Jools Lebron on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ Photo: Screenshot
If you’ve been anywhere near social media in recent weeks, you’re probably already well aware of Jools Lebron and her “very demure, very mindful” moment.
The Chicago-based trans TikToker sparked a viral trend earlier this month with a video showcasing her on-the-job style.
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“You see how I do my makeup for work? Very demure. Very mindful,” Lebron explains in the August 5 clip. “I don’t look like a clown when I go to work. I don’t do too much, I’m very mindful at work. See how I look very presentable? The way I came to the interview is the way I go to the job.”
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“Very demure, very mindful” caught on like wildfire, with seemingly everyone on social media — including celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Gillian Anderson, Penn Badgley, Olivia Rodrigo, Lindsay Lohan, and Jamie Lee Curtis — picking up on the trend. Lebron’s video has received 36 million views since August 5 and she’s amassed nearly two million followers on TikTok.
On Monday night, she made her national television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live. In his opening monologue, guest host RuPaul said that he’d spent the weekend watching Lebron’s video and had to invite her onto the show.
“Apparently the trauma that comes from working a retail job gets enough to you that you start saying ‘demure’ on the internet,” Lebron, who until recently worked as a cashier at a “very cutesy, very demure” grocery store in Illinois, said of the inspiration behind the post.
“I feel like demure is like a mindset,” she said of her newly minted catchphrase. “I used to be crazy and out of control, and then I found some demurity and along with that came success.”
That success has been life-changing, as Lebron described in an August 14 post.
“Maybe you should make the videos,” she advised her fans, “Because one day, I was playing cashier and making videos on my break, and now I’m flying across country to host events, and I’m gonna be able to finance the rest of my transition.”
“I finally said it without crying,” she added.
In addition to the viral fame and her appearance on Kimmel, Lebron has already collaborated with brands like Verizon, Synergy Kombucha, and Lyft, according to Tubefilter. And in recent weeks, she’s made appearances in New York, Las Vegas, and L.A.
“Everyone keeps asking me, like, how I feel about what’s going on,” Lebron said in a tearful August 17 post. “And I feel so overwhelmed.”
But, she added, “I’m living my f***ing dream, b***h!”
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