Today we’d like to introduce you to Demi Wylde.
Hi Demi, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Hi! First of all, thanks for having me, I’m really excited to share with you my story.
I grew up in a small town outside of Fresno, California, called Visalia. When I was 13 my family moved to Riverside because my grandmother lived there. She had had a heart attack, so we wanted to be closer to her. Riverside is a rough place for anyone, so I’d like to think that I grew a thick skin pretty quickly out there.
I’ve always been a writer, ever since I was little. I started off with writing poetry then I eventually got started on online message boards writing fan fiction of Harry Potter. Super nerdy! I would write as sort of a way of therapy and to process the things I went through when I was younger, but also most likely a form of escapism, too. I had a bit of a rough childhood, I was bullied a lot, and got into trouble. I was also an only child, so I always sort of felt a bit like an outsider. Growing up, books were my best friends. I’d read things like Maya Angelou, Chuck Palahniuk, Dean Koontz, and Dan Browne. My interests always skewed a little towards the darker aspects of life: death, sex, and spooky things.
In my 20’s I moved to Seattle for a stint, fell in love, and nurtured my artistic side while performing and hosting shows in drag under the name Venus La Penus. I really learned how to stand on my own two feet hosting shows! I had no experience beforehand, and the job was kind of thrown at me, so I had to sink or swim. I eventually quit drag and moved back to California, then came to LA in 2019 after spending a couple years in college studying Communications and Journalism in Riverside.
Around 2018, I had realized I had so many poems I had written just taking up space in my notes and journals, so I decided to compile them into my first chapbook: “Bitter Blue Pill.” During the pandemic, with so much time on my hands, I entered a pretty creative time where I spent a lot of time writing. About a year later I self-published a second chapbook: “All Was Nothing in the Time of Champions,” and started work on my two blogs: “The Deviant Diaries,” which is a collection of memoirs about my own sexual experiences, and “A Deviant’s Guide to Sex,” a blog that explores the things we should have been taught in sex ed when we were younger.
All this writing and speaking led me to work on several of my own podcast projects under my business name: Wylde Heart Media. The first being “A Cosmic Journey with Demi and J.” – a news show about everything in the universe that I hosted with my best friend J. Maceo. The second was “Tarot Love Doctors” – relationship advice and tarot readings with myself and my friend Emanuela Rose, and of course “Hookup Horror Stories” – my pride and joy. Season 2 of HHS is premiering on 11/11/2022!
Other than that, I’ve taken quite an interest in TikTok as of late. I regularly post these #CosmicNews stories – a segment we did on “A Cosmic Journey,” that pertain to the realms of science, culture, true crime, paranormal history, and debunking conspiracy theories. Apparently, my content generates quite a response from conservative, conspiratorial Christians. But hey, whatever drives viewership, right?
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Man, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I’ve endured a lot of trauma, setbacks, and other physical/mental/emotional issues. I think, however, that everything that I’ve been through has led me here and it informs the person that I am becoming.
Take for instance my HIV diagnosis in 2017: yes, that was traumatic, and I had to overcome a lot of emotional, economic, and physical setbacks, but I have created such beautiful art based around those experiences. The namesake of my book, “Bitter Blue Pill,” specifically relates to that diagnosis and the difficulties I had with it. Not only that, but that moment forever changed me, and it informs everything I do with my current work, my podcasts, my writing, and with my advocacy.
Everything you’ve been through in life is meant to make you a stronger, more resilient person. You can either let your trauma eat you up inside, or you can let it be a part of your story.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As far as my artwork goes, poetry is still something I do fairly regularly. I post a lot of my published work on my Instagram. And of course, my podcast.
But something else I’ve been doing is I’ve been really into making digital collage self-portraits. I basically take tasteful nude photos of myself and inject them into some sort of a fantasy. Some of them are funny, or cute, but they always have a theme.
One of my favorites I made was I took a photo of myself from the back side and slapped myself into a dimension where every Salvador Dalí painting exists. Dalí is one of my favorite artists, so I was just having a bit of fun, but someone actually bought a huge print of it!
It’s super fun to bring these fantasies to life. Collage is such a simple art form but very meditative. When I get in the zone, I’m in the zone. It also sort of brings me back to when I was a teenager, and I would cut out pictures in magazines and put them on a bulletin board or hang them on my wall. Some habits never die, I guess.
What matters most to you?
Truth and authenticity.
Speaking my truth and bringing to light the issues that matter most to me is the most important thing to me. I feel like in this digital world where we can be, say, or do anything we want, that finding the truth can seem like finding a needle in the haystack. And authenticity? Well, that’s even harder to come by.
That’s something I do for my #CosmicNews videos on TikTok. I use my journalism and information parsing skills to bring about the truth of the world we live in, and you best bet I cite all my sources! I feel like all I see these days are conspiracy theories, liars, and clout-chasers, and just all the static. I want to bring in a revolution of truth with my work.
I’m really proud of a series of videos I did debunking a certain internet theory regarding Blac Chyna’s sex trafficking conspiracy. This “influencer” had said she was kidnapped by Chyna, the whole story was absurd, and she is a known (and admitted) liar. First of all, sex trafficking does exist in the world, but the victims are regular everyday people who have undergone serious trauma. Not to TikTok “influencers” who are clearly narcissists with too much time on their hands.
The truth is, that the victims of sex trafficking are groomed over time by people they know or even love into thinking that they are making their own choices. It’s essentially a form of brainwashing. I also plan on doing a whole episode on sex trafficking soon for Season 2 of #HookupHorrorStories. That’s something that matters a lot to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.demitriwylde
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/demitriwylde
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085450760437
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@demitriwylde
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/demitriwylde
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@demitriwylde
- Other: linktr.ee/demitriwylde
Image Credits
Daniel Huecias
Demi Wylde
Wylde Heart Media
