Mercury Stardust (born December 8, 1987)^[1] is an American author, TikToker, transgender activist, burlesque performer, and home repair and maintenance educator.^[2] Known on TikTok as the "Trans Handy Ma'am", she provides tips and advice on DIY home repair.^[2]

Stardust grew up on a farm in northern Wisconsin, where she learned maintenance skills from her father, a truck driver and farm hand.^[3][4] Although raised as a boy, she was drawn towards feminine aesthetics from a young age.^[4] In college, she studied theater and became a cabaret performer.^[3] Stardust took an internship as a maintenance technician at the age of 19, as she needed a day job while she traveled and performed in gay bars on weekends.^[5] In 2015, Stardust founded the Wisconsin Burlesque Association.^[6] Stardust chose her name in 2014.^[3] She came out as a transgender woman in 2019.^[4] Her spouse, Ari, is non-binary.^[3]

Stardust began posting on TikTok in March 2021.^[2] Initially using the platform to promote her weekly burlesque show in Madison, she shifted her focus after going viral in April 2021 for a video explaining how to use a ratchet strap.^[4] Her content largely focuses on home repair and DIY solutions to common household problems, earning her the nickname "Trans Handy Ma'am".^[2] She reached one million followers by July 2021^[5] and 1.5 million by February 2022, at which point content creation became her full time job.^[5] As of September 2023, Stardust had over two million followers.^[7] She received the 2021 Trans* Activist of the Year award from the OutReach LGBTQ Community Center.^[8]

In March 2022, Stardust hosted a "Tiktok-a-thon" coinciding with International Transgender Day of Visibility, during which she raised more than $120,000 for Plume, an organization which funds gender-affirming care.^[9][10] During the event's second iteration in March 2023, she co-hosted a 30-hour livestream on both TikTok and Twitch to raise money for Point of Pride, an organization which funds gender-affirming care for transgender individuals.^[11][12] Guests for the event included V Spehar and makeup artist Darius Hall.^[9] The livestream raised over $100,000 in its first hour and $1 million in its first six hours.^[9] In total the event raised over US$2 million.^[12][13] In March 2024, the event's third iteration aimed to raised US$4 million for Point of Pride, with appearances from guests Ve’ondre Mitchell, Dylan Mulvaney, and Zaya Perysian.^[14][15] However, within the first ten hours of the event, Stardust's and co-host Jory's TikTok accounts were banned nine times due to mass reporting from trolls, resulting in multiple interruptions.^[15]

Since November 2022, Stardust has hosted the podcast Handy Ma'am Hotline, where she discusses home maintenance.^[16] In April 2023, Stardust announced that she had authored a book, Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair, set to be published on August 29, 2023 by Penguin Random House.^[2] Within a few days of its presale, the book became a Number 1 Bestseller in Amazon's Home Repair category.^[2] In August 2023, Stardust's book Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair, became a New York Times best sellers book. Stardust went on a 52-city book tour in the United States in fall 2023.^[17]