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How the “very demure, very mindful” TikTok trend changed a content creator’s life

Over the past week, Jools Lebron's viral video has helped to fund her gender transition

Senior Culture Editor

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TikTok logo displayed on a smartphone screen (Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
TikTok logo displayed on a smartphone screen (Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

If scrolling TikTok over the past week has led to the words "demure" and "mindful" becoming part of your daily vocabulary, you're one of millions.

In her now-viral video, which has been recreated by numerous celebrities such as Penn Badgley, Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis, transgender influencer Jools Lebron gives beauty tips for how not to look like a clown at work and it's taken off to such a degree that the former cashier is now being flown all over the world to host events — earning enough money through her creativity to afford a life-changing procedure.

“I don’t come to work with a green cut-crease,” Lebron says in the video that started the trend which, as of Saturday, has over 3 million likes and hundreds of thousands of shares. “I don’t look like a clown when I go to work. I don’t do too much, I’m very mindful at work. See how I look very presentable? The way I came to the interview is the way I go to the job. A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like Marge Simpson and go to the job looking like Patty and Selma.”

Earlier this week, Lebron posted a new video explaining how her viral status has impacted her, encouraging her followers to pursue their dreams and post their own TikTok videos.

“One day, I was playing cashier and making videos on my break, and now I’m flying across countries to host events, and I’m gonna be able to finance the rest of my transition. TikTok has changed my life," she says. 

 

 

 

 

 

By Kelly McClure

Kelly McClure is Salon's Senior Culture Editor, where she helps further coverage of TV, film, music, books and culture trends from a unique and thoughtful angle. Her work has also appeared in Vulture, Vanity Fair, Vice and many other outlets that don't start with the letter V. She is the author of one sad book called "Something Is Always Happening Somewhere." Follow her on Bluesky: @WolfieVibes

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