Last July, President Elon Musk went on Jordan “That F-cking Guy” Peterson’s podcast. He spouted some absolutely abhorrent rhetoric about his trans daughter, Vivian Wilson, including misgendering her and saying she’d been killed by the “woke mind virus.” Vivian, who came out in 2020, spent the next few weeks reading him for absolute filth, calling him a ”serial adulterer who won’t stop f–king lying about your own children.” Since then, Vivian’s gained an online following – she calls herself the ‘Queen of Threads,’ – and has been pretty outspoken about trans issues and her father.
Right now, Vivian, who turns 21 in April, is studying abroad in Tokyo. She speaks three languages, French, Spanish, and Japanese, and before her father went insane on the world stage, she wanted to be a translator. Vivian is on the cover of this month’s Teen Vogue and her interview covers a range of topics, including coming out, social media, politics, her father, and her many siblings. It’s a lengthy interview that you can read here, and here are some of the highlights:
She’s witty: “I have a sharp tongue. When you spend all of COVID [lockdown] in online communities of queer people who are constantly getting into drama and trying to read each other, [you] learn how to make a response very quickly, and you learn how to be funny and snap at someone else in a comedic way…. Getting into fights with other queer teenagers — that’s how you learn how to be quick and witty.” Much like her father, Wilson is extremely online; unlike her father, she’s really good at it.
Elon who?: Despite Wilson’s distance from Musk, she has unique insight into this precarious moment in the US’s political history. But she’s much more than the estranged daughter of the world’s richest man — in fact, she says, she barely thinks about her father. “I’m not giving anyone that space in my mind. The only thing that gets to live free in my mind is drag queens.”
Reality show dreamin’: “It is my absolute dream to be on a reality show, which I know is absolutely pathetic. As an overdramatic little queer, reality shows are something I adore beyond belief.”
On trans issues: “I don’t feel like people realize that being trans is not a choice. Obviously, it’s not just trans people that are affected by the current administration,” and mentions “marginalized groups such as undocumented immigrants and people of color. [I’m] really trying to do more advocacy on that front, since the current administration has kind of been like a wrecking ball in that regard.”
Her mom’s reaction when she came out: “She was very supportive of my transition. She is a published writer of supernatural romance fiction, which is where I get all my Vivian-isms, of being cringe and chronically online. When I came out to her, she was like, “Yeah, that figures.” She kind of [pieced it together], so when I came out, she pretended to be slightly surprised for 30 seconds and then was like, “Yeah, honey. Okay.””
Her dad’s reaction: “No, he was not as supportive as my mom. First of all, I had not talked to him in months — in months — so I had to get f**king parental consent to get testosterone blockers and [hormone replacement therapy].”
Her relationship with social media: “I’m just writing my little Threads and my little Bluesky [posts], and sometimes I make little videos, and then they sometimes get views. I ratioed Mark Zuckerberg, though. That was the one time I felt like, I am the f**king queen! I am the Queen of Threads; that’s my branding. I have a Bluesky, but “Queen of Bluesky” doesn’t have the same ring to it. I think my relationship with social media is fairly healthy. I have a TikTok account, but I actually don’t watch TikTok. I haven’t for years. The only social media that I actively use in my day-to-day are Bluesky and Threads. Or YouTube.”
She has no idea how many siblings she has: “I will say I do not actually know how many siblings I have, if you include half-siblings. That’s just a fun fact. It’s really good for two truths and a lie. I found out about the Shivon Zilis thing the same time everyone else did. I had no idea before that. I found out about Grimes having a second child because [Tatianna from RuPaul’s Drag Race] posted about it on Reddit. For a time, me and Grimes were not really in communication because I wasn’t in communication with anyone in that family, which still holds true. [Editor’s note: Wilson says she found out about Musk’s reported child with St. Clair the same way, joking, “If I had a nickel for every time I found out I had half-siblings through Reddit, I’d have two nickels.”]
She doesn’t keep in touch with the Musks: I don’t keep up with that side of the family because… I don’t. My mom doesn’t really either. She’s divorced, werk. So yeah. I don’t really give a f**k what they do. This is not my problem, okay? I’ve seen X once, when he was very little.
Her opinion of right-wing posters: “They’re not funny. You have to be funny. Most of them have the charisma of a soaking bathrobe. I mean, it’s not my fault that most of them don’t know how to be funny. It’s not that hard.”
Vivian is clearly incredibly intelligent and grounded despite everything she’s been through. It is wild that people are still trying to make “Elon is a family man” happen when his own children have no idea what he’s doing and how many women he’s busy procreating with. I feel badly for his older children with Justine Musk, who are old enough to understand WTF is going on right now. Since the interview came out, Elno’s continued to dead name her and repeat those stupid “woke mind virus” claims. Good for Vivian for cutting her toxic father out of her life. I hope her brothers are doing the same.
There’s also a really nice quote in the article from Vivian’s mother, Justine, which describes her as always having had “an uncompromising sense of who she is — and who she needs to be. She is big, fierce, wild multi-layered magic.” Vivian may have struck out in the dad department, but it sounds like she’s got a lot of love and support from her mother. I love that for her.
Vivian is beautiful and she is a bad ass. She is exactly the kind of leadership this country needs to stand up to her awful, creepy meddling father.
Sorry unrelated comment: My local National Wildlife Refuge was defunded for no good reason at all, so now since it won’t ever be staffed anymore (it was only staffed by one person, part time, plus the threat of a parking ticket for being there too long), we have to worry about people ruining it. Camping there, riding ATV’s through what should be a haven for nesting endangered shore birds and other animals. The next national day of protest is April 5. 50501. fiftyfifty,one
I worry constantly about the impact of all of this on animals. I can barely absorb all the horror. That’s why I’m always here.
My heart broke for recently. I read another interview about her decision to transition.
I’m paraphrasing but it went along the lines of she was furious to find out she had been genetically specified to be born male and found the whole concept completely fvcked up (which it is) and she had battled her whole life with her identity 💔
My heart breaks for her as well. She’s had a very public trial by fire due to who her father is, and she’s young. Her father takes up way too much space in this interview as well. I’m glad she reiterated that she’s a woman by birth, not choice, and she feels empathy with immigrants and POC.
She appears to be an articulate well spoken women. It must be wierd to find out you have another half sibling via the news.
It’s not quite the same, but I found out via Ancestry.com, once my grandmother told me my biological father’s name and that he was the same age as my mother. I have a sister and a brother, as my biological father married their mother the year after I was born. I later looked them up on Facebook and while I think I might like the daughter (she, very wisely, deactivated her FB just as I did, forever ago now), but the son cooonstantly posts right wing memes, so I don’t feel like I’m losing much there.
All power to her. She did inherit a lot of his genetic features but I hope she continues to grow out of his shadow.
These “Christians” keep putting the most disgusting men in charge. I get that musk was not elected, but it was clear that he would be the actual person in charge. The Christian-right is knee deep in filth and they keep adding new layers of crap on top.
>>an uncompromising sense of who she is — and who she needs to be. She is big, fierce, wild multi-layered magic.
Wow. I hope I find the words to say something that cool about my kids someday.
I love Vivian calling out how unfunny the right is. Zero humor!
That was simply an amazing description – I kinda got goosebumps just reading it!
In general it’s a shame – a loss to both parties – if both parents don’t get involved in child-rearing. In this case, all she has needed is a one great parent to raise her into a grounded, thoughtful young woman. The birth father just wants to be a detriment.
She is my hero! She could have stayed silent and waited years for the inheritance or the monthly stipend, but shes not letting this man dangle that carrot. Great for her! Wish more people were willing to not he controlled by their parents
One thing I really admire is that she’s making use of her access to top educational experiences. We have enough coked up brats taking up unearned spots in top schools crying about daddy doesn’t love me. Not referring to any orange offspring in particular.
She is fantastic.
I am over 50, but i read the teen vogue article.
She seems to have a good head on her shoulders. Which she is going to need.
That “father” of hers- his reign needs to end swiftly.
My mom in her 70s called to tell me about the Teen Vogue article. They were actually great during the first regime, and I had so much hope that youngin’s were going to save this country.
I worry for Vivian simply because she is so young. Being chronically online is not healthy, even if maybe she enjoys it right now. She is clearly more intelligent than her dad and knows what’s up. But I hope for her sake she takes a break now and again.
But what complicated family dynamics! Elon’s relationship with his own dad is also pretty complicated from what I remember. I also think in that same interview Vivian admitted to not being on speaking terms with her siblings (as in her full siblings, not all the random half siblings floating around). I have wondered what her brothers think of all this nonsense with their dad and if any are still in communication with him.
She’s on BlueSky! Clicking over there to follow. Just checked. She has 82,000 followers on BlueSky. Holy sh…
I have a lot of respect for her.
It’s a great read and have become a HUGE fan! Love that problematic fathers forget their children grow up and are free to speak of their relationship with you based on who you are as a person. Honestly. She killed me when asked about being scared of her father, (paraphrasing here) fake shaking, ohh you own whatever. Ahh, ok. Congratulations. Such a kid to parent response, loved it:)
She got me with how many nickels she’d have from every time she learned about a new half-sibling on reddit. My husband is estranged from his bio dad, and we don’t know for certain how many half siblings he has, but like, he doesn’t learn about them on social media and there definitely haven’t been any new babies in 30ish years.
Quick copy edit: Vivian speaks four languages – three, apart from English.
In addition to what everyone else says, she totally gets how to respond to a narcissist’s desire to make you afraid — laugh in their face. EM is a small, small man and we shouldn’t be afraid of him. We should just crush him.