@misc{9243539,
  abstract     = {{This thesis examines how trans influencers narrate and negotiate identity and visibility on
YouTube, a platform where trans people may find recognition and community but also encounter
hostility. The study focuses on four trans influencers whose YouTube content addresses
transition, gender identity, public visibility and experiences of transphobia. Using thematic
narrative analysis, the thesis explores how their narratives construct meanings around visibility,
passing, hostility, community and self-representation.

The analysis shows that online trans visibility is deeply ambivalent. YouTube enables trans
influencers to build community, produce self-authored representations of gender and offer
recognition to other trans people. At the same time, visibility exposes them to transphobic
hostility, audience expectations and pressure to perform gender roles in ways that are
recognisable and acceptable to cisgender viewers. The thesis identifies five central themes:
passing and gender legibility; transphobic hostility as anticipated and structural; community and
strategies for managing visibility; identity as an ongoing process; and the conditions under which
visibility can become partly self-determined.

The thesis argues that trans influencers do not simply become visible online; they actively
negotiate the terms of that visibility. Their narratives position visibility as both a source of
empowerment and a site of vulnerability, responsibility and resistance.}},
  author       = {{Björkman, Elijah}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Negotiating trans visibility: identity, hostility and self-representation among trans influencers on YouTube}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}