Featured Image Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images/Airyn De Niro/Instagram
Topics: LGBTQ, Robert De Niro, Celebrity
Joe Yates
Topics: LGBTQ, Robert De Niro, Celebrity
"There’s a difference between being visible and being seen," Airyn De Niro says. "I’ve been visible. I don’t think I’ve been seen yet."
The 29-year-old daughter of Hollywood great Robert De Niro has revealed she is transgender, having sat down with LGBTQ magazine Them, admitting that her appearance in certain tabloids commenting on her 'new look' spurred the decision to go public.
Airyn is the daughter of 72-year-old actress Toukie Smith, who 81-year-old De Niro shares two kids with - the other being Airyn's twin brother Julian.
The pair were kept out of the spotlight thanks to the efforts of their parents.
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Airyn told the publication: "Obviously no parent is perfect, but I am grateful that both my parents agreed to keep me out of the limelight. They wanted it very private. They have told me they wanted me to have as much of a normal childhood as possible."
In middle school, Airyn came out as gay and admitted how she found it hard to fit in.
"Growing up when people started hitting puberty and started liking each other… I never had that,” she recalled.
"I never had a boyfriend at a young age, even though looking back, do we really need to be dating in middle school? I was like, ‘Wow, these things signify I’m very unwanted. I’m not desirable. I’m not attractive like the other people, the other girls, the other boys'."
Airyn continued, as she explained that she found gay men were 'ruthless and mean'.
Adding: "I didn’t even fit that beauty standard, which is thin, white, muscular, or just super fit, masculine.
"I was always told I was too much of something or not enough of something growing up: Too big, not skinny enough. Not Black enough, not white enough. Too feminine, not masculine enough. It was never just, ‘You’re just right, just the way you are'."
It was while in middle school that Airyn began femme-presenting, but it wasn't until November just gone that she began hormone therapy - describing herself as a 'late bloomer'.
“Trans women being honest and open, especially [in] public spaces like social media and getting to see them in their success… I’m like, you know what? Maybe it's not too late for me,” she told the publication. “Maybe I can start.”
Her concerns are whether her family will think of her before her transition or whether they will recognize her after, as she is today.
Adding: “I think part of me is concerned that [my family] will maybe still think of me as the person I was before the transition.
“I think a big part of [my transition] is also the influence Black women have had on me.
“I think stepping into this new identity, while also being more proud of my Blackness, makes me feel closer to them in some way.”