YouTube beauty expert Ingrid Nilsen had an important message for her 3.3 million followers this morning, announcing in an emotional 20-minute video that she is gay.
The video, which garnered more than 900,000 hits in just eight hours, featured an alternately tearful and pensive Nilsen explaining how she decided to come clean about something very personal.
“I have had this wall up for so much of my life, but it wasn’t like this brick or stone wall,” she said. “I’ve described it to my friends as this glass wall, where you could see me but you were never getting all of me, because there was always that barrier there.”
The 26-year-old social media maven said that despite a need “to take this part of me and put it in a cabinet and lock it up,” she had decided it was time for a new, more honest start.
“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,” she said in closing. “This is the life that I have always lived in my head and now it’s real.”
Silent No More: Early Days in the Fight for Gay Rights
Caption from LIFE In commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, militants this year designated the last week in June as Gay Liberation Week and celebrated with a candlelight parade. The parade involved 300 male and female homosexuals, who marched without incident two miles from Gay Activists headquarters to a park near City Hall.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE When a bill guaranteeing equal job opportunities for homosexuals stalled in New York City Council last spring, militants demonstrated at City Hall. With fists raised, they shout a football style "Gay Power" cheer at police blocking the building.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGay rights protest, 1971.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE A homosexual activist steps between a pair of police horses to be interviewed during a New York demonstration. Militants often charge police brutality and welcome arrest for the sake of publicity. They also encourage press coverage of their protest actions.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGay rights protest, 1971.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGay rights protest, California, 1971.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGay rights protest, New York, 1971.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE Collared by a patrolman after he deliberately crossed police barricades at New York's City Hall, Gay Activists Alliance President Jim Owles submits to arrest. Members of his organization were protesting City Council reluctance to debate a fair employment bill for homosexuals.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGay rights protest, New York, 1971.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGay rights protest, New York, 1971.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGay rights protest, New York, 1971.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGay Pride, 1971.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGay Activists Alliance, New York, 1971.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGay rights rally, 1971.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesGay rights event, 1971.Grey Villet—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
