[bright piano music]
- Mercury Stardust: It's all about helping the person
who's the most marginalized, right?
It's all about helping the person
who knows the least in the room.
Nothing makes you feel more of a human
than when you are helping people in need.
Hey there, hi, my name is Mercury Stardust.
I'm the intersectional feminist trans maintenance lady.
I can help you.
I was a professional maintenance technician
at a property management company
where I had to take care of 150 units, about 500 residents.
It was a really tough job.
On day one, I heard people talk about racial slurs.
Day one, I heard people say transphobic things.
That can be really difficult
to be able to be a marginalized person in that space
because you want there to be change,
and you don't wanna be a problem.
I was scrolling TikTok,
and then I saw someone who was very upset.
It was as a mom of, like, two or three kids.
She was, you know, crying in this video, saying,
"Hey, I don't know what to do."
And when you're watching a video like that,
as a person who was often told I was stupid
for not knowing certain things, I related to her in that moment
and I wanted to educate her in a way
that I wish I was educated to.
So I turned on the camera and I said,
"Hey, I'm gonna make a video."
I had no idea what I was doing.
Oh, that is a great question.
Let me show you what this little thing does.
I posted the video and I didn't really think much of it.
Woke up the next morning, I had, like, 100,000 followers.
That video had now hit, like, 600,000 people.
And my life changed so fast.
A lot of you are new here, so let's do an intro, shall we?
My name is Mercury, and I am the Trans Handy Ma'am.
Get a piece of cardboard, place it right underneath the nail.
This is a flange plunger.
It's gonna make your life a whole lot easier.
I would work my 10-hour shift and then I would clock out,
and then I would go and do, like, a four-hour live.
And I would sit there in a live stream
and just answer questions.
- This video is for Mercury Stardust,
the maintenance lady.
- When the management came to me and said,
"Hey, we found your TikToks
and those funny little videos online," as they called them,
were not rubbing them the right way.
I left in 2021,
about three months after I started my TikTok career.
But yeah, I haven't looked back since.
But now, you just gotta go a little bit farther.
But you're in the right direction.
And that's gonna be the plunger
and your Cobra skinny drain cleaner.
That's called acting.
It's kind of bringing an intersectional lens
to the DIY space, where if you can help the person
who's the most marginalized,
the person who's most affected by the systems
that are oppressing, then you're able
to kind of help every single person.
But I am telling you right now, you can wear jeans, overalls,
no bra, and do this work and get a little dirty,
and have nail polish still, and get a job done.
It doesn't matter. [saw buzzing]
It's been a wild thing.
I mean, I wrote a book,
to become a number-one New York Times bestselling book.
I also do a podcast called The Handy Ma'am Hotline.
I answer questions all the time.
Naturally want to come and swing out.
Do you know what I mean?
I also raise money for Point of Pride.
Point of Pride is a nonprofit organization
that provides gender-affirming care
for people who are not able to access it.
- In unison: And share the live!
- In the last three years, I've raised $4.5 million total.
It's a wild experience to be, like,
you're strapped to a rocket
and you're just shooting off into space.
And now here you are, trying to figure this out.
[Mercury laughing]
I think the overarching theme of all the work that I do
is about just taking up space.
It's about just being myself
and doing the things that I care about.
Right now, trans people are the center of every gosh darn topic.
We are 1% of the population, but we're 95% of the conversation.
We're being talked about, but never talked to.
Thank you for sharing that story.
The world that I care about
is about providing services to others.
Be it from providing gender-affirming care
to people who can't access it.
[Mercury cheering] - We just jumped up
to a million and five! - What?
Being providing, you know, home repair knowledge.
You already know how to solve this problem
before you even start.
Be it just connecting with people on a human level.
I enjoy those things.
I wanna let you know, you don't have to shave your eyebrows off.
You know? [laughing]
Am I gonna be here in five years?
I don't know.
Am I gonna be here in 10 years?
I don't know.
But I would love to be the Betty White
of the maintenance world. [laughing]
Live until I'm 105, fixing drywall and making people smile.
That'd be great.
Have a good day, take care, and remember,
you're worth the time it takes to learn a new skill.
Buh-bye!
[bright music]