To Dylan Mulvaney, Miss Piggy Is “The Realest Bitch”

For the past three years, Dylan Mulvaney has been living her life out loud. In 2022, she began documenting her transition in the viral TikTok series Days of Girlhood, and this spring, she dug even deeper, publishing the New York Times bestselling memoir Paper Doll. The book offers readers a more unfiltered look at the fame (and controversy) that came with transitioning in the public eye. Here, the 28-year-old reflects on the character who continually inspires her to keep living big — and dressing even bigger.

In my bedroom, arranged in a collection of pink wooden frames, is what I like to call my “wall of favorite women.” On it, there are photos of Joni Mitchell, Princess Diana, and… Miss Piggy. When I was putting the wall together, I thought a lot about the different parts of me, and the women whom I felt like I could look up to. Then I thought, “Our world is so twisted right now that the kind of woman I would like to be is a fictional pig puppet. The realest bitch of them all.”

Growing up, I watched all of the Muppet movies, and Miss Piggy was always my girl. A lot of people find her to be hyper-dramatic or a diva, but I think she’s just misunderstood. She’s constantly being critiqued for being quite aggressive, or people say that her womanhood is too over-the-top. But honestly, that’s what I want to be more like. She gives me the confidence to want to speak my mind, because very rarely does she not.

She also tends to overdress, and I’m a big overdresser. I would rather walk into a room in a gown than in sweatpants — because even if I don’t feel as confident as I would like, if I look good, then that at least gives me a little leg up. I feel like she’s the type, too, where she puts on something cute to make herself feel better. Because she just cares so much — about everything. I’m the same way: I care even when I’m just picking out an outfit in the morning. That is 100% the most important thing to me in that moment.

“People say that her womanhood is too over-the-top. But honestly, that’s what I want to be more like.”

Sometimes I find that people are intimidated by the way I live my life and how much I focus on celebrating femininity. Even with Jennifer Coolidge — or some of these other hyper-feminine, “camp” figures who are finally getting their due — people will say, “Oh, she’s got the personality of a gay man.” They say it about Miss Piggy, too. They take the campiness and try to equate it with something else, because it’s easier for them to take that humanness away, rather than to see us as our fully formed selves. But really, that over-the-top campiness is just part of our womanhood.

I think what we got from the Barbie movie was that there’s an audience for films that celebrate femininity in a way that doesn’t have to be hidden in something else. And I feel like a Miss Piggy movie could be a great continuation of that — mostly because one of my biggest dreams is to act across from a Muppet. I remember seeing Amy Adams in The Muppets and I was like, “Oh, that is my perfect level of acting.” Now we just need to manifest it.