Digital Journal chatted with Marsh via Skype about their book, helping young people, and embracing their genderqueer identity. This month, Marsh published their first book How To Be You, an interactive guide designed to help people learn to accept and love themselves. “But I sense that they are not diverse if we were able to look at ideology, that it’s open-hearted people, people willing to take a chance, people tired of being put down.” “It’s this incredibly diverse group of people, when you look at analytics,” Marsh says. While Marsh’s message attracts young people, they get clicks and followers from all age groups and backgrounds. Now 39, Marsh acts as a real-life superhero/heroine to thousands of people around the globe, using the very thing they were bullied for - being gender nonconforming - as a symbol of empowerment and hope for others who feel they don’t fit in. Bullied and isolated, they found solace by running into the woods near their family farm and pretending to be Wonder Woman. It’s a message Marsh says they could have used while growing up genderqueer in rural Pennsylvania. Sporting a beard, mascara, and a disarmingly sincere smile, they - Marsh uses the pronouns “they/them” - tell people “there is nothing wrong with you” and it’s okay to be different. The TV host, public speaker, and LGBTQ activist has racked up well over 300 million views on Vine and earned hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube by posting positive, inclusive videos focused on self-acceptance. Jeffrey Marsh became a social media star by being kind.
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