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Kat Blaque

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Kat Blaque
Personal information
Born
EducationCalifornia Institute of the Arts (BFA)
Occupation(s)Illustrator, writer, YouTube personality, vlogger
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2005 - present[1]
Subscribers550,000[2]
Total views43.50 million[2]

Last updated: September 1, 2024

Kat Blaque is an American YouTuber and LGBT rights activist.

Early life

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Blaque was born in Lynwood, California and raised in Walnut, California. She is adopted.[3] In middle school, Blaque began to question her gender identity and started to identify as genderqueer.[4] She began identifying as a trans woman in college.[5] Blaque graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 2012 with a BFA in character animation.[6]

Career

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YouTube

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Blaque started video blogging in December 2010. Her YouTube channel Kat Blaque is focused on discussing race, gender, and other social justice issues. Blaque has described herself by saying, "I'm a woman, I'm black, I'm curvy and I'm trans. There are a lot of things that I deal with. When I talk about those things, I am literally talking about my embodiment of these intersections."[7]

In 2017, Blaque started a weekly YouTube series called True Tea where she answers questions that viewers send her about racism, transphobia, black culture and several other topics.[8] Blaque has made guest appearances on several other YouTuber's videos such as the BuzzFeed video about gender pronouns. She has also collaborated with YouTubers such as Franchesca "Chescaleigh" Ramsey[9] and Ari Fitz.[10] The Advocate reports that "Her YouTube videos are shown as educational tools in classrooms".[11]

Illustration

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In 2015, Blaque also teamed up with fellow artist and YouTuber Franchesca Ramsey to animate Ramsey's story "Sometimes You're A Caterpillar".[12] This short film addresses privilege and has since been shared on several sites, including Everyday Feminism,[13] Upworthy,[14] Mic,[9] and MTV.[15]

Other ventures

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Blaque has contributed to websites such as Everyday Feminism[6][16] and the Huffington Post's Black Voices section.[17] Blaque participated in a panel on writing transgender characters at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con[18] and was the keynote speaker at the University of Toledo's LGBTQA History month celebration.[19]

References

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  1. ^ ""At What Point Is 3 Million Gonna Be Success?": The Ever-Evolving, Often Perilous Business of Being a YouTube Star". Vanity Fair. October 7, 2019.
  2. ^ a b "About Kat Blaque". YouTube.
  3. ^ Kat Blaque [@kat_blaque] (March 9, 2017). "I was not expecting to have one of these. I was born in Lnywood [sic], but was raised in Walnut, California. I'm adopted https://t.co/nyPwzltfdy" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. ^ "About Me". katblaque.com. Archived from the original on June 21, 2016. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  5. ^ Reese, Ashley (February 12, 2015). "Everything You Wanted To Know About Transgender Girls, Answered By Kat Blaque". Gurl.com. Archived from the original on February 16, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Meet the Team". Everyday Feminism. May 27, 2012. Archived from the original on February 9, 2016.
  7. ^ Chase, Sidney (August 6, 2015). "Back to Blaque: Meet the Trans YouTube Queen of the Underground". The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
  8. ^ Idika, Nicky (January 19, 2016). "YouTubers of Colour: Kat Blaque Is Your Weekly Dose Of Awesome". Pop Buzz. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  9. ^ a b Clifton, Derrick (March 26, 2015). "A Snail and a Caterpillar Perfectly Explain How To Deal With Our Own Privileges". Mic. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  10. ^ "Ep 40: Spiderman That Pussy ft. Ari Fitz & Kat Blaque". Okay, But What If?. SoundCloud. August 9, 2016. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  11. ^ Guerrero, Desiree (May 1, 2017). "After Being Outed, Kat Blaque Became a Role Model for Trans Youth". The Advocate. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
  12. ^ "Animation". katblaque.com. Archived from the original on June 27, 2016. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  13. ^ "This Advice on Dealing with Your Struggles and Privilege is Pretty Much Perfect – And Super Adorable". Everyday Feminism. April 20, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  14. ^ Shoaff, Morgan (November 30, 2015). "This adorable cartoon explains privilege in the most nonconfrontational way possible". Upworthy. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  15. ^ Speller, Katherine (March 25, 2015). "What Can Two Twerking Bugs Teach Us About Privilege?". MTV. Archived from the original on March 28, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  16. ^ "Kat Blaque, Author at Everyday Feminism". Everyday Feminism. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
  17. ^ "Entries by Kat Blaque". The Huffington Post. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  18. ^ Anderson-Minshall, Jacob (July 9, 2015). "Queer Con: The Gayest Things to Do at San Diego's 2015 Comic-Con". The Advocate. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
  19. ^ Mahaney, Lindsay (October 27, 2015). "Youtube Star to Visit UT Campus for LGBTQA History Month". UT News. The University of Toledo. Retrieved March 16, 2016.

Further reading

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  • Rudnicka-Lavoie, Dani. (2023). Trans vlogs beyond the transition process: transnormativity, visibility and controversy in Kat Blaque's True Tea Videos. Fronteiras ? Estudos Midiáticos. 24. 114-126. doi:10.4013/fem.2022.241.09.