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Aleck Venegas/Them.
Famed actor Robert De Niro’s daughter Airyn De Niro just came out as a trans woman for the first time in a new Them cover story.
The 29-year-old opened up about learning to embrace her identity as a Black trans woman — her mother is actress Toukie Smith — and how she was impacted by the tabloids’ coverage of changes in her gender expression.
Instead of coming out on her own terms, De Niro was forced out by the Daily Mail and other tabloids who misgendered her and reported on her wearing long pink locs and high heels in public, calling her look “edgy, rebellious” and “barely recognizable” compared to how she looked pre-transition. “Not only did they get information wrong about me… They just sort of reminded me that people really don’t know anything about me,” she told the outlet.
De Niro said that while she has been femme-presenting since middle school, she only started hormone therapy in November 2024 in an attempt to maintain her femininity as she aged.
“Trans women being honest and open, especially [in] public spaces like social media and getting to see them in their success… I’m like, you know what? Maybe it's not too late for me,” she explained of her thought process. “Maybe I can start.”
Aleck Venegas/Them.
De Niro’s journey to self acceptance has taken time and she attributes some of her success to Black women who inspired her. "I think a big part of [my transition] is also the influence Black women have had on me," De Niro said. "I think stepping into this new identity, while also being more proud of my Blackness, makes me feel closer to them in some way.”
Aleck Venegas/Them.
De Niro came out as a gay man in high school, but struggled to find acceptance among gay men who seemed to value Eurocentric beauty standards and thinness, two boxes she couldn’t fit into.
“[Gay men were] ruthless and mean. I didn’t even fit that beauty standard, which is thin, white, muscular, or just super fit, masculine,” she admitted. “I was always told I was too much of something or not enough of something growing up: Too big, not skinny enough. Not Black enough, not white enough. Too feminine, not masculine enough. It was never just, ‘You’re just right, just the way you are.’
Aleck Venegas/Them.
As De Niro has begun living out loud and proud as a trans woman, she has also had to contend with the Trump administration’s near constant attacks on the trans community, and trans women in particular, which has made he feel more visible but not any more understood than she was before. “There’s a difference between being visible and being seen,” De Niro said. “I’ve been visible. I don’t think I’ve been seen yet.”
Aleck Venegas/Them.
De Niro struggled to find acceptance as she was growing up and often felt like her biracial and a “bigger-bodied person” meant that she “stood out like a sore thumb,” even in her own family.
“Growing up when people started hitting puberty and started liking each other… I never had that,” she recalled. “I never had a boyfriend at a young age, even though looking back, do we really need to be dating in middle school? I was like, ‘Wow, these things signify I’m very unwanted. I’m not desirable. I’m not attractive like the other people, the other girls, the other boys.”
Aleck Venegas/Them.
Although the tabloid press hasn’t been kind about her transition, her family has been accepting and tried to keep her out of the spotlight as the was growing up. "Obviously no parent is perfect, but I am grateful that both my parents agreed to keep me out of the limelight," De Niro said. "They wanted it very private. They have told me they wanted me to have as much of a normal childhood as possible."
Aleck Venegas/Them.
Despite her A-lister father and being called a nepo baby by the press, De Niro is determined to forge her own path. She’s being audition for TV shows like Euphoria and the video game League of Legends, and while she rejected by most casting agents, she has no plans to stop.
“I wasn’t brought up having a side part in one of dad’s movies or going to business meetings or attending premieres. My dad was very big on us finding our own sort of path,” she said. “I would want [success] to happen on my own merit.”
| 04/29/25
