Honestly, if you were anywhere near YouTube in the early 2010s, you knew Gregory Gorgeous. The hair, the sass, the makeup tutorials that felt like talking to a best friend in a messy bedroom—it was a whole vibe. But then something shifted. The This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous documentary isn't just some glossy influencer puff piece about a girl getting rich on the internet. It’s actually a pretty heavy, raw look at what it means to dismantle your entire identity in front of millions of people who think they own a piece of you.
Why This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous Still Matters
Most people think of this film as just a "transition story." That’s kinda reductive. Directed by Barbara Kopple—who, by the way, has two Oscars—this documentary captures a very specific lightning-in-a-bottle moment where the "digital diary" era of the internet collided with the modern trans rights movement.
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The film premiered at Sundance in 2017, which was a massive deal at the time. It was the first YouTube Red original to ever hit that festival. It follows Gigi Lazzarato’s life from her days as a nationally ranked diver in Canada (back when she was known as Gregory) to her total transformation into the fashion icon she is today. But it’s the home video footage that really gets you. It’s not just polished 4K interviews. It’s grainy, shaky clips from the "vault" that show a kid just trying to breathe.
The Heartbreak Behind the Glamour
There’s a misconception that Gigi’s path was all pink clouds and easy surgeries because she was famous. It wasn't. The This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous documentary digs deep into the 2012 passing of her mother, Judith, from cancer. That was the catalyst. When you lose the person who loves you most, you realize life is way too short to live as anyone else.
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Gigi basically says, "Life is fragile, so I'm doing this now."
The movie doesn’t shy away from the scary stuff either. Remember that incident in Dubai? In 2016, Gigi was detained at the airport for "impersonating a woman." The documentary shows the sheer terror of that moment. It’s a stark reminder that even with millions of followers and a Kylie Jenner cameo, a trans woman's safety is never a given.
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The Family Dynamic
If you want to talk about E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) in storytelling, look at how Kopple handles Gigi’s father, David. He’s not a villain. He’s not a perfect saint either. He’s a dad who is clearly struggling with pronouns and the loss of "old Greg," yet he’s there. He’s the one helping her with ice packs after her surgeries.
- Raw Footage: We see the actual Facial Feminization Surgery (FFS) recovery.
- Brotherly Love: Her brothers, Adam and Corey, provide a grounded perspective on gender being a "false construct."
- The Price of Fame: The shift from a bedroom webcam to a full reality crew is palpable and, frankly, a bit jarring.
What Critics Got Wrong
Some reviews back in 2017 called the film "superficial." Variety, for instance, felt it lacked depth. I’d argue they missed the point. The "glossiness" is a defense mechanism. Gigi’s brand is being gorgeous—hence the name—but the documentary uses that polish as a foil for the moments where she’s crying in a hospital bed or dealing with horrific online death threats. It’s the contrast that makes it work.
The film is 91 minutes of "before and after," but the "during" is where the gold is. It’s a historical record of the 2010s internet culture.
Actionable Insights for Viewers
If you’re watching this for the first time or revisiting it in 2026, here is how to actually digest the impact of the This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous documentary:
- Watch the "Old" YouTube Clips First: Go back and look at her 2008 tutorials. It makes the documentary's transition footage hit ten times harder when you see where she started.
- Look for the "Shadow" Conversations: Pay attention to the scenes where the camera is hidden or in the corner. Those are the moments where Gigi forgot she was being a "personality" and was just a daughter talking to her father.
- Contextualize the Timeline: Remember that when Gigi came out as trans in 2013, the landscape was very different. There was no Pose, and Transparent hadn't even premiered yet. She was a pioneer in a very literal sense.
The documentary ends on a note of advocacy. Gigi isn't just a girl who got surgery; she’s a woman who realized her platform carries a weight she didn't ask for but decided to carry anyway.
To get the most out of the experience, check out the official Viewer’s Guide provided by the "It Gets Better" project. It helps break down the themes of identity and family support that the film explores, making it a great resource for educators or families going through similar journeys. You can also find the full documentary on YouTube, where it continues to serve as a digital time capsule for a generation of trans youth looking for a blueprint on how to be unapologetically themselves.