Mother Victory Combats Anti-Asian Hate One Laugh at a Time

Much about TikTok sensation Mother Victory is shrouded in mystery. When asked their age by one of their 1.5 million followers, they replied, "666." When asked what their real name is by fans, they provided "proof" in the form of child-like drawing of a passport which states: "First name: Mother, Last name: Victory." And when asked what their "real voice" sounds like (since in their videos they speak in an over-the-top, very eloquent, Tim Curry-esque accent), they gasp in horror, clutch their pearls, and declare, "How dare you say Mother Victory's voice isn't real!"

What we do know about the diva-licious social media star is that they are super glamorous, extremely hilarious, part of the Asian-Pacific Islander population, and nonbinary. They say they're "OK" with "all pronouns" but they typically use he/they offline and she as Mother Victory. And they're a fiercely dedicated advocate for the LGBTQ+ and API communities, slyly using their popular TikTok persona to spread healthy messages of affirmation, inclusion, and personal preservation.

Though Mother has already amassed more than 1.5 million followers in just over a year, the content creator says they didn't necessarily have big plans to be the next social media sensation -- rather, they simply started doing TikTok videos after losing their job due to the pandemic. They started out doing drag but soon realized the physical demands of the art were not for them. When they pared down their glamour to a wigless, costume-less, more authentic version of themselves and began comedically responding to fans' comments, Mother Victory was born.

"I found it difficult to just get in full drag makeup," says Mother V. "I know there's a lot of drag queens on TikTok -- it's so hard, you know, getting into the full wig and things like that all the time, so I'm like, Let me try to mix it up. And then I realized that my content without the makeup was doing good sometimes, if not better than the drag content. ... I took the wigs off. I took the outfits off ... [but] I kept the drag nails, and then that kind of became iconic."

Indeed, Mother's gorgeous nails and rhinestoned nail gloves are a key component of their videos, often used as a visual aid in listing helpful tips (see their video on avoiding dangerous confrontations below). In fact, beneath the fun and frivolity of their TikToks, Mother is almost constantly highlighting a nonprofit to support or bringing awareness to important issues, such as homelessness, LGBTQ+ youth, mental health, and the ongoing violence against Asian communities, trans people, and people of color.

Mother also participates in the platform's new #LearnOnTikTok initiative, which partners with creators to bring educational content to followers. The influencer says that putting "mother" in their name was very intentional, as they wanted to create a sense of community and found family with their art.

"I had some comments before ... [of] people calling me mother because I started out kind of like this drag queen," they recall. "And you know, you're like the mother of LGBTQ children. I was a very big advocate. ... And so that's how I kind of started gathering [and] growing my LGBTQ audience. I was like, This is my niche. This is what I do. And it's slowly expanded into everyone. And now they're like, Do I have to be LGBTQ to be your child?"

"Adoption applications are open to quite everyone," they reassure.

Follow Mother Victory on TikTok at @mother_victory or on Instagram at @mother.victory -- and don't you dare say that isn't their real voice!