Transgender women have become the new favourite female spokesperson for advertisers, which has angered some.
Dylan Mulvaney, 26, who underwent a gender change starting in March 2021, is said to have made more than a million dollars from advertising deals with companies like Crest and InstaCart, as well as the fashion and beauty labels Kate Spade, Ulta Beauty, Haus Labs, and CeraVe. Additionally, she now has 10 million TikTok fans.
She made an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show” in March, where the actress is credited with bowing before Mulvaney and giving her an embrace; last autumn, Mulvaney visited with President Biden at the White House.
“Mr. President, this is my 221st day of publicly transitioning,” Mulvaney told Biden as she spoke to him during what was billed as a “presidential forum.”
“God love you,” Biden responded.
Mulvaney has capitalized on the popularity of TikTok as well as companies wanting to broadcast diversity. She comes from a privileged background, and uses a high-powered Hollywood team to push her brand.
Mulvaney has gained popularity, but there has also been a reaction.
Critics referred to Nike’s announcement that Mulvaney would represent women’s sportswear as a “slap in the face.”
Earlier this week, Travis Tritt and Kid Rock, among others, called for a ban of Mulvaney’s collaboration with Bud Light, which featured her visage on beer cans.
“Let me say something to all of you and be as clear and concise as possible,” Rock said in a video posted to Twitter late Monday. He’s then seen picking up a semi-automatic rifle and firing at several cases of the American beer.
Dylan steered The Post to her publicist, who did not answer messages, but the publicist refused to comment.
Dylan hails from a prominent San Diego household.
James Mulvaney Sr., her grandpa, was a lawyer, financial financier, and president of the former San Diego Padres baseball club. He passed away in 2010 at the age of 87. Later, when the Padres joined the National League, he served as vice president and general attorney.
At Westgate Corporation, Mulvaney Sr. also served as a banker and businesswoman for the contentious investor and entrepreneur C. Arnholt Smith, who was a mobster like Moe Dalitz’s buddy as well as one of Richard Nixon’s early backers.
When James Mulvaney Sr., who briefly served as president of Smith’s bank, the US National Bank, failed in 1973, Smith’s dominion came to an end.
The Wall Street Journal referred to the bank failure as “the largest in the nation’s history” at the time.
One of Mulvaney Sr.’s seven children with Ruth, James Jr., the father of Dylan, is a well-known philanthropist in the San Diego region who is known for constantly making and giving away cookies for no charge.
In 2020, James Jr. claimed that in order to be a better parent, he had problems with drugs and alcohol in the past but gave them up permanently when Dylan was an infant.
Cookie-baking evolved into an enjoyable pastime.
“He makes 500 of them a week, and he’s never sold any of them,” Dylan explained in a 2021 TikTok video. “He just gives them out to random strangers on the street or the beach.”
“They call me the Cookie Man, and I branded myself that way,” James Mulvaney said in 2017. He often bakes about 500 cookies a week.
Dylan’s uncle, Brian Mulvaney, told The Post Tuesday that the family “loves her.”
“We always knew she was gay,” he said. “She comes from a good family who loves and supports her. She really loved her grandmother who completely supported her.”
Dylan received her start in theatre when she was a young girl in the San Diego region. After graduating from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, she had a group part in the “Book of Mormon” tour.
2009’s Hollywood’s Best New Talent Awards recognised her as the Best Child Broadway Singer.
“When the pandemic hit, I was doing the Broadway musical ‘Book of Mormon,’” Mulvaney said.
“I found myself jobless and without the creative means to do what I loved. I downloaded TikTok, assuming it was a kids’ app. Once I came out as a woman, I made this ‘day one of being a girl’ comedic video. And it blew up. I really don’t know another place online like TikTok that can make a creator grow at the rate that it does.”
She shared a pre-transition appearance with Drew Carey on the game show “The Price is Right” in 2020, and she has since posted a snippet from the episode to her TikTok stream.
Dylan’s uncle Brian admitted that he occasionally frets about her being “demonized,” but he added that he hopes her outgoing nature will prevail.
Some people criticised her pre-transition performance on “The Price is Right” for being too effusive.
“That’s just her,” Brian said. “She’s always been theatrical.”
In March 2022, the celebrity posted her first video, “Day one of being a girl,” on TikTok and Instagram.
At the Rainbow Room in New York earlier this month, she hosted an elaborate livestreamed cabaret performance called “Dylan Mulvaney’s Day 365 Live!” to honour her changing year.
Dylan is supported by a strong team that helps her gain notice. She is represented by Creative Artists Agency and occasionally collaborates with the Trevor Project, a well-respected and well-funded organisation founded in 2016 for young LGBTQ+ people.
Companies like Anheuser-Busch, the owner of Bud Light, are among many corporations, including Pfizer and Coca-Cola, that support leaders from supposedly underrepresented groups in order to perform well on the CEI, or Corporate Equality Index.
