NEW YORK — Airyn De Niro, whose parents are Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro and former model, actor and restaurateur Toukie Smith, has come out as a trans woman.

The self-described “late bloomer” spoke about her transgender experience in an exclusive interview published Tuesday.

“I think a big part of (my transition) is the influence Black women have had on me,” she told Them magazine contributor Ava Pauline Emilione. “I think stepping into this new identity, while also being more proud of my Blackness, makes me feel closer to them in some way.”

The 29-year-old revealed she began hormone therapy in November 2024 and initially had concerns that family members would think of her as she was before.

“I think part of me is concerned that (my family) will maybe still think of me as the person I was before the transition,” she said.

In March, Airyn’s so-called “major transformation” went viral after she was outed by British tabloids while meeting her famous father at New York City’s Greenwich Hotel.

“Not only did they get information wrong about me… They just sort of reminded me that people really don’t know anything about me,” said the aspiring actress and model, who grew up in New York City and came out as a gay man in high school.

“(Gay men were) ruthless and mean. I didn’t even fit that beauty standard, which is thin, white, muscular, or just super fit, masculine,” she said. “I was always told I was too much of something or not enough of something, growing up: Too big, not skinny enough. Not Black enough, not white enough. Too feminine, not masculine enough. It was never just, ‘You’re just right, just the way you are.’”

Representation has mattered most to her in the form of the mainstream success of groundbreaking actresses Laverne Cox, Raven-Symoné, KeKe Palmer, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez and recent TikTok sensation Jools Lebron — for pushing an alternative to “whitewashed ideals of womanhood,” she said.

Other people’s visibility helped guide her own internal process of liberation: “Trans women being honest and open, especially (in)public spaces like social media and getting to see them in their success, I’m like, ‘you know what? Maybe it’s not too late for me. Maybe I can start.'”

After nearly a decade together, De Niro and Smith split in 1994 a year before Airyn and her twin brother were born.

“Obviously no parent is perfect, but I am grateful that both my parents agreed to keep me out of the limelight. They wanted it very private,’ she shared. “They have told me they wanted me to have as much of a normal childhood as possible.”

Now as an adult, she said, “there’s a difference between being visible and being seen. I’ve been visible. I don’t think I’ve been seen yet.”

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