In a paraphrase of three-time Grammy Award-winning musical artist Lizzo, trans women are 100 percent all women, godd***n. The statement isn’t merely the political rhetoric of transgender civil rights activists but science. While promoting Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, which premiered on Prime Video on March 25, at South by Southwest, Lizzo used her platform to make a statement. “There are some very regressive laws being passed,” Lizzo said, criticizing the anti-trans laws passed by Texas lawmakers, “taking away the right for young children to have a chance to live authentically as themselves.”

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In Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, the multi-platinum star is hunting for more Big Grrrls dancers to join her on stage for the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival and on her 2022 tour. The series follows ten dancers, including a trans woman, Jayla Sullivan, 33. At SXSW, Lizzo called out Jayla for living “authentically as herself,” and indeed, the dancer’s personality shines through in the series. The trans dancer from Portland, Oregon has wicked improvisational skills and a background in gymnastics.

The importance of Lizzo taking that moment on stage at SXSW to highlight Jayla wasn’t lost on the dancer. She told TooFab:

She also talked to the outlet about the challenges of trying to get a contract a trans dancer, especially one with a bigger body.

It means everything to me because we’re all voices that don’t necessarily get to be heard. Our voices are often suppressed in the LGBTQ+ community, women of color, women of bigger bodies. We’re not seen as being as valid or appreciated as other women. And to be able to dance and work side-by-side with an artist that appreciates — and not only appreciates but advocates and speaks up and speaks out for what she doesn’t agree with — is something that I don’t ever think that I would get used to because you don’t necessarily expect everyone to just kind of rally behind you, but somebody like her to rally behind who you are and what you stand for and what she stands for, that’s the power behind the message is the fact that she’s willing to advocate for somebody like me.

Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls is Unscripted

     Prime Video

Prime Video billed Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls as an unscripted series, but with reality television, it can still be hard to believe even when a studio states it on its face. However, Jayla says the Lizzo produced series is really unscripted, and perhaps that’s no surprise with director Nneka Onuorah. Jayla told TooFab:

Prior to transitioning, I was too big, or I was too feminine, and then I started transitioning, and my body was still big, so I was still too big, but then I was too masculine. So I dealt with both ends of that spectrum where it’s just like, “Okay, well, my body’s not good enough. My gender expression isn’t good enough. I have talent, but people aren’t looking at that, they’re looking at me as a physical thing.” And it turned into this kind of vicious cycle where, you know, something that you love turned into something that you kind of resented because you felt like you’ll never be good enough for it.

Jayla added that Lizzo is “even more beautiful in person,” and “her heart is even purer.”

I think that one thing that people would be surprised about is what you see is really what you get. Like, there’s no fakeness, it’s a 100% raw and unfiltered. And we live in a society that it’s all about the edit, it’s all about, you know, deleting a post and changing things or putting a filter on something. And with her, it’s just her. And that’s something that I really didn’t realize that was just so raw and so beautiful.

She’s 100% that bitch!