Madelyn and Margo Whitley are not your everyday twins. In fact, they’re 19-year-old sisters breaking the internet and into the fashion industry. When I get to chat to them, it’s a normal rainy day in Paris. Squeezed into frame, the twins ironically admit they have no idea how to use Zoom despite having made quite a name for themselves on the small screen. Unlike other creators, the Whitley twins had no intentions of becoming “trans icons”, they just wanted to have some fun on TikTok.
“We didn’t want to inspire people. We never wanted a following. We just wanted something fun for the two of us to do,” Madelyn says. “It’s welcomed attention, but we’re just making silly videos and there’s still some part of me thinking ‘I should not be influencing this many people and there’s a lot of eyes on me right now’,” Margo jokes.
For both Madelyn and Margo, the reality of their following is something that hasn’t quite sunk in. Instead, they treat their new platform in as much of an open way as possible. “It never really feels like we’re influencing people, but I’m glad that we are because we’re literally just being ourselves. I didn’t want it to be something where it’s like, ‘Here’s what you should do and here’s how you should be yourself.’ I didn’t want to be one of those motivational pages. It’s just not me,” Madelyn explains.
Similar, to her sister, Margo agrees that they shouldn’t have to exhaust their identities for the sake of education. “I don’t think I would use TikTok as an educational space. I’m so tired of trans girls being ‘trans girls’. Why aren’t we just girls? We don’t want to have to explain every single detail of our experience,” says Margo. “Trans people have been around for a minute. I will message a bunch of trans girls and closeted girls who want advice. I will help my girlies forever and we are sisters. I don’t care if I don’t know who you are. I love you. I’ll help you, but I don’t want to have to explain the nitty gritty of it all to straight men that have so many questions.” As young creatives, the twins want to document their lives but not feel obligated to educate.
“Also, it’s not my responsibility to educate people. We’re teenage girls,” Madelyn chips in. “We shouldn’t have to educate all of TikTok on what it means to be trans and how to be trans. It’s just a fine line that we walk between saying: ‘Google it yourself or let me educate you and expose you to what this is.’ What we’re try to do is to normalise transness, because trans women are so targeted and marginalised.”
As both sisters carve out a niche for themselves on TikTok, they hope their exposure and influence will help the online culture drive social change. “The culture of TikTok is already so strong. I see it becoming its own relevant part in society. People started dressing like e-girls now and we have gay TikTok with the inside jokes,” Madelyn says. “I really think it’s going to impact cultural and societal norms. It’s gonna leak over into society, and people are gonna feel more comfortable being themselves, dressing how they want to dress, wearing makeup how they want to do it ,and being themselves daily and in public, not just behind the screen.”
