When YouTuber NikkieTutorials came out as transgender earlier this month, she had a very specific reason for doing so: She was forced into it, she said, because she was being blackmailed.
Now, the beauty vlogger claims she knows who is blackmailing her. But she wants people to stop guessing because they might be ruining other people’s lives.
In a video posted on Tuesday, Nikkie described how it’s been a whirlwind since she reclaiming her “power,” but she wasn’t sure how to follow a coming out video that created such an online bombshell. So, the Dutch makeup artists decided to ask for peace. She said she doesn’t want people going after her blackmailer even though she knows exactly who it is.
“We need to stop the witch hunt that I’ve been seeing going around,” she said. “I’ve been seeing so many ‘truth’ videos going around saying, ‘Oh my god, this is Nikkie’s blackmailer. Oh my god, we found the guy. Oh my god, we found the girl. This and this person are Nikkie’s blackmailers.’
“How I deal with this situation, what information I would like to share, at the end of the day is my story. No other person or media outlet should be the one talking about my blackmailer when they only know half of the truth. You are destroying people’s lives that aren’t even involved in this. I ask that you stop this.”
Nikkie also said that, with the help of police, she knows who tried to blackmail her.
“I have their names, their phone numbers, email addresses,” she said. “I even know where they live and how they treated people around me to get more information on my true story. … When I found out exactly who was behind this all, I was shocked. This is not a person that any of you know. It is someone that I don’t even personally know.”
She said learning who her tormenter was frightening and freeing at the same time. Nikkie also learned something else.
“I know this will sound so stupid and weird, but with this platform that we have right here, I have the power to destroy a life,” she said. “I have the ability to not only destroy the life of my blackmailer, but also the life of his family, his kids, his friends, his surroundings … If I out this person, am I going to be doing the same as this person did to me? Do I want that? Do I need that?”
Ultimately, she said no to those last two questions because “I don’t want to lower myself to that level … I’m better than that.”
Her coming out video has earned more than 33 million views, and more than 700,000 people have joined her growing subscription base of 13.1 million in the past month. If the blackmailer wanted to shut down Nikkie’s YouTube career by blackmailing her, it seems like they’ve actually done the exact opposite.
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H/T E!