Celebrity Big Brother legend Tiffany Pollard has publicly come out as non-binary as she says she’s embracing both her masculine and feminine sides
CBB star Tiffany Pollard comes out as queer
Reality TV star Tiffany Pollard has publicly come out as non-binary, opening up about her gender identity and sexual orientation in a series of candid interviews.
The former Flavor of Love and Celebrity Big Brother UK star, 43, explained that she resonates with being non-binary because she experiences both masculine and feminine aspects of herself. “I really do resonate with non-binary because I feel like we are so dual without even recognising it,” she shared this week.
“Some days, I may feel a lot more masculine, and some days I’m super feminine, and that’s okay,” the iconic CBB housemate added.
Tiffany has also reflected on her early experiences with her sexuality, revealing that she first kissed a girl in middle school and immediately felt it was right.
“It had to happen at some point. You gonna come out of that closet, and once you do, it’s like, ‘Okay, wow, this world is open to me in new ways,'” she told PinkNews. “Shoving me back in the closet is never gonna be an option.”
The reality star, who became a household name as the “HBIC” on Flavor of Love, has long been celebrated for her unapologetic personality and defiance of norms.
On Celebrity Big Brother UK in 2016, Tiffany delivered some of the show’s most unforgettable moments.
These include her infamous “David’s dead” misunderstanding and a string of viral diary room rants where she slammed fellow housemate Gemma Collins.
These moments have cemented her as a fan favourite and contributed to her incredibly strong following within the LGBTQIA+ community.
Tiffany attributes part of her appeal to the community to her authenticity and her resilience, as well as her iconic and sometimes controversial reality TV moments.
Speaking on a recent podcast, she said: “I was bullied a lot, especially coming up as a kid, and I feel like the gays understand that and accept it and see me in a lot of ways, and vice versa”.
She also discussed her exploration of masculinity, noting: “I talk like a man, I think like a man… and why is that something I have to suppress if I know it’s there? But can I throw on a heel and a wig and feel amazing? Yes. There’s still another side to me.”
The star has described her life as “very, very broad,” emphasising that she has never shied away from expressing herself fully.
Tiffany’s openness about her non-binary identity and queer experiences adds to her reputation as an incredibly iconic and influential figure for representation in reality television and beyond.
Each morning before Cameron Brink pulls on her Sparks jersey, she scans a taped-up collage in her closet. Olympic rings, a WNBA All-Star crest, snapshots with her fiancé and a scatter of Etsy trinkets crowd the board.
The canvas is a handmade constellation of who Brink is and who she longs to be. Between magazine clippings and scribbled affirmations, Brink sees both the grand arc and the small vows that tether her: to show up as a teammate, a daughter and a partner.
“You have a choice every day to have a good outlook or a bad outlook,” said Brink, the Sparks’ starting forward. “I try to choose every day to be positive.”
That choice seemed to matter most when the future felt furthest away. The practice emerged in the thick of a 13-month recovery from a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Brink — the Stanford star and Sparks No. 2 draft pick — was forced to measure life in the tiniest ticks of progress after injuring her left knee a month into the 2024 season.
Sparks teammates Cameron Brink and Dearica Hamby clap hands as they pass each other on the court during a game against the Storm in Seattle on Aug. 1.
(Soobum Im / Getty Images)
Sparks veteran Dearica Hamby recognized how rehab was grinding down the rookie. One afternoon, she invited Brink to her home, where the dining table was set with scissors, glue sticks, stacks of magazines and knickknacks.
“I’ve always been taught growing up that your mind is your biggest power,” Brink said. “So I’ve always been open to stuff like that. I heavily believe in manifesting what you want and powering a positive mindset.”
Hamby had been building vision boards for years and believed Brink could use the same practice — both as a pastime and as a mechanism to combat the doubts that surfaced during her lengthy and often lonely rehab.
“If she can visualize it, she can train her mind the opposite of her negative thoughts and feelings,” Hamby said. “When you see it, you can believe it. Your brain is constantly feeding itself. And if you have something in the back — those doubts — you need something to counter that.”
The board dearest to Brink wasn’t crowded with stats or accolades. She crafted what she calls her “wonderful life,” layering in snapshots of her fiancé, Ben Felter, and framed by symbols of family and team.
“You’re a product of your mind,” Brink said. “Everything in my life, I feel like I’ve fought and been intentional about.”
Fighting was what the year demanded. However inspiring the boards looked taped inside her closet, the reality was gradual and often merciless.
From the night she was carried off the court last June to the ovation that greeted her return in July, Brink’s progress unfolded in inches — from the day she could stand, to the day she could walk to the day she touched the hardwood again.
Sparks forward Cameron Brink, left, and guard Rae Burrell, who are injured, shout and celebrate from the bench after their team scored against the Chicago Sky on June 29.
(Jessie Alcheh / Associated Press)
“It’s been such a journey,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said. “Cam’s mentality was just trying not to freak out. She was really focused on not being anxious about it.”
Brink came to practice with her game on a leash, her activity hemmed in by doctors’ timelines. While teammates scrimmaged, she studied sets from the sidelines.
Roberts praised her patient attitude as “great,” a skill Brink sharpened by the ritual of opening her closet and trusting the journey.
Kim Hollingdale, the Sparks’ psychotherapist, worked closely with Brink during her recovery. While bound by confidentiality, she spoke to how manifestation tools can anchor an athlete through the mental strain of long recovery.
“Being able to stay in touch with where we’re ultimately trying to get to can help on those days when it’s feeling crappy,” Hollingdale said. “Visualization helps us be like, ‘OK, look, we’re still heading to that vision. This is part of the journey.’ It gives purpose, direction and a little hope when you’re in the mud of recovery.”
That sense of purpose, she added, is about giving the brain something familiar to return to when progress stalls — a way for the mind to rehearse what the legs can’t.
For Brink, that meant keeping her game alive in pictures she ran through her head. Putbacks in the paint became reruns in her mind, and Hollingdale said the brain scarcely knows the difference: If it sees it vividly enough, the muscles prime themselves as if the movement truly happened.
What mattered wasn’t just mechanics. Tuning out noise became essential as Brink was cleared to return as a WNBA sophomore by calendar yet a rookie by experience. What could have been crushing pressure was dimmed by the vision boards — the “mental rehearsal,” as Hollingdale labeled it.
Sparks forward Cameron Brink shoots a three-pointer against the Connecticut Sun on Aug. 7.
(Luke Hales / Getty Images)
“I didn’t want to focus on stat lines or accolades coming back from injury,” Brink said. “I learned the importance of enjoying being out there, controlling what I can control, always having a good attitude — that’s what I reframed my mindset to be about.”
During Brink’s return against the Las Vegas Aces on July 29, she snared an offensive rebound and splashed a three-pointer within the first minute. And since, she has posted 5.9 points and four rebounds an outing, headlined by a 14-point performance through 11 minutes against Seattle.
Hollingdale tabbed Brink’s return a rarity. She often prepares athletes to weather the gauntlet of “firsts” — the first shot that clangs, the first whistle, the first crowd cheer — without expecting much beyond survival.
But upon Brink’s return, those firsts weren’t looming unknowns. They were rehearsed memories.
“That is a testament to her being able to manage herself, her emotions and her anxiety and all the stress and pressure,” Hollingdale said. “To come out and make a meaningful difference to your team straight away speaks to the ability to stay locked in and cut out the noise.”
By refusing to sprint through recovery, Hamby said Brink insulated herself from the pressure that shadows young stars. The vision boards, Hamby added, became a tangible expression of Brink’s decision to trust herself.
“She’s done it differently,” Hamby said. “For her, it’s more of a mental thing than a physical thing. She took her time, not listening to people tell her she should have been back sooner.”
When Brink shuts the closet door and heads to Crypto.com Arena for game day, she’s already spent the morning tracing the steps of the night.
On the next blank corner of her canvas?
“Being an All-Star and going to the Olympics,” she said.
Some advice: If you love something, set it free — even the Miu Miu heels.
This was the notion that two friends, Quinn Shephard and Francesca Goncalves, were discussing in a sun-kissed setting (a “pool somewhere,” Shephard recalls). They wanted to barter their old clothing, but that was a sticky prospect in Los Angeles — the scene is riddled with suspicious stares from thrift store employees and digital cold wars with teenagers on Depop. There’s pomp and circumstance at every turn.
Kristen Vaganos and Kate Mansi help a shopper try on some shoes.
(Yasara Gunawardena / For The Times)
“So many people are like: I go to Wasteland or Crossroads and I get $3,” Shephard explains. “They’re not nice to me.”
Shephard and Goncalves wanted to start a closet sale that felt more like a fun hangout with friends. So one day last summer, Shephard and Goncalves hit the streets of Silver Lake, asking small businesses if they’d host an event that they were calling Outfit Repeater L.A. Shephard jokes that Goncalves is the “mayor of Silver Lake” — the kind of Gatsby-like woman who makes Los Angeles feel like a small town, chatting with strangers with an endearing openness. Finally, they arrived at Constellation Coffee, a contemporary, sleek coffee shop. To their surprise, the manager agreed to host Outfit Repeater L.A. that upcoming Sunday.
“She’s used to indie filmmaking, where you have to go up and ask people for things, and there’s power in that,” Goncalves says of Shephard, the director of TV shows including the Hulu drama “Under the Bridge.” Goncalves works in Stanford Medicine’s genetics department.
With their event fast approaching, Shephard and Goncalves created a blitzkrieg of advertisements across social media and posted fliers on lampposts throughout the neighborhood to drum up excitement. “We literally put up fliers until 2 am. It’s so funny because Quinn doesn’t do anything unless it’s 100%, and I’m like that too,” says Goncalves.
Clockwise from left: A shopper looks at a skirt.Seller Samantha Rose and Liv Hoffner.Outfit Repeater L.A. co-founder Francesca Goncalves talks with seller Mitch deQuilettes.(Yasara Gunawardena / For The Times)
The first Outfit Repeater L.A. event was a success, drawing a crowd of fashion enthusiasts and women who wanted to sell their beloved wardrobes directly to buyers, bypassing the intermediary of a thrift store. Women attendees eagerly inquired about selling their own clothes at the next event, offering up locations and contacts. “New coffee shops wanted to host us, and new girls wanted to sell,” Goncalves says. “It snowballed into this thing where it’s just getting bigger and bigger, completely by accident.”
Since then, Outfit Repeater L.A. has garnered a reputation as the Eastside’s hippest trading post for “it” girls, creatives and fashion trendsetters. Sellers have included independent film darlings like Geraldine Viswanathan and Francesca Reale, as well as fashion influencers with enviable style, such as Macy Eleni.
Despite its newfound fame, at its core, the closet sale is inclusive and accessible to people of all income levels. “I wanted to keep it very accessible. I charge a seller fee that’s so low, just to cover expenses. It’s not just vintage resellers or influencers that can afford to sell,” says Goncalves.
Goncalves attributes the success of the event to a hunger for social events that offer an alternative to the monotony of bar hangs. “People are tired of the bar scene,” she says.
Shephard explains that the appeal is simple: “It’s like going to a party with your friends for the day, plus you make money.”
At a recent Outfit Repeater L.A. event at Lamill Coffee in Silver Lake, actor Kate Mansi was selling her wardrobe after discovering the event through a friend’s recommendation. “I’m always selling stuff on Instagram,” Mansi says. “It’s nice to do it face to face. Clothes have a story. It’s nice to hear the story of the piece you’re inheriting.”
Kate Mansi in front of her closet rack.
(Yasara Gunawardena / For The Times)
Mansi adds, “I have a very Virgo system with my closet where I turn the hanger backwards if it’s something I haven’t worn, and if in a year, I still haven’t worn it, it must go.” On this Sunday, one of those items was a well-loved blue polka-dot romper with puff sleeves, which Mansi found at a vintage store years earlier, and she sold it for $20. Another was an All Saints trenchcoat, priced at $40, and a gray A.L.C. blouse, for $30. A classic denim Levi’s jacket found a new home for $30.
Mansi parted ways with a black dress by Jonathan Simkhai, one of her favorite designers. To the woman who bought it, Mansi wisely prescribed that she wear the dress casually with flats or boots.
At a time when fashion retail has shifted online due to the pandemic, an in-person thrifting event has been warmly received by the community. “I’m focused on each sale being a unique thing that people walk away from, having gotten a cool piece and making a few new friends and maybe a lover or boyfriend,” says Goncalves.
Alena Nemitz, who has been creating social media content for Outfit Repeater L.A., met her partner of five months at one of the events. “I was selling, and they were walking through and introduced themselves to me,” she says. “Now we’re dating, which is so cute.”
Eleni, who wrote a book on thrifting called “Second Chances,” was one of Outfit Repeater’s earliest sellers and champions. Growing up with a single mother in Dayton, Ohio, Eleni explains that she was bullied for thrifting during her childhood and is overjoyed to see a new generation embrace it. She believes some of the newfound eagerness for thrifting comes from an increased awareness of the devastating impact of fast fashion. “When I was a teenager, I wasn’t seeing videos on my phone of the inside of a Shein factory,” she says. “The curtains have been lifted, and there’s no way to claim ignorance as to where things are coming from anymore.”
Outfit Repeater L.A. has built a community of shoppers excited about clothing, Eleni explains. “Everyone is gassing each other up about how fabulous they look,” she says. “I love seeing people’s faces light up over other people’s things that they’re ready to be done with. It’s less [about] people trying to flip a profit and more people just trying to swap their clothes, share their clothes with each other.”
Goncalves describes the endearing experience of spotting items she sold from her closet on other women around Silver Lake. The world suddenly feels smaller and warmer. “I think clothes are so personal, but they are fleeting in a way,” she says. You love something and you want to pass it on, but it’s still your life and your ecosystem, even if it’s not right for you anymore.”
