Audrey Middleton, 25, was the first transgender contestant on the show Big Brother.
She didn't stay in the house for very long as it became clear that she was about be voted out. Middleton was the first player on the show to skip a Veto ceremony, receive a penalty vote for breaking the rules, and hide in the diary room for the whole day before the vote.
Entertainment Weekly caught up with the contestant. "I actually am a major introvert in my real life, so to just unload this bomb, especially to strangers I just met for only a moment and not knowing how they’re going to respond to this information was very scary," Middleton told EW about opening up to the other contestants.
"I feel like there was maybe one particular houseguest that was concerned and maybe had the idea that other people were going to be nervous to nominate me in the beginning because they didn’t want to be the first person to nominate a transgender person," Middleton stated in the interview.
The contestant was really stressed out. She locked herself up in the diary room for an entire day. "I just created my own little shell. I went in there and I was very stressed out. The Diary Room is the one room in the house that is literally like a safe haven.… That was the one room I could go to and just confide and be alone and also just experience pure silence and not have to worry about talking to anyone or think about game for five seconds," Middleton said about her hide out.
"I really just needed that time alone. In that moment I was kind of mourning over my own death in the game. I knew it was coming. It was inevitable, at least it felt that way from my perspective," she added.
When asked about her emotional experience, Middleton knew that although she didn't win, she made a difference. "It was a unique experience, even though it was a stressful experience. The thing I am most grateful about is I got to prove to myself that I can do something like this—even though I didn’t win it—that myself, an introvert, could go on a platform like this, come out on national television as transgender, the first transgender on Big Brother," Middleton continued.
"And then also exemplify this courage for other transgender people—that’s huge. And I am so grateful for that. So if I help one person, ten people, a thousand people—nothing could ever be better than that," she said.
Her fans have been supportive, tweeting and posting photos of Middleton even after the vote.
Big Brother is currently airing the season 17 of the show on CBS.
image via Twitter