Gigi Gorgeous (Giselle Lazzarato), is a 24 year old Canadian actress, model and one of the biggest internet personalities on YouTube. Her channel has over two million subscribers and since her first video 8 years ago, she has given her audience unrestricted access to every aspect of her life, including her male to female transition.
While she was out and proud about her fluid sexuality, she had never discussed her gender on YouTube until her mother died in 2012. She then made the conscious decision to come out on YouTube as transgender.
Gigi told her audience that it was because she wanted to make sure she lived a life where she was truthful to herself. It wasn’t long after this that she went through the process of surgically transitioning into the woman she is today.
Her channel is known for being glamorous, as she usually posts about all things fashion and makeup, early last year she announced to her audience that she was working on a big project.
Gigi Gorgeous, This Is Everything, is a documentary about Gigi’s transition.
She revealed that the project was her feature documentary This Is Everything which was released on YouTube Red on the 9th of February. The documentary unravels the story of how she went from being a competitive champion diver who lived in Toronto with her family to coming to terms with being transgender and the difficulties of transitioning immediately after high school.
Her documentary has also been the recipient of some harsh criticism, however. Many feel as though there was no real crisis for her as she grew up in an upper class open minded family and apart from the expected initial shock she received from the people she was close to, she didn’t have to face any immediate life-threatening prejudice when she made her decision. The documentary focuses heavily on her surgeries and the recovery process which she had been documenting for herself in a diary style manner.
The director, Barbara Kopple, connects new and old footage together beautifully, however, the documentary did lack an interesting subject matter and the scenes that pull at viewers’ heartstrings are owed to her father’s display of constant love and support for his daughter in all her decisions.
While the documentary is being marketed as inspirational and a ground-breaking analysis into what it means to be transgender, it’s far from this. Nevertheless, it’s an addition to the lack of transgendered related narratives in the world of film and it’s definitely worth a watch.
Zainab Boladale