By 2023, Mulvaney had more than 10 million followers on TikTok,[1] while her video series,Days of Girlhood, had received over one billion views.[2] In 2023, Mulvaney received aQueerties Groundbreaker Award, aStreamy Award, andAttitude's Woman of the Year Award. She was named to theForbes 30 Under 30 list in November 2023. In 2024, Mulvaney released her debut single "Days of Girlhood" through the independent digital music distribution serviceDistroKid. In 2025, Mulvaney released her memoir,Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer.
Around the onset of theCOVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, Mulvaney began posting videos toTikTok, which usually garnered a few hundred thousand views.[4] She came out as atrans woman during the pandemic,[16][11] while living with her "very conservative family" at her childhood home in San Diego,[17] and she began to document her gender transition in a daily series of videos published on TikTok titled "Days of Girlhood" in March 2022, which began to gain in popularity.[4][18] She said in an interview:
When the pandemic hit, I was doing theBroadway musicalBook of Mormon. I found myself jobless and without the creative means to do what I loved. I downloaded TikTok, assuming it was a kids' app. Once I came out as a woman, I made this "day one of being a girl" comedic video. And it blew up. I really don't know another place online like TikTok that can make a creator grow at the rate that it does. Some of these other apps really celebrate perfection and over-editing and flawlessness. I think with TikTok specifically, people love the rawness. They love people just talking to the camera. I try to approach every video like aFaceTime with a friend.[4]
In October 2022, Mulvaney appeared withgenderfluid hairstylist David Lopez in a podcast for the cosmetics brandUlta Beauty, during which she spoke about her childhood, hercoming out as transgender, and her transition.[19][20][21] The video led to the appearance of thehashtag #BoycottUlta in Twitter'strending topics section, and Mulvaney was targeted withtransphobic comments.[22][20][21] She also became a spokesperson forKate Spade New York that year.[23]
2022–2023: Joe Biden interview and greater prominence
According toNBC News, the meeting with Biden led Mulvaney to become the target of a "vitriol campaign" by right-wing activists.[26] Republican SenatorMarsha Blackburn shared atweet in which she attached a TikTok video created by Mulvaney and said "Dylan Mulvaney, Joe Biden, and radical left-wing lunatics want to make this absurdity normal".[26][27] Conservative media personalityCaitlyn Jenner, who is also a transgender woman, wrote on Twitter that she agreed with Blackburn's remarks and called Mulvaney's video an absurdity.[25][28] In a TikTok video, Mulvaney directly addressed being misgendered by Jenner and Jenner's comments about her body, as well as what she had learned from the experience, and left a written message: "To my followers, please do not send her any hate."[29][30]
Mulvaney hosted alivestreamed variety show at theRainbow Room inMidtown Manhattan on March 13, 2023, to celebrate the first anniversary of her video seriesDays of Girlhood, entitledDylan Mulvaney's Day 365 Live!, withL Morgan Lee andReneé Rapp as guest stars.[36][37][38] An appearance onThe Drew Barrymore Show that day in which Mulvaney spoke with Barrymore about "dealing with online hate" resulted in an "onslaught of online hate" directed at Barrymore, according to theLos Angeles Times.[39][40] On Instagram, Mulvaney shared a letter from U.S. vice presidentKamala Harris congratulating her for the first anniversary of her transition.[41]
On April 1, 2023, Mulvaney promoted the beer brandBud Light in an Instagram video commemoratingMarch Madness,[27] a college basketball tournament held by theNCAA.[42][43] According toThe Washington Post, the advertisement led figures in right-wing media, such asFox News, to refer to Mulvaney in "disparaging and often in transphobic terms nearly a dozen times over the next three days".[14] Calls for aboycott of Bud Light from conservatives in response to the advertisement also followed.[27] Several Budweiser factories also received bomb threats.[44] On social media, singerKid Rock published a video of himself shooting several cases of Bud Light with asubmachine gun.[45][36][46]
Mulvaney also promoted a Nike sports bra in a sponsored post on Instagram in April 2023,[27] and in response, Olympic swimmerSharron Davies called for a Nike boycott.[47] This was shortly thereafter followed by a backlash and calls for a boycott against makeup companyMaybelline after Mulvaney posted a short video of herself applying the company's products.[48]
In response to the events, Mulvaney stated: "What I'm struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel. I just don't think that's right. Dehumanization has never fixed anything in history ever."[49] She explicitly discussed the events for the first time in a video posted in late June, speaking about the stalking and personal attacks she experienced and the lack of contact from the maker of Bud Light in view of the events.[50] She stated, "I'm not telling you this because I want your pity. I'm telling you this because if this is my experience from a very privileged perspective, know that it is much, much worse for other trans people."[51]
In August 2023, Mulvaney won her firstStreamy Award for breakout creator.[52] In October 2023, she won the Woman of the Year award from the LGBTQ magazineAttitude.[53] In November 2023, she was named to theForbes 30 Under 30 list.[54]
In December 2023, Mulvaney released a cover and music video, co-starring Kristofer Thomas, for the song "Blue Christmas".[55]
2024–present: Debut single and memoir
On March 11, 2024, Mulvaney released her debut single, "Days of Girlhood".[56] The song, produced byNick Monson and distributed by independent labelDistroKid, reached No. 1 on theGenius lyrics chart within a week of its release.[57] On March 13, 2024, Mulvaney released an official music video for "Days of Girlhood", featuring other transgenderinfluencers such asGigi Gorgeous Getty andVe'ondre Mitchell. Mulvaney promised to donate profits from the song toThe Trevor Project.[58] In May 2024, Mulvaney announced that she would debut a new solo musical act entitled "FAGHAG" atEdinburgh Festival Fringe and playing atAssembly George Square Studios from July 31 to August 25.[59] The musical satirizes her former life as a self-proclaimedtwink as well as her public life as a transgender celebrity. When speaking about the narrative of her musical, she stated "I've stopped trying to put myself into so many boxes. Especially early on, I wanted to make everything as simple and clear for people as possible, but I've realized life is a lot more complex than that."[60]
On September 25, 2024, Mulvaney announced her first bookPaper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer, set to be released on March 11, 2025, as part of a two-book deal withAbrams Image. The book documents Mulvaney's life before and after her transition via journal entries and discusses "things that [she] couldn't talk about online".[61]
Mulvaney publicly expressed on her social media platforms that she is still trying to maintain her Catholic faith despite facing discrimination within theCatholic Church.[7]
