At 23, Zaya Perysian has brand deals, 5 million TikTok followers and an active lawsuit against the president of the United States. She is suing the Trump administration over her passport’s gender marker — a fight that grew out of the same TikTok presence where she shares unfiltered transition updates, biting political commentary and everyday moments, from surgery recovery to silk presses at Supercuts.
That mix of Gen Z candor, humor and political clarity didn’t come from nowhere. Perysian grew up on a dirt road, surrounded by orchards, railroad tracks and family — a world that now feels far removed from her life in Los Angeles, where she lives with her cats and films much of her content.
Growing up in a conservative small town, Perysian always knew she wanted to be in the public eye. At 12, she was already making videos on Vine, then Musical.ly, diving headfirst into “this whole online social sphere” that would eventually become both her lifeline and her livelihood.
But knowing she wanted visibility and being able to live authentically? Two completely different things.
“I always knew in my head, but, you know, it was … a very conservative little town,” she explains, noting how her exploration of queerness at a young age was either misunderstood or unaccepted. “Most people I was friends with did not understand that type of stuff. My dad was not supportive, so I suppressed it until I knew I would have full control over it myself.”
As a teenager, she came out as gay — a bridge identity that felt safer, more digestible to her community. “I still got to express myself in different ways,” she says of those high school years. “Lots of people hated it, but lots of people didn’t. I had a pretty good group of friends, so that’s why I was able to exist comfortably like that for about four years before it just became too much.”
When she turned 18, the pandemic shut down life as we knew it. With everything changing around her, Perysian decided to make some major changes of her own.
“High school is over with. I don’t have to worry about the judgment from my peers,” she remembers thinking. “Plus, it was Covid when I graduated. The world was shut down, and I was like, this is the perfect time. I’m isolated, and I can just do it in peace.”
Building community through visibility
The silly after-school videos came first. She laughs thinking of how, in her first one, she was “probably lip-syncing to some song.” It was only after Perysian began sharing her transition on TikTok that she saw the true impact she could have. The response was immediate and overwhelming, encouraging her to open this window into her life even wider.
“I got so many messages and so many DMs from just complete strangers who saw themselves in me,” she says. “[They] completely resonated with the fact that we’re just people, and this is real and we exist.”
On TikTok, she’s been candid about everything from getting bottom surgery (“I don’t have to fucking tuck anymore!”) to vocally questioning the mental state of “Trans for Trump” people. One of her most-watched videos, with nearly a half million views, is called “Super Cuts Silk Press,” and it’s exactly what you think it is: Perysian goes to a Supercuts and gets her hair straightened, taking viewers through the very dramatic process of getting a silk press.
Those messages and lived authenticity pulled followers even deeper into her life as a trans person navigating an uncertain world. “So many people were just so thankful to have a visual representation of what it’s like,” she explains. “That’s when I first started to realize it; that’s why I kept making all my videos, documenting every part of my transition.”
Then the brand deals started rolling in — her first real sign that this could be more than a hobby. “I was like, wait, I don’t have to just do this for fun. I can actually make money,” she says, laughing. With management now based in New York City handling the business side, Perysian focuses on what she does best: showing up authentically on camera.
Her success itself feels revolutionary. “You hear all these stories about how trans women don’t live long lives, and how we all turn to sex work and that’s our only avenue,” she says. But here she is, she says, thriving as a content creator. “There are trans engineers, trans lawyers, trans doctors. It’s amazing. So to exist in this space successfully that’s dominated by cis white people — which, that was the norm for years and years — but anyone can do it. Anyone can do anything.”
But Perysian’s impact extends far beyond brand partnerships and viral videos. In January 2025, shortly after Trump’s return to office, she applied for a passport and received it with an “M” gender marker as a result of the president’s executive order. She posted a video about the experience, fully aware of the backlash it might bring. Today, she says it’s the video she’s most proud of posting.
“That was really scary, and I was like, I don’t know if I want to post this, because people are pretty opinionated, and I wasn’t really in the headspace to hear it,” she admits. “But somebody’s gotta say it, somebody’s gotta speak up, and I had the platform to do it.”
Good thing she did. The video caught the attention of the ACLU, and Perysian became one of seven named plaintiffs in Orr v. Trump, a lawsuit filed in April 2025. Early in the case, the plaintiffs won a preliminary injunction ordering the Trump administration to issue her a passport that accurately reflected her gender identity.
After that win, the legal team expanded the case into a class-action lawsuit so the ruling would apply to all transgender and nonbinary people — not just the original plaintiffs. A federal judge granted class-action status, and for several months, all trans and nonbinary Americans were able to obtain U.S. passports with gender markers that matched their gender identity because of the lawsuit.
“We literally had a class action against Trump that went through,” she says, with justified pride.
The Trump administration appealed the decision and asked the Supreme Court to pause the ruling while the case moved through the lower courts. The Supreme Court granted that stay. As a result, the class action is temporarily no longer in effect, and passports have reverted to listing only male or female based on sex assigned at birth.
The fight, however, is far from over. “I’m still battling the Trump administration,” she says. “It’s been a year now.” A win in the appeals court could send the case back to the Supreme Court — putting the future of gender-affirming passports nationwide back on the line.
The cost of visibility
The political climate that made Perysian’s lawsuit necessary has also taken a direct hit to her career. As trans acceptance has declined due to the relentless attacks by the federal administration, so has brand interest in working with her.
“When the politicians loved us, the brands loved us. And when the politicians hate us, now the brands are scared of us,” she observes with sharp clarity. “Now brands see me as brand unfriendly or too political, just for standing up for myself.”
Her management now has to “push 10 times harder” to secure partnerships. It’s a sobering reality facing many LGBTQ+ creators, not just trans people. “I know so many people — gay, trans, lesbian, nonbinary — who have also seen a decline recently,” she says. “We’re just seeing everybody’s true colors and how they see us as tools for their marketing.”
Despite the challenges, Perysian continues to live comfortably off her content creation, even as the landscape shifts beneath her feet. “I still do enough to live the life that I live,” she says simply.
The relentless attacks on trans people make Perysian’s visibility feel increasingly urgent. She’s watched what felt like real progress get reversed practically overnight.
“We had a slight golden age where everything felt like it was getting super progressive,” she reflects, referring to the more inclusive environment under the Biden-Harris administration. “Brands were aligning with us, the media was aligning with us, we were getting representation everywhere. It was seeming like, oh my gosh, people are finally getting it. They’re seeing us as human beings.”
That acceptance threatened existing power structures, she believes. “The moment we emerge from the shadows, it threatens everything that they built, and they are doing everything they can to push us back.”
Her content has shifted accordingly, becoming sharper and more political in response to the near-constant headlines targeting trans people. “I think it’s important that people are informed and educated, and that people know what’s happening,” she explains. “If people remain ignorant, that just makes it easier for them to try and erase us. I’m doing everything I can to make it as hard as possible for them to silence us, and they hate it.”
As much as it’s “sad and scary,” she’s also “empowered and angry and motivated.”
“I can’t believe there’s this powerful group of human beings that put so much time and effort and money into demonizing one of the smallest minority groups in the world, acting like we’re this huge threat,” she adds. “Take a look at the bigger picture. Take a look at the people who are telling you to demonize us, and actually use some critical thinking, research and look at what they’re doing to the world. Look at how they’re destroying society as we know it, sucking profit out of every corner of everybody’s house. And somehow trans people are the issue, and immigrants are the issue. It’s just like, no. You just need to wake up. Like, I’m woke. Bring woke back, please.”
Advice for the next generation
For LGBTQ+ youth stuck in small or conservative communities, Perysian’s advice is straightforward: Find your people online.
“There was no one like me where I lived, absolutely no one,” she says of her own experience. “Once I found community online and I saw that there are a lot of other people like me who exist in the world, it changed my life.”
For those interested in following her path to social media success, she emphasizes authenticity above everything else. “I was very authentic and very honest, very open about everything in my life,” she explains, though she acknowledges that sharing everything isn’t for everyone. “People online love to see personality. They love to see people who are real, and who are just existing.”
If she could go back and offer guidance to her younger self, growing up on that orchard in Lowell? “Do it earlier,” she says without hesitation. “I was so concerned about what other people were gonna think, which is why I waited so long to really exist as how I am. I would just tell myself, ‘Fuck it. Just go. Do it. It’s gonna happen anyways.'”
It’s advice that resonates beyond coming out — a philosophy for living authentically at any age, in any circumstance. She still returns to home for holidays and summer visits, never forgetting the dirt roads and orchards that shaped her. “The goal is to one day end up back in my [home town] fantasy,” she says of potentially returning to the Midwest when she can “settle down.”
But that’s a someday dream. Right now, Perysian is living proof that authenticity works. She’s still here, still visible, still fighting — exactly what some hoped she wouldn’t be.