Inside the life of NikkieTutorials, a beauty YouTuber who was recently robbed at gunpoint

nikkietutorials

NikkieTutorials has more than 12 one thousand thousand subscribers on YouTube.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
  • Nikkie de Jager is a 26-year-old makeup artist and YouTuber who's more commonly known by her screen proper noun, NikkieTutorials.
  • She hails from Wageningen, Netherlands, and began posting makeup tutorials online in 2008. She at present has more than 12.4 1000000 subscribers and is the first global artistry adviser for Marc Jacobs.
  • De Jager has likewise collaborated with brands like Ofra Cosmetics and given makeovers to celebrities like Lady Gaga and Ashley Graham.
  • In an emotional YouTube video posted in January, de Jager came out every bit a transgender adult female.
  • Visit Insider'south homepage for more than stories.

With more than than 12 1000000 subscribers on YouTube, NikkieTutorials is undoubtedly ane of the about popular and love beauty influencers in the world.

Nikkie de Jager started sharing makeup tutorials online in 2008 and has gone on to achieve major success in the beauty industry. She's given makeovers to celebrities like Lady Gaga and released beauty products with brands similar Ofra Cosmetics.

De Jager likewise came out as a transgender woman via a YouTube video in Jan, inspiring her millions of fans to experience comfortable being themselves. Here's a look inside the dazzler YouTuber'southward whirlwind journey from makeup enthusiast to worldwide star.

De Jager is a 26-year-old beauty YouTuber from the Netherlands who has been uploading tutorials since 2008.

NikkieTutorials is from Wageningen, Netherlands.
NikkeTutorials/YouTube

De Jager was built-in on March 2, 1994, and grew up in a Dutch municipality called Wageningen.

When asked in a 2011 interview with Teen Vogue how long she'd been into makeup, she replied, "For effectually three years at present, and I am withal loving it every single day." She published her first YouTube video, "Makeup Tutorial; My showtime official Await for YT," in 2008.

De Jager began taking professional makeup classes after starting her YouTube channel.

De Jager on YouTube in June 2010.
NikkieTutorials/YouTube

Because being a YouTuber wasn't a feasible career option in 2008, de Jager pursued professional makeup classes with the artist Pascale Tesser in 2010.

The classes led her to join Tesser'southward Colourfool Agency in 2011, which later provided her with makeup jobs at international Goggle box shows and magazines such as Marie Claire.

In 2014, nevertheless, she went freelance and was able to dedicate her efforts to YouTube full time.

She went viral after posting a makeup transformation video in May 2015.

De Jager in a YouTube video published in May 2015.
NikkieTutorials/YouTube

In a 2015 video titled "The Power of MAKEUP!" de Jager said an episode of "RuPaul'due south Drag Race" inspired her to evidence her followers but how drastically yous can change your appearance with makeup.

On the left side of her face, she used ten dazzler products, including the Urban Decay Naked Skin concealer and the Too Faced Chocolate Bar center-shadow palette. On the right side, she used none.

De Jager has gone by NikkieTutorials online for years.

De Jager at a beauty convention in Germany on March 10, 2018.
Tristar Media/Getty Images

De Jager told Teen Vogue in 2011 that she one time had a YouTube channel called "something like GlamourGirlx3" but knew she wanted a proper name that sounded "more than professional person."

"I had to alter the name," de Jager told Teen Vogue. "Since I knew dazzler videos were called tutorials, I thought, 'Why non simply take my proper noun and put 'tutorials' afterward it?' That's how 'NikkieTutorials' was born."

De Jager released her showtime collaboration dazzler products in 2016.

De Jager showcasing her Too Faced collaboration in a 2016 YouTube video.
NikkieTutorials/YouTube

On July 25, 2016, de Jager announced in a YouTube video that she'd collaborated with Likewise Faced Cosmetics on a limited-edition makeup line. The collection included an eye-shadow palette, eyeliner, eye-shadow primer, purple mascara, and a loose glitter.

One year afterward, the collaboration led to a bitter feud with Too Faced and the YouTuber makeup mogul Jeffree Star.

De Jager and Star fought later her Too Faced collaboration.
NikkieTutorials/YouTube

In April 2017, according to Revelist, Star posted a Snapchat rant in which he spoke negatively virtually the As well Faced founder Jerrod Blandino. He also expressed frustration with the founder on Twitter and hinted at a feud between the brand and de Jager.

A YouTube drama channel, Hither for the Tea, fabricated a video most the situation that calendar month and included screenshots of Star'southward now-deleted tweets. Information technology likewise featured an exclusive statement from Star.

According to the drama channel, de Jager was paid a $50,000 apartment rate for a collaboration that sold over 150,000 $56 products, equaling nigh $8.4 million in revenue. And though she was supposed to exist paid after half-dozen months — during which she wasn't allowed to work with other brands — de Jager was reportedly paid by Likewise Faced after ix months.

De Jager spoke about the controversy for the first time in Oct 2019 afterwards Shane Dawson released a YouTube docuseries with Star.

She wrote on Twitter: "I signed my contract with TF back and then because I was naive & didn't know better. At the stop of the mean solar day, I signed it, it'south my own fault — merely what I'll never forgive is that 'allegedly' they changed the palette's quality behind my back. 1000'southward of negative reviews & I was clueless."

Representatives for Too Faced did not immediately reply to Insider'due south request for comment.

Likewise in 2017, de Jager won a Shorty Honour.

De Jager poses with her Shorty Award on April 23, 2017.
Eugene Gologursky/Stringer/Getty Images

The Shorty Awards are held each year to honor the "best of social media," according to its website. Notable winners include Taylor Swift and Michelle Obama.

In April 2017, de Jager took habitation the laurels for all-time YouTube guru. In her acceptance speech, the YouTuber said she was bullied throughout much of her babyhood and idea she would "never f---ing brand information technology." She dedicated her laurels to "the haters" and "the bullies."

De Jager was named the first-e'er global artistry adviser for Marc Jacobs Dazzler in January 2019.

De Jager notwithstanding works closely with Marc Jacobs Beauty.
Eugene Gologursky/Stringer/Getty Images

The office requires de Jager to work with the brand on production development, social-media content, and makeup artistry around the earth.

In a argument shared with Attraction terminal twelvemonth, de Jager said she chose to work with the brand considering it takes a similar arroyo to beauty equally she does.

"I've always believed that makeup is a form of cocky-expression and in that location is no shame in experimenting with it," de Jager told Allure. "Marc Jacobs shares a like 'shameless' approach to dazzler, which I and then admire, and I chop-chop fell in love with his beauty products when I was first sent the Re(marc)able Full Cover Foundation Concentrate a few years ago.

"Since and then, I've consistently loved using Marc Jacobs Dazzler products and information technology was later on attending Marc's Fashion Calendar week show last spring that we decided to explore how, and what, nosotros could beautifully create together," she connected.

For her first video of 2020, de Jager came out as a transgender woman.

De Jager speaking about her life as a transgender adult female in a new YouTube video.
NikkieTutorials/YouTube

She shared her journey for the get-go fourth dimension in a 17-infinitesimal video during which she said she knew since babyhood that she was a girl. The YouTuber said she started hormone treatments and growth stoppers at xiv years erstwhile and had fully transitioned by the time she was 19.

She thanked her fans and her mother for supporting her.

"Growing up, I think the No. 1 thing I'm the near thankful for is my mom — dearest you, Mom — because she has been there for me since day one," she said.

De Jager said she chose to upload the video subsequently being blackmailed past people who threatened to leak her story to news outlets.

"I am me. I am however Nikkie. Nothing changes nigh that," de Jager said. "The last thing I want in my life is for yous to not trust me anymore, or to wait at me with different eyes, or look at me in a different manner, or think that I accept inverse."

She added: "This feels liberating and freeing, simply I, at the end of the day, am still Nikkie."

The YouTuber received thousands of encouraging messages from influencers, celebrities, and fans alike in response.

Nikkie de Jager teared up equally she spoke on Instagram.
NikkieTutorials/Instagram

In an emotional Instagram story posted that month, the beauty YouTuber said she was surprised past how many people responded positively to her coming-out video.

"Practiced forenoon! Um, how-do-you-do," de Jager said on Instagram. "I uploaded my video yesterday — I was expecting a lot of situations, but what happened terminal night is something I never, never even would cartel to dream about."

"The incredible amount of honey and back up and warmth means so much to me, and I just thank y'all," she continued. "Thank you. I'm gonna take today to just read everything, take it all in, process, and be free."

She even appeared on an episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Bear witness" that calendar month.

Nikkie de Jager appears on an episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in January.
The Ellen DeGeneres Testify

During her interview, de Jager told DeGeneres that she thought people wanted to "destroy" her life by threatening to share her story. Nevertheless, she noted that "didn't happen."

"I was crying and my fiancé Dylan was right next to me," she told DeGeneres about posting her coming-out video. "He was similar 'You can exercise it, you can exercise information technology.' He really pushed me to post information technology. He was like, 'We're going to become through this. You're going to be OK, you're gonna do this.'"

Unfortunately, de Jager subsequently said her experience on the daytime talk show wasn't what she hoped it would be.

Nikkie de Jager has spoken extensively about her experience with Ellen DeGeneres.
Tristar Media / Getty Images

According to Pop Crave, de Jager told Dutch outlet &C Magazine that she couldn't utilise the nearest bath while at "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" because "it was reserved for the Jonas Brothers."

As Insider's Lindsay Dodgson wrote, "the friendly, welcoming atmosphere you lot encounter when watching 'Ellen' isn't the reality in the studio," according to De Jager'due south statements.

In an earlier appearance on a Dutch talk prove, de Jager also told host Matthijs van Nieuwkerk that DeGeneres didn't say howdy to her before their interview.

Representatives for Warner Bros. Television and Ellen DeGeneres did not respond to Insider's request for annotate for a previous story.

Additionally, the YouTuber said she's experienced PTSD symptoms afterward being blackmailed.

Much has changed for NikkieTutorials since she came out in January.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images

Also in her interview with &C Mag, de Jager said she's experienced symptoms of PTSD after being blackmailed. When asked how she's handled life post coming out, the YouTuber said it depends on how she feels when she wakes up.

"1 24-hour interval I'one thousand insecure and I don't dare to face up the globe, the other mean solar day I call up:  f---  it," she told &C Mag. "It is mostly going well, but I notwithstanding take dark days at present and then."

"I went to the md because I have trouble sleeping," she continued. "'You have a postal service-traumatic stress disorder,' he noted. 'Well, well, we shouldn't make it bigger than it is,' I said. But still: all my symptoms indicate information technology."

In August, de Jager and her fiancé, Dylan Drossaers, were robbed at gunpoint inside their Netherlands habitation.

Nikkie de Jager in a YouTube video — her first since she was robbed — on Sunday.
NikkieTutorials/YouTube

On August viii, Dutch news outlets reported that iii people entered the home of de Jager and Drossaers around 4 p.m., robbing them at gunpoint. Later that twenty-four hour period, the YouTuber shared a annotation on Instagram regarding the incident.

"Earlier today 1 of my biggest nightmares became reality when we got robbed nether gun point at our own abode," de Jager wrote. "Dylan and myself got attacked but physically we're okay. Mentally it's a whole other story."

"I'thou writing this message for now to let you lot know that we are 'okay' and rubber," she continued. "Cheers for the understanding as I take the next couple of days to myself."

Every bit Insider's Margot Harris reported, de Jager after posted a YouTube video — her offset since existence robbed — on Sunday. The makeup mogul said in the video that it'south "impossible" to share the full story of the robbery, as it's yet under investigation, just that she is now using makeup as a form of "therapy" to cope.

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