TLC star fights misconceptions about Tourette syndrome
TLC star Baylen Dupree is fighting misconceptions about Tourette syndrome on his TLC reality show “Baylen Out Loud” and on TikTok with his 10.8 million followers.
Baylen Dupree was walking through the store when she noticed something wasn’t right. She had a strange feeling that she was being followed.
She was suffering from ticking, a symptom of then-undiagnosed Tourette syndrome, and realized she was being filmed.
When she got home, she decided to tell her own story instead of letting others tell it. “I’m trying to understand myself,” she said in a video posted to TikTok. “I’m ready to come out of my shell.”
In 2020, she quickly gained a following of rabid fans, as well as viewers and people in the Tourette’s community who were captivated by her unfiltered videos of her as a young person managing vocal and motor tics. “I wanted my power back,” Dupree, now 23, told USA TODAY.
As her platform grew and her symptoms reached their peak, hate began to flood the comments section, with trolls accusing her of faking and exaggerating her condition to get attention.
But Dupree kept posting, eventually amassing 10.8 million followers on TikTok. In January 2025, her reality show “Baylen Out Loud” premiered on TLC and is currently in its second season.
“Over the past five years, my progress has been exponential,” she says over video chat. “I have come a long way from where I started. My medical journey has been a process and it has been tough.”
What people misunderstand about Tourette syndrome
Tourette syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by sudden, involuntary movements and sounds called tics that cannot be easily controlled.
Common motor tics may include eye blinking or head twitching, while complex motor tics may manifest as stepping in a pattern or repeating an observed action. Vocal tics may include moaning or barking, and more complex but less common vocal tics include using vulgar or abusive language, repeating words or phrases of others or one’s own. Tics can be made worse by stress or excitement, and can change over time, usually improving from adolescence to adulthood.
There is no cure for Tourette syndrome, but treatments are available.
Mr. Dupree suffers from corruption, which causes him to curse and make socially inappropriate comments. She says one of the most common misconceptions about Tourette syndrome is that everyone has the same symptoms or that everyone with the condition has a bad name. Stool syndrome is the most widely known symptom of Tourette syndrome, but it is also one of the rarest. Only about 10% of people with Tourette’s disease show plaque.
Dupree had a hard time getting the diagnosis: ‘It’s hard to believe’
Dupree’s tics were mild in high school, but they worsened during the COVID-19 lockdown. None of her friends knew she had Tourette syndrome. She “hid from the whole world.”
She also had trouble finding a neurologist who specialized in Tourette syndrome and often felt like she was just a patient and not a person.
“It’s so easy to be misunderstood and grossly misdiagnosed…It’s unbelievable,” she said, adding that she knows several people in the Tourette’s community who have been sent to psychiatric wards because of the condition.
One doctor told her, “We don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you can’t drive, work, or go to school.” I spent months looking for more doctors and working with neurologists, only to find out that their specialty was either epilepsy or Parkinson’s disease.
Starting ‘Baylen Out Loud’ took a ‘huge leap of faith’
For Dupree, the most difficult part of filming Balen Out Loud was not being able to control how he presented himself. She loves the crew and working at TLC, but says showing Tourette’s syndrome “the right way” is “very difficult.” She says her condition could be exploited for ratings and drama and it took a “huge leap of faith” to start the show.
Ms. Dupree suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a comorbidity of Tourette syndrome.
“There’s so much different content under the Tourettes umbrella that if you don’t really know how it’s going to be edited, it’s definitely a risk to present it to the audience in the most complete, correct, understandable way,” she explains.
“Baylen Out Loud” shows her hardships and progress
Ms. Dupree uses comprehensive behavioral interventions for tics, also known as “CBIT” therapy, to manage her tics, and viewers get a peek into her sessions with Dana Wachter, RN.
This is a non-drug treatment that trains patients to be more aware of their tics and urges, engage in competing behaviors to stop the urges, and make daily changes to reduce tics.
Dupree started working with Wachter before he became famous on social media.
“(Dupree’s) many comorbidities, including depression and anxiety, were triggers for her tics,” Wachter said. “We talked about listening to music to suppress what we call a premonition, the feeling you get before something clicks.”
Wachter compares suppressing a tic to forcing your eyes open. You can tolerate it for a while, but eventually your eyes will become hot and you will have to blink. CBIT therapy emphasizes calming activities, such as listening to music or playing with a pet, to reduce the urge to tic.
“Her progress has been amazing,” Wachter says. “She’s married now, and the most fulfilling thing for me as a therapist…is that she was someone who was struggling and needed help, and now she’s helping others.”
Masking, a tool she learned in CBIT therapy, is uncomfortable and challenging for her, but she “uses it all the time.” She learned how to camouflage her tics into sentences or whisper them into her arm.
She also works with Dr. Alice Flaherty, a neurologist who specializes in Tourette syndrome, to manage medication. Dupree calls both herself and her watchers “family.” They’re even invited to her wedding in 2026 (the planning of which is the focus of this season’s “Baylen Out Loud”).
Dupree doesn’t do tics like he did at the beginning of the show, and sometimes those “good tic days” can feel “weird.” But, she says, “with or without Tourette’s and OCD, I’m still bilen.”
“At the end of the day, my tics aren’t my identity, my OCD, none of that is my identity. But I think of it as a part of me in a weird way, because it’s never going to go away,” she says.
What Dupree wants viewers to take away from ‘Baylen Out Loud’
Ms. Dupree didn’t realize how much of an impact she would have on her viewers. I still don’t realize it until fans stop me on the street or comment on my social media posts.
“It’s crazy to think that ‘Baylen Out Loud’ has helped so many people not only understand themselves, but understand themselves,” she says. That’s her favorite part of the show.
“I went to a Commanders game the other day and this woman came up to me and said, ‘Because of you, my son is alive today.’ That’s why I’m doing what I do.”
