YouTube vlogger Ingrid Nilsen, known for doling out beauty advice to her over 3.3 million followers, came out as gay yesterday on her online channel.
Said Nilsen in an emotional 20-minute-long video that has already racked up nearly 2 million views, “Okay, I’m doing this. I guess I am just going to get right to it. There is something that I want you to know. And that something is…I’m gay. It feels so good to say that.” She added,
“I’m shaking right now because this moment is real and it’s here and I’ve been waiting for this a long time….I want to sit down and talk to you and have this conversation just as I’ve had this conversation with friends and people who are close to me in my life.”
The 26-year-old social media star said she stayed in the closet so long because she “was seeking love and approval” and grew up in an environment where being gay was not something that was “universally accepted.”
She closed the video by declaring, “I want to live my life unapologetically because I am proud of who I am and I am not going to apologize for who I am anymore. This is the life that I have always lived in my head and now it’s real.”
Watch the moving video for yourself, below:
