YouTube star Abigail Thorn has come out as a trans woman.
The star behind the platform’s successful Philosophy Tube channel made the announcement in a new video she posted for her followers.
In the clip, she says she came out “ages ago” in private, but this was the first time she was telling her fans.
“It’s so lovely now to finally relax, to sleep well with sweet dreams and be at home in myself,” she said.
In a follow-up video, she delivered an impassioned speech, in which she stated: “Being trans is perfectly normal."
She continued: “Like all human beings, we are inherently valuable and entitled to self-determination, and if that makes some people uncomfortable, well, it’s only because they’re choosing not to live in reality.”
On Twitter, Thorn then posted a statement, which has been widely shared and supported by her followers on social media.
It begins: “Hello friends! I’m delighted to say I am a trans woman; my name is Abigail and you can refer to me with she/her.”
She thanked those close to her who had kept her news secret while she “prepared to come out publicly”.
Thorn continued: “Things are very, very bad for trans people in the UK, and they’re getting worse.
"My existing following means I have now instantly become one of the most recognisable transgender people in the country and I feel an enormous pressure to be ‘good at it’.”
The YouTuber has a collective subscriber count of 892,000.
