Q&A: Angel Joy Flores on Access vs. Authenticity Online
After a whirlwind introduction to content creation, arkangeljoy works to amplify alternative transfeminine voices.
(Courtesy of Angel Joy Flores)
Angel Joy Flores (she/her) considers herself a content creator first, performer second and athletic coach third. After being featured in an Emmy award-winning episode of Netflix’s Queer Eye, Angel found herself in a brand new industry — where people wanted to know her story, her opinions and the details of her love life. Over the past two years, she’s continued celebrating LGBTQIA+ lifestyle and visibility while building lasting community online. In partnership with Hopelab, YR Media’s Christian Romo (he/him) interviewed Angel on what it takes to live out loud on multiple platforms, and how she’s learned to balance her own needs with the needs of her growing audience.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
YR Media: How do you see your content impacting your followers?
Angel Joy Flores (arkangeljoy): Really, what started it all was my episode on Netflix’s Queer Eye. I had a lot of messages post the show as I was gaining a bigger following. People were telling me that they were constantly blown away by how open I was and how out I was. And more and more people would message me saying that they felt inspired to come out and be open and be proud, just by seeing another person on screen. And so it’s really been the same throughout like the past two years of doing online content. It’s been about inspiring people to be proud of who they are, to be more of who they are.
YR: I love that. Speaking of pride, do you see your work providing gender affirmation or pride in identity and community?
Angel Joy Flores: Yes, absolutely. I didn’t grow up with many idols, especially like after I came out as trans. And so for me, there wasn’t much of an experience of being able to see people live a proud experience as a trans person, as a queer person in general. And so for other people who follow me and then who see me as an idol, there is definitely an effect of pride that spreads through everything they do and the lives that they live.
YR: You mentioned not having examples of trans femininity when you were younger. Where were you learning about transness?
Angel Joy Flores: I think for a lot of us, we grew up thinking something’s off. And I didn’t have any language or ideas of what that could possibly look like or be growing up.
And otherwise it’s it’s media and like TV shows and movies where trans people, especially in like the late 90s, early 2000s and beyond that, are just not portrayed in a very positive light, right? We’re the butt of a joke or we’re highly sexualized and over sexualized.
There was a New Zealander content creator, Toby on the Tele. Essentially she was on the Misfits podcast, they’re that little like YouTube gang that I don’t quite watch anymore because they push the boundaries sometimes. But essentially they had a podcast once and Toby is telling this story the entire time about how like everything about Toby’s childhood and life were just different.
They always knew something was off. They couldn’t connect with friends that they thought that they were supposed to be making. And they couldn’t live a life that they thought they were supposed to be. At the end of the podcast, I was on an hour-long drive back to San Antonio from Austin. And at the end of the podcast, she sits and she says, “I’m coming out as trans right now. I am a trans woman.”
And I pulled the car over and just sat. I just sat. And I was like, whoa, is that? I think that’s me. Like, I think that’s I think that’s who I’m supposed to be. I remember I texted my best friend at the time, an out and proud lesbian. And I was like, do you think I could be trans? So to give context, I was a very masculine, very muscular, very like gym rat, gym bro. But after the two of us kind of like sat for coffee and sat on it and said like, maybe this, maybe I am feeling this.
YR: Yeah, that sounds like a really jaw-dropping moment, especially in that environment of going through a long drive and then you just literally had to pump the brakes. Wow, what a story.
So what does the term parasocial relationship mean to you?
Angel Joy Flores: I think that especially now doing a lot more like live streaming and a lot more like in-person events, seeing a lot more people out and about, there’s so much to it. Like “parasocial relationship” for me is very much like how I’ve affected people and how people interact with me based on how I’ve affected them, right?
I know that a lot of people tend to stick to just the basic definition of like, this is just how my fans, my followers interact with me. But for me, there’s so much more to it in that I have had an impact on so many people and a positive impact on so many people. And so, to be able to kind of see their experiences and hear about their experiences not only helps me see what effects that my content has, but also helps inspire me to do more.
YR: How much interaction is kind of taking place within, let’s say, this platform of Instagram. Like, are you on there on the daily trying to keep up with the comments?
Angel Joy Flores: I think it’s somewhere in the middle. There are days where I’m just go, go, go. Today, for example, I’m going from like in-person work this morning to this [interview], to content creation after this, to streaming afterwards. So there’s not as much time for me to sit and scroll through every single comment that I can. Also, there’s the hate that comes by, of course. And sometimes it’s one of those days where I just can’t deal with it. I don’t have enough snide comments to react with, right?
However, when I do have a good comment section where people are having conversations, like asking or answering questions, I like to chime in. I like to talk and kind of just like join the conversation. I see it a lot more now in terms of like being live on Twitch or on TikTok. People are looking for friends, and they want cool friends and they want cool people to talk to. And so for them to be able to jump on chat and say what they’re feeling, what they’re experiencing, and for me to be able to relate to them and answer questions and kind of help them through certain things that they need — it’s really important to me.
I keep making jokes that like, I don’t want to get big on Twitch, because like, I don’t want to have to stare at a chat that’s just flying by my face, right? I like my little community; I like my little set of people that can come in and be like, “Hey friend, like, what’s up? What’s going on? How are things?”
YR: How has using the platforms on social media molded your experience as a figure online? What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of being so visible?
Angel Joy Flores: I think that the benefits of course are visibility, and of course a career. That’s enabled me to have a lot of freedom in my life. An ex of mine used to say, well, you’re always gonna be able to lean on this as a job. That kind of changes how you see life. No matter what happens, like this job market, while unique and somewhat considered niche, it’s kind of always going to exist as long as the internet exists, right? It’s just a matter of pivoting.
In terms of negatives, I have to say that I had a lot of struggles in my first year. I went from having a thousand followers to, in maybe two weeks, 130 thousand. And so for me, there was no like transitionary period. So I kind of just like did what other people were doing and tried to like play my personality and my individuality into what the algorithm of what the platform wanted me to post.
And I think I quickly realized that like, it was just so exhausting to not be truly myself for the sake of trying to grow, right? There was a lack of authenticity there. No matter how well I hid it, no matter how well people would say like, “You’re very authentic, you’re very straightforward,” I didn’t feel as authentic to my true self as I could be.
I took a little bit of a break. I took six months and I was like, I’m not going to post every day. I’m just going to do every once in a while and kind of keep the numbers up. But I’m not going to take this as seriously. And I came back with kind of a reframed mind and I said, I had to play to myself. And if they don’t like that, then that’s just how it is.
I get questions all the time from people like, how did you break into that? And I say, “Well, I cheated, I was on a TV show. But you break into it by being yourself, not by being somebody else.”
YR: Do you have suggestions on how to foster community online?
Angel Joy Flores: Are we talking from the viewer standpoint or talking from the content creator standpoint? That’s my question.
YR: What would be the difference?
Angel Joy Flores: Ooh, that’s a great way of reframing that question for me, huh? The difference is whether you’re trying to foster the community yourself or find community. Or, whether you’re trying to create community or enter the community.
I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how to break into the space and create community. I don’t want to hammer on about authenticity because that’s what I talk about a lot. But I think that the more people feel like you are being truthful and honest and completely yourself, the more people will want to listen to you and gather around you and just understand that you’re being as real with them as they can be with you, right?
And as the viewer, I’d say the biggest tip I can give is don’t be anxious or nervous or fearful about how people will receive you. A lot of people nowadays, especially with so many people being diagnosed with neurodiversion, having anxiety, depression, and then various other things, so many of us get caught up in, “What if this community rejects me? What if this community is not as welcoming as I want them to be?” Be as real as possible and they’ll be real with you. And if it’s not your home, then there’s somewhere else for you.
There is a different page on the same app. There’s a different Discord server for you. There’s a different streamer with a better community for you, right? I think that those trying to build community, all they have to do is make a little bit of effort, reach out, say something. I think that fostering community is the best thing we can do with this internet, with the globalization effect that the internet has brought. What’s the point in having all this access to everybody else if we’re not going to use it for positive experiences and for community?
And it leads to so much more. It can lead to in-person meetups with groups of friends that you’ve met online; it can lead to years-long D&D campaigns; it can lead to a streaming career or a social media career — whatever the hell you want. Talk, say something, scream out your existence to the world. It’s more than just your responsibility. It’s your right as a human, as a user of these platforms.
YR: Hopelab’s research found the benefits of following online creators may be especially important to transgender and non-binary young people. What do you think these sets of parasocial dynamics will look like 10 years from now?
Angel Joy Flores: The platforms will always be changing, right? There’s always going to be a new platform that rises up. We’re steady and stable where we are. I think there’s a lot of options right now between the different streaming and social media platforms. But in five years time, there’ll be another one. I think that in the future, there’s going to be more of a disconnect between the larger content creators and the smaller ones. And there’s this interesting rift that I’ve been seeing where the larger ones build these massive communities around people that they don’t really interact with truly. They’re just kind of an entertainer at that moment. You’re going to a concert.
You’re another face in the crowd for them. If that’s how you want to consume the content you consume, that’s more than okay. We’ve been seeing recently — especially with how Chappell Roan’s been treated — that there are some negatives to that experience. However, I think the disconnect will grow. The smaller streamers and content creators are going to be even more personal, even more authentic to the small communities. And that we’ll start seeing this increase in parasocial relationship dynamics at the smaller level.
I think that, especially now over time, as people grow up, they want to be more involved and they want to talk more. And so they’ll find and reach out to smaller creators who they can actually connect with and have an experience with and have longer term parasocial relationships with.
YR: Are there any questions you wish people would ask you?
Angel Joy Flores: When you have this constant and consistent online presence — especially when you have a content plan and you’re speaking from a place of like trying to find topics and subjects to talk about — people oftentimes are so focused on the thing that you’re talking about that they kind of lose the person behind the camera. Or the person in front of the camera even. Where even in my personal life, I have friends that almost forget to reach out. They almost forget to be like, hey, how are you doing? Right? Because they feel like, okay, I saw you a few minutes ago. You’re on everything. You look fine. You look great. You’re beautiful! What could be wrong?
And there are some points where I still want to talk about a subject, but I’m struggling a little bit. I’m going through a hard time, a breakup, a loss of friendship. Or I’m just stressed out. And I’m human. And sometimes I wish that some people would simply sit back and be like, “Hey, are you okay? What’s up? How’s your day? How are you doing?” That’s one of the reasons I appreciate Twitch streaming. I can jump on and people will notice really fast.
In terms of other questions, I have a very unique identity in that I don’t truly cling to any strict labeling of what I am or who I am. I am transfeminine and queer, and that could mean any range of number of things. Oftentimes it feels like I’m putting on a million different masks all day and just switching it up. I think that while labels and structures are very useful, once we start to peel those structures away, things get very interesting. And people should feel entitled to ask questions about that, and to start asking questions not only about me and about other people like me — but also of themselves.
Edited by shaylyn martos