Ingrid Nilsen Comes Out In Touching YouTube Video

Ingrid Nilsen came out as gay in her newest vlog video titled “Something I Want You To Know.”

YouTuber Ingrid Nilsen Comes Out

Nilsen, 26, has made a name for herself on YouTube, boasting over 3 million subscribers. She makes videos about makeup, hair fashion and DIY, travel advice and more. Nilsen also has 800,000 followers on Twitter and appeared as a judge on Project Runway Threads in 2014.

The beloved YouTuber released an emotional, 20-minute video on Tuesday, June 9, to come out to her fans. A clearly emotional Nilsen begins the video with her announcement, saying, “I am 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.”

Nilsen appears overcome with emotion after coming out on video, bursting into tears and saying, “It feels so good to say that!”

Nilsen said she wanted to share her story with her YouTube followers just as she has with her friends and family. Throughout the video, Nilsen runs through a few questions she has received from friends and family – When did she know? Is she sure it isn’t a phase? – and talks at length about the hard, emotional journey she has been on for as long as she can remember.

“This is not something that I chose. This is something that is a part of me and has always been a part of me,” Nilsen began.

Nilsen revealed that all the crushes she had when she was a young child were on women, and that didn’t change until she became old enough to be affected by outside influences and societal conventions. “Essentially, I grew up in an environment where homosexuality was not universally accepted. It was accepted by some, but definitely not the majority. And that was difficult, very difficult,” Nilsen said.

From a young age, Nilsen said, she had been “suppressing” her sexuality. “I felt the need to take this part of me and put it in a cabinet and lock it up really tight, and I shoved it in a corner because I, basically, was seeking love and approval.”

Nilsen also opened up about her past relationships with men, admitting that she felt guilty in her last relationship when she finally began considering coming out. “I was afraid I was being selfish, that I could just stay in this and it would be fine and okay. And I kept telling myself, ‘It’s not fair to anybody. It’s not fair to me, it’s not fair to a person that I’m in a relationship with, if I’m not giving myself fully to them,’” Nilsen said.

In the past year, the YouTube star said, she began feeling compelled to come out: “We all deserve our best chance, and it’s time for me to give myself my best chance…. I just felt that I was going to burst if I didn’t tell somebody.”

Nilsen then came out to friends and family, and, now, to YouTube and the world.

To followers or viewers who wonder if her sexuality is “just a phase,” Nilsen has this to say: “For me it’s pretty simple. This is me – sitting right here right now. This is me, and the fact that I’m gay is a part of me. From my earliest memories I have always been this way, and the part of my life where I was in a prison that was built for me and then I, at one point, took over the construction of that prison and kept the building going myself, that was the phase. Being in that prison, that was the phase.”

Nilsen encouraged her followers to allow themselves to be happy with who they are, concluding, “I want to live my life unapologetically because I’m proud of who I am and I’m not gonna apologize for who I am anymore. This is the life that I’ve always lived in my head, and now…it’s real!”

YouTubers Send Love To Ingrid Nilsen

Nilsen’s video has received over 2.5 million hits on YouTube, and has prompted an outpouring of love from fans, followers and fellow YouTube stars.

Nilsen’s ex boyfriend, supposedly the supportive ex she mentions in her video, Christopher Erwin, tweeted his support as well, writing, “so proud of u embracing ur truest self [sic].”