Life

These 5 young queer Latinx influencers are stylishly slaying the internet

Whether you like fierce fashions or personal politics, these Hispanics aren't holding back.
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Calle and Poché Photo: Amazon Prime

While influencers sit at the intersection of trends and culture, those with intersectional identities can give visibility to multiple communities at once. Prominent Latin queer individuals know all too well how identity can become blurred when your Latin roots transcend an American upbringing: How do you honor heritage while paying respect to nationality? How can marginalized people unburden themselves from social ignorance? And where does queerness fit into geography? 

The five following Latin-American influencers are currently dominating social media by embracing all aspects of themselves, bringing intersectionality – and their talents – to queer new heights. 

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Calle y Poché

Colombian-born sensation Calle y Poché (Daniela Calle and Maria Jose Garzon) first broke the Internet as one of Latin America’s most in-demand influencers. The duo has over 4.1 million followers on TikTok, 5.2 million on Instagram, and 7.5 million subscribers on YouTube. Not to mention the additional millions of followers keeping tabs on their individual accounts. 

They took their fame to a queer fanbase when they revealed their intimate relationship in 2017. The YouTube video, SOMOS NOVIAS? where they announced themselves as best friends — and girlfriends — to the world, has 9.6 million views. They’re currently based in Miami and have hosted the MTV Millennial Awards (MIAW), published a book, and continue to grow their brand.

@calleypoche

♬ sonido original – Luis Angel Orosco

“Without knowing it in the moment, when we shared our romantic history, we turned into faces of the LGBTQ+ community, which was very grand and special,” Calle told Business Insider Mexico. 

Laith Ashley

Transgender model Laith Ashley knows there’s no playbook for transness in stardom, but that hasn’t stopped the 34-year-old from diving into a lucrative modeling career head first.

The Harlem-born Dominican influencer has built his 376,000-strong Instagram following by shamelessly showcasing his sex appeal and talents, including starring as Taylor Swift’s love interest in the Lavender Haze music video. His face has also graced the covers of British GQ, Vogue France, Elle UK, Attitude UK, and Gay Times. 

Still, Ashley has spoken openly about the inescapable cage that the entertainment and modeling industries place on transness, especially on seeming too visibly trans or not trans enough.

“It’s important for me to disclose my transness because visibility is important, and I want to show all the ranges of being a human being,” Ashley told Men’s Health. “Being trans doesn’t look one way. That said, I do know that there are privileges that come with looking binary and with being stereotypically masculine in my appearance.” 

Eric Sedeno

In many ways, Eric Sedeno is your typical queer Mexican-American from Plano, Texas, but his relatability, sense of humor, and unhindered gayness garnered him more than 900,000 TikTok followers.

He works as an art director in New York City and has boldly used those skills to propel his videos forward. The 27-year-old influencer said that TikTok was the platform where he first felt comfortable with his identity and authentically being himself. This is best illustrated by the fact that his first viral video of him shaking his butt amassed 17,000 views. Nowadays, his comedy sketches draw in hundreds of thousands of views. 

@ricotaquito

Im about to cry

♬ Paint The Town Red – Doja Cat

“When I moved [to New York], I was way more like in the closet and, honestly, I’ve always felt weird about talking about being gay on social media until TikTok,” Sedeno told Teen Vogue. “TikTok has been my window into my queerness in a weird way.”

Annie Segarra

Annie Segarra first became an Internet force for good when she launched a Tumblr account, Stop Hating Your Body, a popular forum for people to share stories about body image and self-love. The Ecuadorian and Peruvian influencer lived this truth tenfold when she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) at 24, a genetic collagen disorder.

Instead of succumbing to fear or anger, she merged her newfound disabled identity with the rest of her power to ensure her brave voice made others like her heard — and seen — including her younger sister, who is autistic.

Segarra has been featured in the NBCNews.com “Latino 20” and invited to speak nationwide, empowering all the communities she represents. She fights to expand the scope of what it means to be Latin, queer, and disabled.

“Because ableism is so deeply ingrained in society,” she told Dove, “for many people, it’s an incredibly difficult thing to unlearn; to shake off fear and pity and start celebrating diversity and seeing everyone as equals. I’ve only scratched the surface in the dialogue about disability and body positivity.”

Selyna Brillare

The renaissance of trans “It Girls” is taking its grip on culture, and Selyna Brillare is ensuring queer Latinas are at the front of the pack.

The Dominican New Yorker started making videos when she was 14 years old, and now, at 22, she’s enjoying nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram and 200,000 on TikTok. Aside from unashamed videos that radiate style and savvy, she also raps in Spanish and most recently released a new song called “Leche de Tigre” (“Tiger’s Milk”).

@selyna.brillare

L.A. SEXY🔥💃🏻

♬ L.A. SEXY – Selyna brillare

Most unique about Brillare is her advocacy for trans women to be able to show up however they see fit and unleash themselves from the chains of femininity.

“I want to see more trans women who don’t have to perform hyper femininity, period,” she told Vox,  “I think that’s very unfair because trans women can be butch, too. It doesn’t mean that we’re men.” 

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