Dance Moms star Zackery Torres proudly comes out as trans: ‘I’m excited about it!’
Zackery Torres has come out as transgender in a video on TikTok, revealing that their pronouns are both ‘she’ and ‘they’. (TikTok/@zackery_torres)
Dance Moms star Zackery Torres comes out as transgender in a big “life update” video on TikTok, and she has promised to share her journey on social media.
Torres, who also appeared on Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition, revealed in a dance-filled video on TikTok on Saturday (30 May) that she is transitioning. In the video, Torres shared that their pronouns are both “they/them” and “she/her”.
“I’m transitioning – that means I’m transgender if you didn’t know,” Torres said. “My pronouns are they/she, which means that they or she are totally fine, and I’m just hopping on here to tell you that I’m going to be posting more on TikTok, and I’m excited about it.”
@zackery_torres LIFE UPDATE! #fyp #foryou #dancemoms #viral #update #clasof2021
More than 67,000 people have liked the video on TikTok, and hundreds commented on the video to share their joy in Torres. One person wrote that they “can’t wait to watch more” of Torres’ journey on TikTok.
Another fan asked if Torres planned on changing their name to which she responded she would change it to “Zackery Lennon”.
Zackery Torres shared in a post on Instagram that they “don’t have a ton of words to express” how grateful she feels for the overwhelming amount of support they’ve received since coming out. She wrote: “Grateful to everyone who has supported me and continued to help me be my full self.
“Grateful for the outpour of love and support. Grateful to the advocates who made this possible.”
Torres added that it is “important to recognise the amount of LGBTQIA+ individuals” who do not “receive this loving response”. They explained: “There is still work to be done, and I cannot wait to be a part of it.”
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Torres, who recently graduated from the University of Southern California (USC), previously came out as non-binary during their sophomore year of university. She told the school’s student newspaper The Daily Trojan that the pressures from Dance Moms and growing up in the dance community shaped their gender identity. Torres said they “started seeing all the expectations that teachers” had “for me as a male growing up and at the time identifying as a boy”.
“‘Oh, you’re too feminine, you need to dance like a man’,” Torres explained. “Just having teachers tell you that on national television, all this stuff, it really got to me.”
