Jacob Donegan is an Irish trans man and TikTok superstar (TikTok: @itz_jacob_33)
After documenting his transition for year – and posting funny clips – Jacob Donegan has made a name for himself as the new up-and-coming trans TikToker everyone should know.
Donegan has been on TikTok for years – even before it became known as TikTok.
He started making videos in 2015 on Musical.ly, the original app before TikTok, and later transferred his funny content to TikTok, where he has gained 1.2 million followers.
Donegan has almost 100 million likes across his many videos.
Donegan said he first started making videos “as a joke” but over time, it “became somewhat therapeutic” during his teenage years. Speaking to TikTok in a Q-and-A, he said: “It helped me explore and express myself freely with no limits.”
Donegan went viral in 2017 when one of his videos received over 100,000 likes. Since then, he has shared videos “every single day” to get even more attention.
When did Donegan come out?
Donegan is now 21 but he started his transition when he was around 15.
He previously told the Irish Times that he first came out on TikTok: “It was my online platform that I first came out on, before I even came out to my family.
“I felt such safety and security with people that I’ve never met before, and with coming out, there was obviously a fear that there would be backlash, because not everybody agrees with everything you do. But there was just overwhelming positivity and it was probably the biggest step I could have taken by going on the platform [TikTok] because that made me actually stronger and push forward in my own life.”
He said he felt “blessed” to have the platform that he did and the “support” he found on TikTok.
What was it like for Donegan growing up trans in Ireland?
Donegan is from Ireland and based in Meath, just north of Dublin.
Being transgender in Ireland, a primarily Catholic country, was “hard”, Donegan said – adding that anyone from the LGBTQ+ community can understand why it’s so difficult.
“This is not a choice to be who I am because if it was, it’s a very hard choice. You’re not accepted, you’re seen as an experiment. I felt like a biology experiment and people used me to test their own concept of me,” he told Tonight VMTV.
People would often ask Donegan what was in his pants, what’s under his top, and even physically lifting his top to find out for themselves. He said: “You wouldn’t do that to an average person. As soon as someone labels me as transgender, they take away my humanity and put in an object to poke and prod at what they feel.”
Is TikTok Donegan’s only job?
While TikTok is a career for Donegan, he also works as a life coach and a part-time barber.
Recently, he started a TikTok series called Real Talk with Jacob, which delves deeper into his gender transition journey.
He told the Irish Times: “I started the Real Talk with Jacob on TikTok because I get so many DMs [direct messages] daily of people asking me questions, and some more personal than others. I want to answer the questions that people have the fear to ask because I have the confidence to do that, and if people just want to learn, then I’m here to educate.”
That’s not all for Donegan – his biggest career goal is to work with fashion retailer JD Sports.
But he is focused on TikTok and said that his goal on the video-sharing platform is to “help show people that being your true self is more rewarding than living a life other people ultimately designed for you.”
“Life is too short to care about others ‘ opinions on your own life, and I hold my page as an example of this,” Donegan told TikTok.
