YouTube Star Gigi Gorgeous on Her Evolving Identity as a Transgender Woman

— -- She looks like a come-to-life Barbie doll with platinum hair and six inch stilettos.

But this gorgeous woman named Gigi Gorgeous started life as a Canadian boy named Gregory.

“Ever since I was young, I knew I was different. I knew I felt like a girl, but when I grew up, I went through phases, and I found makeup and thought I was just, you know, a homosexual at the time, but then you know, life kind of comes back at you,” Gigi Gorgeous, 24, told ABC News’ “Nightline.”

Gorgeous’ honest and outrageous YouTube videos have made her an internet star with nearly 2.4 million subscribers watching her every move.

She came of age just as YouTube was starting to catch on. At first, she appeared in videos as a gay teenager sharing his love of makeup and talking about his dates with boys.

Later, in real time as thousands of fans watched, she shared her struggle that she was in fact transgender.

“I met a few people along the road and I said, you know what I am transgender, it was kind of like a ‘ding’ moment,” Gorgeous said.

Through the years, Gorgeous came out as gay, and later as transgender.

“I think definitely coming out as transgender was harder for me because it was more truthful. It was more raw. It was more real. I felt there were more steps to take for me in my real life and in my career online, and it was just intimidating,” said Gorgeous.

And just today, Gorgeous came out in a video on her YouTube channel and embraced a label she initially resisted.

“I am a lesbian,” Gorgeous said in the video to her followers.

Today, Gorgeous is happily in a relationship with a woman.

“I’ve found someone I truly love and I have fallen in love with her and that’s the truth,” she said. “And you know, labels, can be labels, but I think at the end of the day, love is love.”

The YouTube star has shared everything with her followers from light-hearted shopping sprees and beauty trips to the intimate details of her plastic surgeries.

“It’s crazy. I have fathers that come and are like, ‘Oh my goodness. I can’t believe I’m meeting you. Me and my daughter watch your videos and we bond over it,’” Gorgeous said.

With all her fans and YouTube views came endorsements, including her big break with Crest in Canada.

“It was a huge honor to be the first transgender spokesperson for the brand. It was a huge deal for me,” Gorgeous said.

But before the fame and fans, Gorgeous struggled to fit in. She said she was bullied while growing up.

“I was bullied awful in elementary school before I knew what gay was or ‘different’ was. You know, when you’re a child you--you’re just shamelessly yourself,” she said. “I was very bullied because I was always with the girls, skipping and nobody else really liked that, so I was bullied for that, and then you know when high school came around, I found myself. I found my strength and my voice.”

When she finally found herself, Gorgeous said she was too late to tell her mother, who died from cancer when Gorgeous was 19.

“That’s such a sensitive topic for me. My mom is someone I never got to say in her eyes that I’m transgender. And I think that’s something I will always, always sit not right with me. And it gives me a lump in my throat even talking about it now. I know she’s here with me. I know she sees me,” Gorgeous said.

Though her life may now seem carefree, Gorgeous claims she was stopped during a passport inspection on her way to a vacation in Dubai. She said she was held by authorities for being transgender.

“It makes me scared for anybody else like me to find themselves in a situation exactly like that. And maybe they didn’t have the resources to get out or get help -- it's very scary,” Gorgeous said.

Past her personal struggles, Gorgeous is using her fame to confront issues facing the transgender community.

“You know, it’s awful that there’s so much discrimination in the world, and that acceptance isn’t here yet, but I would just say, ‘Hold on. Be positive. Find someone on YouTube that you can relate with,’” she said.