end or not even end,
but continuing it's such a crazy process.
Do you personally see yourself as a gay pop icon?
- Yeah, I'm hella gay. - Me.
- I feel like I have like a gay man in me,
I love all my like gay fans,
like they're my family.
- [Nikita] Yeah. - I really feel like
they've like given me so much.
I feel like before-- - It's like your community.
- Totally, I feel like before I met them
I was really insecure and like,
didn't really like myself and I thought nobody
would listen to me,
that's kind of why I was a songwriter first.
- There's so many of your songs that if you
just literally play in the club like,
the (beep) go the (beep) off.
(Kim laughing)
You are literally a gay icon.
- Yeah, I'm gay as hell.
So there's your answer.
(laughing)
Lets talk about Dragun Beauty.
- Yes. - Who is it for?
How did your own journey
shape the idea of Dragun Beauty?
- Damn, these are such good questions!
So Dragun Beauty was actually like
this crazy idea that I had,
I at the time was being approached
by a lot of makeup brands to star and collab
and do like, eyeshadow pallets, lipsticks.
I mean we've seen like every influencer under the sun,
no shade, um, you know do collabs with great makeup brands
- For sure
- and a lot of them were asking me to do it,
and I was like, you know what, nothing is going to be
so me, unless I do it myself.
So I had the opportunity and the ability to
create this (beep) Dragun egg,
which by the way, hold on,
- You got one?
- This is actually your Dragun egg, b!*#$.
- Oh my god, yes!
- This is your Dragun egg.
- Oh my god thank you so much! (screaming)
- She was too busy on tour so I couldn't personally
(screaming) deliver it in the lambo,
but that's your Dragun egg
(screams)
(both scream)
Oh my God. - Thank you so much.
- Yeah so, the whole idea behind it is transformation.
So I basically wanted to create a dragon egg
that I wish I could've given to myself
like three years ago when I started my transition.
So inside is like my color corrector which for me,
I have like, really bad five o'clock shadow around
the mouth, and like really bad under eye dark circles and
- Same
- just really gross things, and then obviously I made
these transformation face powders which
the idea behind that was I wanted to just look like FaceTune
in real life because definitely I do not look the same
without makeup like I do with makeup but
- Same.
- what I do look like with makeup you can achieve.
It's wild to think that this is the first
trans-owned beauty brand.
- Yeah! It's insane!
- I wasn't kind of coming up in the pop world
as a trans artist.
- There were some people in meetings who were like
I can't work with you because I'm going to hell if I do.
Like that literally happened here in LA,
like at a really major big record label.
In the beginning it was like a lot of people being like
oh you're using your journey to become a singer.
Which is like super far from true because like,
I put out like, my first song like,
not even me on the cover,
just like the neon head. - Yeah.
- Without me ever mentioning me being transgender.
I kind of wasn't talking about it that much cause
I didn't want it to overshadow like my music
- The music.
- Yeah totally, - Your music.
- and then people started saying
oh she doesn't support the trans community
and you know it's just like--
- You can never win.
- Especially since like, it did come with challenges
and people were like oh stay a songwriter for other people
because like, nobody wants to listen to a trans girl.
You know like, so balancing that was really hard,
especially since I love the trans community
- Of course.
- and I like always want to inspire and
I always want to lift people up.
- Of course!
What impact do you think internet culture
is having on the LGBTQ+ community?
- It sounds so like,
crazy to talk about how it was before the internet.
- Yeah
- because like, everybody is connected.
I think the LGBTQ community especially because
- Yeah.
- if you're a little like country bumpkin
like me, just like, middle of nowhere like you can like
go on Twitter and friggin' like
find people who are just like you
and have the same interests and stand the same pop girls.
I don't think without the internet
I could be an independent artist.
- Wow.
- You know I think I'd be like an artist that's
shelved and at a major record label,
not able to put out anything. - That's crazy.
- Have you run into any obstacles being LGBTQ+ on YouTube?
- Absolutely.
I think for a while I struggled with the idea of like,
you know, I want to be so much more than
just a trans person.
Obviously I am a trans person, I am a trans woman.
But the same time I am just a woman in general.
- Yeah, totally.
- And I think that I want to be just viewed as that.
- I think just like that balance in general
is so hard. - It's hard. It's really hard.
- Of wanting to represent for trans girls,
but at the same time not just wanting to be that.
- That's just your overall thing.
- Yeah because like gender and sexuality
doesn't define a person.
- Sometimes people are like how do you open a door
as a trans person, and I'm like,
I dunno I just like, open the door.
Like, how do you go to the bathroom,
like I don't know I just go, you know?
- [Kim] Yeah.For sure. - Like it becomes
I think when
you know the outside forces like come into it,
they just become so zero focused on
the idea of like you know the surgeries of like,
- Yeah. - you know?
- Our dating life, and all this stuff.
And I was like, okay well what about you know
the different products that I'm working on,
what about me being a CEO, what about me you know,
having a cosmetics line?
- We're doing it
- We're doing it!
- We're really out here doing it.
- Out here (beep) doing it.
- Yeah
- Yes
- Thank you guys so much for watching this video
with my girl over here Miss Kim Petras and I
- Thank you guys so much.
- We hope that you guys share your
authentic stories, your journeys, your life
your fantasies, everything else in between.
Happy Pride!
- Happy Pride! Yes!
Woo- ahh
- That!
Love you, bye!