Emira D’Spain Can’t Keep A Secret

Emira D’Spain is clocking in — or, perhaps more accurately, she’s never really clocked out. We’re sitting in the Elite Daily offices on a Tuesday afternoon, the day after the Met Gala, and she’s paused our conversation to respond to TikTok comments on her latest GRWM video, dropping product details and a myriad of heart emojis to fans complimenting her look. “Duty calls,” she says, typing at a million words a minute. Within 30 seconds, she settles back in to listen attentively to my next question.

The 28-year-old influencer has accomplished a week’s worth of work in the last two days. She returned home to New York at 3:30 a.m. after a full weekend at F1 in Miami, then was up five hours later for Met Gala prep. After that, she worked the red carpet for E! News, and then went to multiple after-parties in the rain (despite losing her umbrella). Somehow, D’Spain looks as rested and glowy as ever today, with an enviably perfect full beat of shimmery makeup and not a dark circle or skin blemish in sight. It’s clear why she has 1.3 million TikTok followers clamoring for her beauty advice.

D’Spain’s loyal fan base of “Cunty Barbies” have known her since 2021, when she started going viral for her makeup tips. Her videos are peppered with cheeky, self-deprecating humor and a hefty dose of expletives (she often opens with, “Your makeup looks like f*cking sh*t. It’s OK, mine did too.”). She made history as the first Black trans model for Victoria’s Secret, and built up a roster of collabs with major beauty brands like Peter Thomas Roth, Kosas, and NARS. This summer, a new audience is about to meet her for the first time. Next Gen NYC, a reality series about the lives of D’Spain and her friends, premieres June 3 on Bravo, marking her first foray into unscripted TV. “I’m feeling really excited,” she says. “I feel like this is a whole new chapter for me. Everything I want is coming to fruition.”

She speaks in manifesting terms, and it’s with good reason — she’s built her dream life in the span of a few years. Born in Dubai (Libra sun, Leo moon, Sagittarius rising), D’Spain moved around the United States with her family as a kid and was homeschooled until age 12. She’s been the main character for as long as she can remember. “I always knew I wanted to be a star. My parents knew,” she says. “There are videos of me as a kid pretending to be on a red carpet, talking to a camera.”

Joining a school IRL was an adjustment. “It was literally that scene in Mean Girls when I didn't raise my hand to go to the bathroom — I just got up and left, and they yelled at me. I was like, ‘Why do I have to ask you to go to the bathroom?’” But D’Spain made friends readily. “I easily assimilated,” she says. “I was very outgoing and loud. I still am, but I was very over-the-top 24/7.” Middle school was also when she began coming into her trans identity — a process that would eventually become “set in stone” over the next 10 years.

Her passion for hair and makeup started young, thanks to her mom’s influence. “My mom is a beauty queen, and I’d watch her get ready,” D’Spain says. “I started taking beauty seriously and doing looks on myself in college.” Contrary to what her pro-level techniques might lead you to believe, she’s never received formal training in makeup. “People always ask if I went to school for it, but it was literally trial and error,” she says. “I’ve had many fails. You can Google them. But you know what? We live and we learn and we grow.”

People don’t realize how much work goes into this job because there are so many people who just coast on it.

D’Spain moved to New York to attend NYU, but not before spending her freshman year as an exchange student in Paris. “I’m pretty brave, and that’s the quality that I admire the most about myself,” she says when I remark on how bold it is to move internationally at age 18. She snuck into Paris Fashion Week, went out to clubs, and showed up to campus in the remnants of her Halloween bunny costume (“Lots of crazy stories and lore from that era of my life.”). But she stayed focused, returning to NYU and landing a job at Paper magazine, working her way from marketing intern to beauty director.

“As I was creating beauty content for them, I started creating beauty content on my own page, because why not?” she says. “It was also during COVID, and I had nothing better to do.”

Getting in early proved to be a smart move — D’Spain was one of the first creators to post the GRWM-style videos that have become ubiquitous on TikTok. In 2022, she landed the brand partnership she’d always dreamed of: a collaboration with Victoria’s Secret. “That was when I sat my parents down and said, ‘You guys, I want to do this. I’m going to quit my job.’ They were really not on board at first.” Her mom and dad, who came from finance and engineering careers, respectively, wanted her to keep a 9-to-5.

But the gamble paid off, launching D’Spain firmly into the NYC influencer space. “People don’t realize how much work goes into this job because there are so many people who just coast on it,” she says. “I was an editor before, so I have a different type of work ethic than someone who just graduated college and started doing influencer stuff full-time. There’s nothing wrong with that. I would just hope people realize that it’s more work than just posting.”

I don’t want my entire point of being on the show to be about my identity.

She’s been careful to maintain a social circle outside the content creator niche. “I pride myself on being someone who wants to learn about different life experiences,” she says. “It’s cool to do that with other influencers because not everyone’s the same, but it’s also cool to hear about my friends who work at Goldman Sachs. That’s crazy. I know nothing about that world.”

Industry friends have their perks, though — and one unexpected connection landed D’Spain her new gig on TV. She met Brooks Marks at an event early in her career, when he was already a series regular on Real Housewives of Salt Lake City with his mom, Meredith. “I had not watched the show; I didn’t even know who he was,” D’Spain says. “We realized we had a bunch of mutual NYU friends, then we just started hanging out.” (She’s marathoned all five seasons of RHOSLC in the years since.)

When Marks asked her to join Next Gen NYC, D’Spain was down to give it a shot. “With the exception of a couple people, everyone was friends for at least a couple years. That makes the dynamics of the group so much more interesting, because you’re watching actual friendships play out,” she says.

Appearing in front of the camera came naturally, but she wasn’t used to giving up control over the final edit. “I never realized that there’s no takesy-backsies,” she says. “You have to be real and raw and honest. I had a vision in my head where they’d be like, ‘All right, cut. Let’s take that again.’ But it’s not scripted. What you say and how you say it, that’s what they’re going to run with.”

She’s the first full-time trans cast member on Bravo, an accomplishment she’s proud of but doesn’t want the show to revolve around. “I don’t want my entire point of being on the show to be about my identity,” she says. “We had such good conversations with the people at NBC about that. The way my story unfolds, that’s not even a focal point. But, that being said, I do still think it’s important, and it’s something I’m proud to champion because it is opening the door for other people.”

I always implore people to say and do the right thing. Am I sometimes a hypocrite and don’t take my own advice? Of course.

D’Spain describes her role as the “voice of reason” in the group. “I have a very level head, especially when it comes to friendships,” she says. “A lot of people come to me for advice, and you’ll see that play out.” The trailer teases that she loves “being messy,” and she says she’ll have some villain moments this season, too. “I can’t keep a secret to save my life. I always implore people to say and do the right thing. Am I sometimes a hypocrite and don’t take my own advice? Of course. I’m human.”

Audiences will also meet her boyfriend, Kevin, who she launched on TikTok in August 2024, and will play a larger role in the show. “I like to keep my personal life so private, so you’ll see me battle with that a little bit,” she says. But he was totally game to participate. “He’s excited to do it because of me. He’s like, ‘Whatever makes her happy.’”

As she enters a new, more vulnerable era, D’Spain is more motivated than ever to share her platform with a growing fan base. “My purpose on this earth is to make people feel hot and learn how to do beauty and glam and all that fun sh*t,” she says. “Everyone can be beautiful. That’s all I want to make people realize.” Cunty Barbies, it’s time to clock in.