Jools Lebron was working as a cashier in Chicago this past summer when a colleague approached her with a question that took her by surprise: “You’re, like, that super-famous TikToker, right?”
At the time, Lebron was an online personality in the plus-size beauty space — but a series of setbacks had derailed her career. Brand deals and partnerships had dried up, leaving her with no choice but to take a cashier job to make ends meet.
“I felt dejected, like brands had blacklisted me in the beauty community,” Lebron shared with Yahoo Entertainment. Customers started to recognize her at the register, which began chipping away at her confidence. “It felt like I f***ed up, like I made the wrong move or did something wrong.”
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That changed one day when, during a break from work, Lebron sat alone in her car as mascara smudged across her cheeks from tears. She noticed someone peering in, which caught her off guard and made her laugh. The moment of levity inspired her to reapply makeup, grab her phone and record a series of TikTok videos that would ultimately change her life.
“See how I come to work? Very demure,” she quipped in a post on Aug. 2, detailing her approach to workplace style. A few days later, she delivered her now-famous catchphrase, “You see how I do my makeup for work? Very demure, very mindful,” in a video posted on Aug. 5. “I don’t look like a clown when I go to work. I don’t do too much. I’m very mindful while I’m at work.”
Both videos blew up online, amassing nearly 65 million views and 6 million likes combined on TikTok. Lebron’s life was transformed overnight.
The impact of the phrase “very demure, very mindful” was so profound that Dictionary.com crowned demure as its 2024 Word of the Year.
Now with 2.3 million TikTok followers, Lebron said she is done with striving to fit into the rigid expectations of the beauty industry. Instead, she’s using her viral fame to inspire those who, like her, have felt overlooked.
“I’m just gonna post whatever the f*** I want,” she said. “I’m not gonna play ‘Little Miss Beauty Bitch’ anymore.”
‘Go chase your dreams’
Days after going viral, Lebron found herself on a flight to L.A. to appear on the Aug. 19 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, co-hosted by RuPaul. To make it happen, she needed permission from her store manager.
“My manager sent me a message saying, ‘You know what, diva, I don’t think you should worry about going in today,’” Lebron recalled, adding that he encouraged her to “go chase your dreams.”
“It feels like such a movie moment,” she said. “I’m living my dream life! It feels like a karmic debt I’ll never be able to repay.”
As demure began to trend — garnering nods from Jennifer Lopez, Lindsay Lohan and even NASA — Lebron said the attention felt like “validation” after years of feeling ostracized by beauty brands.
As a transgender woman, she said it’s the first time big names are hiring her not as a “trans” or “plus-size” influencer, but simply as Jools.
“They’re hiring me because I’m funny,” she said. “And I also want that for my trans divas. I want them to be included because they’re amazing, not just because they check a box. I don’t want them to just be the token person.”
‘I started to feel like a puppet’
Despite demure being crowned Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year, a title Lebron and her recently hired management team are now working to trademark, she is quick to admit that fame isn’t all glamour.
“I started to feel like everyone I had met was not really interested in me as a person. They were interested in ‘demure,’” she said of those early days of viral fame. “I started to feel like a puppet. When you go viral like this, no one tells you how to handle it. There’s no guidebook.”
Lebron leaned on others for support during her rise — including internet personality Tana Mongeau, who Lebron said, in a gesture of friendship, offered to fund Lebron’s top surgery (the removal or implantation of breasts as a form of gender-affirming care).
Representation continues to remain central to Lebron’s story. In a TikTok posted on Aug. 13, she revealed that the success of her viral fame has allowed her to “finance the rest of my [gender] transition.”
Lebron told Yahoo that she hasn’t posted details about her transition online because she’s preparing to document it in a forthcoming series for an unnamed streaming service, set to debut in 2025. Though tight-lipped about details, she promised it would be deeply personal.
“I think the divas are going to be gagged,” she said, describing the jaw-dropping surprise she hopes to deliver.
For now, Lebron is savoring the moment and looking to reconnect with her audience in new ways, from Twitch streams to potential red carpet hosting gigs.
“I’m living my dream life,” she said. “I was just a cashier before this happened. If I can do it, you can do it. Never give up on yourself.”
