'Joe Goes' YouTuber Lily Jo Hanson Comes Out As Trans

YouTube star and comedian Lily Jo Hanson is opening up about her gender identity and publicly coming out as trans!

After a nearly three-year-long hiatus, the longtime content creator (who is well-known for creating the Joe Goes YouTube channel) posted a heartfelt video entitled "The Cost of Costumes" where she discussed the journey she's had over the years in discovering her truest and most authentic self.

"From my earliest memories, I knew I was female inside and my body didn’t match," the 38-year-old writer shared in her video.

"When I saw other women I burned with envy. I drew pictures of myself as a woman, I imagined it. I even prayed to God at night to make my body female when I woke up – it didn’t work. Should have tried Satan," she said in her trademark humor.

"I thought I could choose not to have it, but some aspects of identity are not choices," she continued, talking about how she would try to keep the truth about her gender identity a secret, especially since she grew up in a small, Minnesota town. "Repressing gender identity issues does not make them go away. Instead, they snowball." 

In the rest of the 25-minute clip, Lily then goes on to discuss that while she will no longer be continuing the Joe Goes series, she is settling into a career as a writer and shares that while her journey over the past few years wasn't easy, it was worth it. 

"When you’re being authentic, your essence shines and people want to be around you," she said. "My story is not Joe became Lily. My story is Lily stopped pretending to be Joe."

Congrats on living your truth, Lily! Welcome to the family! 

Watch Lily's full coming-out video below!