Trisha Paytas
Trisha Paytas said they use "they/them" pronouns in a new YouTube video.
Trisha Paytas/YouTube
  • YouTuber Trisha Paytas announced they are non-binary and use "they/them" pronouns in a new video.
  • "I'm non-binary and I have to give credit to TikTok and Gen-Z," Paytas said in the video.
  • Paytas was criticized in 2019 when they said they were a transgender man in a since-removed video.
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

YouTuber Trisha Paytas announced they are non-binary and said they use "they/them" pronouns in a new YouTube video, and they credited the TikTok community for helping them figure out their own identity.

"I'm non-binary and I have to give credit to TikTok and Gen-Z," the controversial YouTube star said in Friday's video on their vlog channel, which has more than one million subscribers. "That seems like the perfect label for me."

Paytas said they "have days where I really identify as he/him, I really identify as a man," but that "because my shell a lot of the times doesn't match that of a male, I'm more of a cis female or a girlie girl or a drag queen or whatever, people don't really understand it."

Paytas, a YouTuber, TikTok star, and podcast host, is frequently involved in drama with other creators. Earlier this month, they got in a Twitter spat with Nikita Dragun when Dragun, who is transgender, accused Paytas of being transphobic. Dragun referenced a since-deleted 2019 video in which Paytas said they were a transgender man, which many speculated was a publicity stunt of the type that Paytas has openly admitted to doing. In the new YouTube video, Paytas said that interaction with Dragun "triggered" them.

"That video was never meant to be offensive or a troll," they said of their widely criticized 2019 video. "It came across as bad and wrong and I didn't know 'non-binary' back then. I really just thought, 'I'm really a male.'"

Also on Friday, Paytas said they use they/them pronouns "at the moment" in a tweet, after commentary YouTuber Adam McIntyre asked which pronouns to use in videos about the creator.

Paytas, who is frequently vocal about their mental-health issues, said that coming to terms with their gender has been a challenge. "This is what I've been struggling with for so long: for people to accept that I am no genders and all genders at once, or at different times," they said.

Paytas said that they are typically viewed by the public as a "cis female that is heterosexual," but that they were inspired when their friend and fellow YouTube star Gigi Gorgeous recently came out as pansexual. Paytas, who has more than five million subscribers on their main YouTube channel, has also alluded to their own sexuality in the past, saying in a 2017 tweet, "I truly feel my sexuality knows no gender."

"Most of my public relationships have been with straight men, but I've been with gay men, I've been with bi men, I've been with women, I've been with trans women, and I've been with non-binary people, but they didn't realize they were non-binary because they didn't really have a label. When I was dating, there wasn't labels of they/them," they said in the video.

Paytas shared that they "finally" feel more comfortable now. "I've always just felt on the defense. It feels so nice to show myself and be understood, and people seeing me for what I want to be and who I want to be," they told viewers. "So, thank you."

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