Mercury Stardust
Mercury Stardust is a Professional Home Maintenance Technician, performer, and award-winning activist. Known widely as the Trans Handy Ma’am, her unique brand of compassionate education in the Home Repair space has earned her internet fame. With over 2.3 million followers on TikTok and over 400k followers on Instagram, Mercury spreads DIY knowledge with love. Her expertise includes rental maintenance, landlord negotiations, clogs, drywall, painting, minor electrical repairs, caulking, and more. Her 1st book reached #1 on the New York Times Advice and How To Bestseller List in Sept 2023.
-
Safe and Sound: Reclaiming Your Life
Mercury specializes in DIY and home maintenance. She expertly teaches your audience all about unclogging drains, drywall repair, the best tools for your home toolbox, replacing an outlet, knowing your different types of plungers and augers, garbage disposal repair, and so much more! She also shares her life story as a trans woman to highlight the importance of representation of queer people in our lives, media, and communities. She shares her history of growing up in a rural Wisconsin farming town, being forced into pretending to be a “man” by societal and family pressures, learning to embrace her femininity in burlesque, and coming out on stage during her weekly show five years ago.
Her story inspires, teaches, and connects with your audience, students, or employees while also advocating for change for the LGBTQIA+ community. Her hope is to inspire a new generation of queer youth to live their truth boldly, for allies to protect the most vulnerable in the community, and to teach others life long skills for their homes in order to be able to provide themselves with a safe sanctuary in a tumultuous world.
-
Workshop: Educating about different types of plungers and how to use them
-
Workshop: A basic tool set to have on hand and what to use them for.
-
Workshop: Removing clogs: plungers and small augers, educating on why not to use chemicals.
-
Workshop: Cleaning showerheads and faucet aerators for increased water pressure.
-
Workshop: How to find a stud.
-
Workshop: Using 3M small hole repair tool for nail holes.
The Trans Handy Ma’am and NYT #1 Bestselling Author of "Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair”
Mercury Stardust (@mercurystardust), the Trans Handy Ma’am, is a professional home maintenance technician, burlesque performer, and award-winning activist. Mercury credits her TikTok success to her experience teaching burlesque, where she learned to communicate and create a safe space for students who had frequently experienced trauma. She’s been featured in stories by NBC, NPR, Buzzfeed, Newsweek, Washington Post, and Pink News. Her leadership within the trans community has led to collaborations with such brands as Dolby, Lowe’s, and the trans-healthcare company Plume. Mercury lives in her home state of Wisconsin with her partner and two cats. She’s a world-renown and international award-winning burlesque entertainer and runs Wisconsin’s only weekly burlesque show, Five Star Tease. Her work on and off the stage earned her Madison’s Teens Activist of the Year in 2021 from Madison’s Outreach. Her first book Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair debuted at #1 on the NYT Bestseller List in September 2023.
Our speakers get attention.
-
How To Talk to Contractors (With Sam Sanders and Mercury Stardust)Sam Sanders gets a home-repair therapy session from Mercury Stardust.
-
Tending to Our Homes and Our Hearts With TikTok Star Mercury StardustMercury Stardust visited my local library last weekend to talk about her New York Times No. 1 bestselling book "Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair."
-
Meet Mercury StardustWe caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mercury Stardust a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
