- My name is Kheris Rogers,
and I was being bullied for my dark skin complexion.
I turned a negative into a positive
by making a clothing line, called Flexin' In My Complexion.
And, it's blowing up.
Now my family and I are going around speaking
to other kids who are also being bullied,
but came out stronger.
This is Beyond Bullied.
We're gonna go meet C.J.
He is a gender fluid 11-year-old
who got a lot of attention last year
when James Woods tweeted some mean things about him.
Who's James Woods?
No, I really don't know who he is, who is he?
Now he's going to be the youngest Grand Marshall
at the Orange County Pride Parade.
You go C.J., you better slay 'em.
We're going to go see C.J. to make sure
he has everything for his big day.
Hi.
- Hi, so excited that you guys are here.
- [Kheris] I'm so excited to be here.
- How are you? - I'm Lori.
C.J., I have a surprise.
- Hi! - Hi!
- I'm Kheris.
- [C.J.] Hi, nice to meet you.
- Hi, I'm Taylor, I'm Kheris' sister.
- Hey C.J., I'm Erika, Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, too.
- Have fun, you guys.
- Bye. - Bye.
- [Kheris] Okay, so show me some of your makeup.
- Beauty blenders, moisturizer, there's a lot of stuff.
When I grow up, I want to be a make-up artist.
- I can learn a thing or two about makeup from C.J.
We have so much in common!
I love makeup, we were both bullied, we both love sparkles.
- I love sparkles so much.
- So let's talk, how was your experience with bullying?
- I had two best friends, and then they said,
their family's not accepting of gay people or anything,
so they started being mean and talking about me.
And then one day after science lab,
my friend shoved me into a wall.
- Wow.
- But, now, I have so many nice, supportive friends
that are always there for me.
- I went through a lot of bullying,
and I didn't take it so well.
It started when I was in first grade.
- That's young.
- Yeah. I didn't have no confidence.
After it started getting worse,
that's when I told my mom,
and then she started giving me
powerful words to look in the mirror
and tell myself that I'm beautiful,
I am gorgeous no matter what,
and it doesn't matter what anybody says about me.
- My parents have always told me
to always be myself, no matter what,
and then treat people the way you want to be treated.
And, they're just very supportive of me, and I love that.
- I love your parents already.
There was an incident where I went to Back to School night,
and they had done self-portraits.
And Kheris' portrait was, you know,
colored with a black crayon.
She's like, "Well, that's the crayon
that the teacher gave me."
And she was very quiet, this little, timid, little girl that
- Just holding all of her emotions in, basically.
She was in the fashion show, and I did her hair
and got her dressed and her makeup.
I took a picture, and it just immediately went viral
on Twitter, and then she saw all the comments,
like, Oh my God, I love your skin,
I love your hair, and stuff.
- Get some of that confidence back.
- Yeah, and so I let her read the comments,
and she was like, oh my God,
people really think this about me?
- During the bullying,
we felt like he was this withering flower,
and now we've seen him kind of burst out of that,
and blossom, and have all these opportunities.
- You know, he's really come into his own
with his confidence, and, you know, inspiring others.
Especially other boys that, like,
Hey, it's okay to love makeup and love hair
and love unicorns and rainbows.
- I am so excited to surprise C.J. with a trip to LA
to go meet one of the top makeup artists in the business.
- [AJ] Hey!
- [The Girls] Hi!
- What's going on, how are you?
- Hi, nice to meet you, my name's C.J.
- C.J., AJ, nice to meet you.
- Hi, I'm Kheris.
- Kheris, you're so beautiful.
- And I'm Taylor.
- Taylor, nice to meet you, too.
Come on in, let's go, I am so excited,
so this is the AJ Crimson Beauté Atelier, welcome.
- [Kheris] It's nice in here.
- [AJ] So, you guys love makeup?
- [The Girls] Yeah.
- So, how did you two meet?
- Today.
- Kheris had mentioned you had been bullied.
Tell me about that.
- Well, I had two best friends,
and then they started, like, being mean to me,
and talking about me.
- Really?
- Being physical with me.
- Oh, wow. How did that make you feel?
- Not good.
- We have to close our ears and our minds
to people that don't really understand,
what our journey is, and where we wanna go,
and it's not for everybody to understand all the time,
but as long as you're confident in that message,
and confident in what you want to present to the world,
then you're doing the best you can do for you.
I want to see some of your makeup skills.
So, are you excited about being the Grand Marshall tomorrow?
- I'm very excited for the glitter.
- Okay, Well, what goes on Like, what happens?
- The Pride is mainly for, like, one day people
can express themselves in makeup and hair.
And they all can be themselves, and no one will judge them.
I'm very excited.
- [Interviewer] So C.J., your mom told me
that you're giving a speech?
- Yes, I am.
- [Interviewer] So tell me your speech.
Recite your speech for me.
- The whole thing?
- [Interviewer] Yeah!
- Thank you so much for this honor,
and for letting me be your Grand Marshall.
I definitely had a lot of ups and downs this year,
but the things that got me through this year are:
being myself, being proud of who I am,
having a supportive community,
and having a loving family that is always there for me.
My family has helped me so much this year,
and it makes me so sad that some LGBTQ people
don't have supportive families,
and they have to hide who they are,
because, if they show who they really are,
they might end up with no one that loves them.
We need to be proud of who we are
and use our pride to make a difference.
We need to always be ourselves
and keep going until we all are treated equally.
We need to show everyone that we are fun, strong,
colorful, brave, smart, loving, and best of all, proud.
We are the rainbow in the dark sky.
Let's try to erase the dark and turn it into a rainbow.
Thank you.
- [Crowd] Be yourself!
Be yourself!
- ♪ Go C.J., go C.J., go! ♪
♪ Go C.J., go C.J., go! ♪
How are you going to turn your dark cloud into a rainbow?
♪ Soulpancake! ♪