Over the past few days, more and more TikTok users have been asking the same question: “How do you add pronouns to your TikTok profile?” Particularly for members of the LGBTQ+ community, pronouns are an essential way of identifying yourself, especially if your pronouns don’t necessarily match your sex. When someone asks you to use their pronouns, they’re asking for you to respect their identity. When someone refers to another person using the wrong pronouns, especially on purpose, that can leave the person feeling disrespected and can lead to dysphoria, exclusion, and alienation.
Many variations of pronouns exist ⏤ she/her, he/him and they/them are the most common ⏤ but other match-ups such as they/she, they/he, or even ze/zir and xe/xem are often mixed in. Regardless of whether or not a person identifies as anything other than the sex they were born as, pronouns are crucial tools for giving and receiving respect. Many cisgendered people, aka those who identify as the gender that corresponds with their birth sex, attach pronouns to social media as a show of respect for others who identify outside of the binary.
On TikTok, users are allowed to be whoever they want, and in December, TikTok released a feature that made it possible for them to add pronouns to their profiles. Since gender is very much a spectrum of self-expression, the current generation has made it vital that non-conforming genders are at last recognized, if not widely accepted.
For those who are wondering how to add pronouns to their TikTok profiles, the TikTok below explains exactly how to do it in three easy-to-follow steps.
To condense the TikTok into a TLDR format, here’s the basic gist:
- Go to your profile, then click Edit Profile. Below the Username section, there’s an option marked Pronouns. Add your desired pronouns in the designated box.
- When done, click Save in the top-right corner.
- When any TikTok user visits your profile, the pronouns will show up at the very top beneath your username.
As one of the largest community platforms of the 21st century, TikTok grows more and more progressive every day. It’s like Marmite — you either love it or hate it — but no one can say that TikTok hasn’t at least made a valiant attempt to be as inclusive as possible.
