OMG! Baylen Dupree Breaks Down in Honest Reveal About Tourette Syndrome — The Truth No One Talks About
At a glance, Baylen Dupree of West Virginia is a typical 23-year-old. She has two loving parents, Julie and Allen, five siblings and a boyfriend named Colin, and enjoys sharing videos about her life on TikTok.
Baylen Out Loud, Baylen & Colin
What many might not pick up on right away, however, is that Dupree was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome right before she turned 18
The show will follow the unique struggles Dupree faces as a young woman with Tourette syndrome—a neurological disorder that causes involuntary vocal sounds (called tics) and movements that can range from mild to severe, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
During an exclusive interview with Parade, Dupree shared what prompted her to open up about her story on social media—she currently boasts over 9.6 million followers on TikTok alone—before signing on to star in her own reality TV show.
“I started social media basically to take back my power and to tell my story from my mouth and my eyes and my perspective,” she told Parade.
Dupree said she was bullied for her condition and “struggling very badly” with her mental health when she started posting videos on TikTok.
She explained, “Going on social media helped me with bullying and the people at my school and greatly with that but also for myself and for me to realize that—take a d–k b—h—that I didn’t want to be that person again and I didn’t want my condition that I have no control over dictate my life and dictate my happiness and dictate how I see myself.”
For Dupree, expanding this look into her life from brief clips to full TV episodes was an opportunity to “demonstrate and show all of the struggles and everything that I go through” as a young woman living with Tourette syndrome.
“The TV show can help me expand and bring more awareness to this very misunderstood and hard-to-understand condition that’s very complex,” she explained.
Triggers for Dupree’s tics, for example, include broad factors—like caffeine, anxiety and stress—as well more specific things like wearing hats or hearing certain sounds. The accompanying tics also vary.
“Some of my tics I get from my brothers and they’re…Well, they’re boys,” she said. “When you’re living with four of them it’s just there’s a lot of things said that probably shouldn’t be said and that is where I latch on.”
“But either like really stressful and like a lot of people can make my tics really bad,” she continued. “Or like being in an environment where there’s no one like a library and it’s very quiet can also make them bad as well.”
Smells and even songs can trigger Dupree’s tics, too.
“Lavender for example really sets my tics off and the song ‘Shake It Off’ by Taylor Swift,” she noted. “I cannot listen to it all because it sets my tics off and there’s certain things that like people think, ‘Oh that can’t set your tics off,’ and I’m like, ‘Yep the weather can set your tics off.’”
Seeing toes is another specific trigger for Dupree’s tics.
“I have to say, like, ‘Look at those dogs,’ like it’s just like all people—even like the mannequins in stores.”
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