Social media superstar Bretman Rock has opened his heart about coming out, discovering make-up, lockdown and fame in an exclusive cover interview with music and culture magazine, tmrw.
Bretman has 14.8 million followers on Instagram and 7.5 million subscribers on YouTube.
The stunning shoot was photographed by Jasper Soloff and is on sale now.
BRETMAN ROCK trmw QUOTES
On Coming Out:
“I never came out. People in my life knew I was gay before my first word, they’ve always been so accepting of that. I remember when I was four years old, me, my Mom, Brother and Sister all moved to America. It was my fourth birthday party and I got given a truck, a truck that you could get in and drive, and inside the truck they put in Barbies, because obviously they knew I loved playing with my sisters’ Barbies.”
This juxtaposition of child gender expectations was integral to his development. “I owe that to them, and I feel that’s why I’m honoured to be part of that for little gay boys. My family has always let me be who I was, and am.”
“Obviously, I’m always here for fans. For instance, when people come up to me and say that I helped them come out, I’m just wowed because, I didn’t even know that I was doing that for people. I didn’t know that I was a beacon of hope for them.”
On Discovering Make Up As A Child:
“I learned to do puzzles so fast that I would finish them and run my Grandma’s room, and sit and watch her do her make up for hours. I would get so excited when she would pass it to me and be like ‘oh, do you wanna put this on for me?’. Honestly, if I close my eyes I can still remember what lipstick she wore. Obviously, we were in the Philippines so we didn’t really have much make up, but just watching her and seeing how make up transformed her and how she felt wearing make up…”.
“I completely admired her from then. I admired women, and that’s when I fell in love with vanity.
“My favourite part is the getting ready, and watching yourself become something else entirely.”“I love the art, I see it as art”.
On Lockdown:
“I feel like I’ve done everything that I wanted to do in this quarantine. I’ve honestly been waking up earlier than usual, which is weird. I make myself a coffee, I do a lot of gardening because honestly I’ve just realised I have a green thumb… so now I have an indoor jungle and a garden. I maybe go out to the beach, ‘cause we’re allowed to go out to the beach now, and yeah, that’s it. I make my videos, do my make-up, same shit, every day.”
On Fame:
“So I live here on an island and obviously we have a population of like 4 people here, everyone knows each other, no one treated me any differently so I honestly didn’t feel famous while I was living here, and I’m still here. I still don’t feel famous to be honest, everyone treats me like a normal person here.
I didn’t feel the impact of, I guess ‘fame’ until I went to the mainland and the events, stuff like that.”
The first time Bretman can recall witnessing his popularity with his own eyes came in Fall, some years ago. Dressing up as ‘Whora the Explora’, Rock, along with his mother were walking down a street in New York on Halloween. It wasn’t long after hitting the pavement that he began to be stopped, bombarded with local people saying things like ‘oh my god, you’re Bretman Rock, you make those videos!’. “I was like, ‘I’m fucking famous, mom!’”.
On Bretman!
“Bretman Rock is a bad bitch, he’s unapologetic. He’s just a ball of confidence.”
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