Zackery Torres, the first star of Abby’s Ultimate Dance competition who was assigned male at birth, announced that they were transgender on Sunday.
The 21-year-old former reality star shared in a TikTok video that they were transitioning and were going by they/them and she/her pronouns interchangeably in the ebullient clip.
‘I realized I haven’t posted on TikTok anything of myself since December, and life update — I’m transitioning!’ she gushed.
Big news: Zackery Torres, 21, revealed that they were transgender and in the midst of transitioning in a new TikTok video uploaded on Sunday
‘That means I’m transgender, if you didn’t know,’ they added. ‘My pronouns are they/she, which means that they or she are totally fine.’
They also listed that they were ‘Trans Non-Binary’ on Twitter.
Zackery filmed the video outside while wearing a powder blue cropped top under an unbuttoned white top with the collar popped up, along with a black skirt.
They had their short dark hair tied back in a bun and sported luminous lavender nails.
The former reality star also shared that she was excited to get back to posting on TikTok in the coming days.
Both work: ‘My pronouns are they/she, which means that they or she are totally fine,’ she explained for viewers
Evolving style: Zackery filmed the video outside while wearing a powder blue cropped top under an unbuttoned white top with the collar popped up, along with a black skirt
Reality star: Zackery is best known for their stint on the first season of Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition, which starred Dance Mom’s fixture Abby Lee Miller as one of its judges. Pictured here in Dance Moms in 2011
Zackery is best known for their stint on the first season of Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition, which starred Dance Mom’s fixture Abby Lee Miller as one of its judges.
They subsequently appeared on a later season of Dance Moms, becoming one of the few assigned-male-at-birth dancers and the first performer from the spin-off to join the series.
She competed with Cathy Stein and her Candy Apples team on the series, which ended in 2019.
Although this newest video is the clearest expression of Zackery’s gender identity to date, they have been wearing an increasing amount of feminine clothing and using more makeup over the past year.
Earlier this month, Zackery celebrated completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Southern California.
She earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in dance with honors and was already looking forward to continuing graduate studies at USC with a one-year master of arts program in public relations and advertising.
‘So excited to have finished my undergrad degree at USC and more excited to take on one more year to complete my MA!’ they wrote
New graduate: Earlier this month, Zackery celebrated completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Southern California, where she plans to do a master’s program as well
Zackery previously came out as non-binary to the USC student paper The Daily Trojan in the fall, though their latest update seems to be their first official statement about transitioning.
They explained how being perceived as a boy affected them during their time on dance competition shows.
‘I started seeing all of the expectations that teachers — well-known dance teachers, and well-known choreographers — had for me as a male dancer growing up and at the time identifying as a boy,’ she explained. ‘”Oh, you’re too feminine, you need to dance like a man.” Just having teachers tell you that on national television, all this stuff, it kind of really got to me.
‘Everyone always talks about how inclusive the arts communities are. But I’m just not really feeling it,’ they added. ‘I’m not seeing it on an everyday scale.’
Finding themself: Zackery has previously identified as non-binary, and they have been wearing more feminine clothing and makeup throughout the past year
Zackery recently published the book An Evolving Conversation on Gender: Dance Edition, which laid out steps that the dance community could take to be more welcoming of non-cisgender dancers.
So far, she has even had success at getting dance class at USC to change from being listed for men and women to be arranged by the dance steps that they teach.
‘My goal in some way is to keep growing, keep pushing, so that any little young dancers out there can look up and see a non-binary dancer who went through the convention circuit, who went to college, who is trying to do something better for the community,’ they explained in a March YouTube conversation with ballet teacher Francisco Gella for their Continuum Community organization.
‘When I think about gender inclusivity and I think about how we can best move forward as a society and how we evolve and grow, I think about compromise… It’s not about us compromising our identity; it’s about those who feel strong enough and feel comfortable enough to meet in the middle for a minute to then bring everyone over to the side of inclusivity.’
Helping others: She recently published the book An Evolving Conversation on Gender: Dance Edition, which laid out steps that the dance community could take to be more welcoming of trans and non-binary dancers