Nikita Dragun

About

Nikita Dragun is an American YouTuber, makeup artist, entrepreneur and model who is known for being candid about her personal life as a trans woman. Dragun began posting makeup and hair tutorial videos in 2014 and rose to fame the next year for coming out to her fans and since then has launched her own makeup products and attended exclusive events like the 2019 VMAs.

Online History

On October 14th, 2015, Nikita Dragun uploaded her first YouTube video titled "How To Get SILVER Hair" (shown below, left). The video has gained over 424,400 views and 3,400 likes in five years. On December 28th, 2015, Nikita Dragun's subscriber count jumped when she uploaded the video "I Am TRANSGENDER" in which she comes out to her fans (shown below, right). The video accumulated over 2.3 million views and 50,000 likes in four years.

On March 31st, Nikita Dragun uploaded one of her most popular videos in which she asks strangers about what they think of trans people in which she amassed over 7.2 million views in a year (shown below, left). As of September 2019, Dragun's most popular video was "My Boyfriend Takes My Makeup and Wig Off" (shown below, right). The video has garnered over 9.2 million views and 246,000 likes in a year.

In 2019, Nikita Dragun launched Dragun Beauty. On April 19th, 2019, ET Style interviewed Dragun about her beauty products (shown below). That year she had been interviewed by Forbes^[2] and Paper Magazine.^[6]

VMA Leashes

On August 26th, 2019, MTV broadcasted the 2019 MTV Video Awards and updated fans with tweets upon guest arrivals. That night they tweeted a video of Nikitia Dragun walking the red carpet with three men on leashes crawling (shown below). The tweet garnered over 21,300 likes and 3,100 retweets in two days.

The next day, Dragun defended her choice of bring along three hired men on leashes despite being called racist and trashy. In one tweet she stated, "reverse sexism? sexism is prejudice + power. men are the dominant gender with power in society. my VMAs outfit was a statement on me as a woman taking that power. might i add with consenting paid male models. help me understand how i’m sexist towards men? make it make sense."^[3] (shown below, left). She also continued in conversation with those commenting negatively on her posts (shown below, center).^[4] Finally she posted a photo of herself at the VMAs to Instagram^[5] which gained over 725,200 likes and included a long statement defending her actions:

"i wish i could’ve told my younger self i would be walking down the #vmas red carpet and that it’s okay to dream big despite what everyone says. this has truly been a dream come true. growing up a little boy in springfield virginia to now a big girl living her hollywood dreams! “why is she at the VMAs” because i’m a bad bitch that’s why. i know everyone has had plenty to say about my look but i’m glad. i wanted to make a statement on the power of the woman. it makes people uncomfortable and some might say ReVeRse SeXisM… but sexism is prejudice + power. men are the dominant gender with power… and it’s time women take back that power. xoxo Nikita Dragun"

Cultural Appropriation Accusations

On September 7th, 2019, Nikita Dragun posted a picture of herself modeling a box braid wig to her Instagram^[1] account to show "appreciation" for the black women in her life. The post gained over 704,200 likes in four days (shown below).

Her post was immediately met with criticism in the comments (shown below). Many people accused her of cultural appropriation. That day, according to the BBC^[11], Dragun posted to her Instagram stories defending herself and saying "I would never want to offend anybody. Being part Native American, we also have braids and stuff like that."

Reputation

On February 1st, 2013, Nikita Dragun joined YouTube^[8] and gained over 2.5 million subscribers in six years. As of September 2019, she has amassed over 5.5 million followers on Instagram^[7] and one million followers on Twitter.^[9]

Personal Life

In 1996, Nikita Dragun was born in Springfield, Virginia and raised by her Vietnamese father and Mexican mother.^[10] She moved to Los Angeles in 2015. ^[6]

Search Interest

External References