I will also exercise significantly greater caution when engaging with biased sources or people who have been shown to victimize others.

I will independently verify claims made by anonymous accounts, approach sources’ biases with greater sensitivity, and exercise skepticism around these types of sources.

I regret any other lapses in judgment that may have occurred throughout this process and will do better moving forward.

As part of my reporting, I asked Alexa about allegations this individual has made against her in response. I recognize that these questions were harmful to Alexa’s wellbeing and I apologize for asking them.

Finally, Alexa has taken out and renewed a restraining order against an individual she has accused of stalking, on behalf of herself and her young child. To do so, Alexa compiled extensive documentation.

I will exercise greater judgment with regards to engaging with and trusting anonymous accounts in the future.

I regret any interactions I had with these accounts or any misplaced trust in content they posted or otherwise engaged with. To rely on or engage with these accounts causes real-world harm, and for that I apologize, too.

I did not independently verify or vet their claims. Furthermore, “Abuse of Power” engaged in behavior like cyberharassment, cyberstalking, and nonconsensual intimate image sharing. I expressly denounce such content.

In the process of learning about these conflicts, I encountered information posted by accounts on X called “Exposing Rich” and “Abuse of Power.” These accounts made various false, unsubstantiated, and unverified comments about Alexa and Eat Predators. They were clearly biased against Alexa.

Notably, there was never any evidence Alexa defrauded members of Eat Predators, including through the group’s Patreon account.

Some people left because they wanted to monetize Eat Predators or otherwise gain something to the detriment of Eat Predators. Conflicts that broke out afterward were not started by Alexa, but rather by other individuals.

She did not represent the group solely as an ambassador, but rather led the group. People voluntarily joined Eat Predators, and some members later left the group for various reasons.

As part of her activism, Alexa started a group called Eat Predators. In my reporting process, I asked Alexa questions about conflicts regarding this group. I now understand that Alexa was solely responsible for the creation of Eat Predators and that she did not co-opt other members’ ideas.

I do not stand by these comments or any third-party content relying on these comments as evidence of Nikolas sending me sealed documents. Any videos restating the claims in these comments should be removed. I apologize to Alexa for any harm my comments caused her.

I understand that my comments caused Nikolas distress and may have impacted her reputation. I also understand that my comments were included in videos created by third parties, including my friend Adam McIntyre and Ophie Dokie.

They are public records and all personal identifying information was redacted. I regret this error and am committed to exercising greater caution in the future. Since making these comments online, I have learned the true nature of these documents and how Nikolas obtained them.

In these comments, I erroneously stated that the Bell documents Nikolas shared with me were sealed records and released personal identifying information on the victim. However, these documents are not sealed and did not contain personal identifying information on the victim.

In response to those questions, Nikolas provided me with the redacted Ohio court and police records concerning Mr. Bell. Eventually, in September 2024, I responded to posts and a livestream Nikolas made on X and YouTube about me and this proposed article with a series of comments of my own.

The documents were not obtained from Bell or his attorneys. Over a month later, Nikolas shared these documents with me as part of her response to a series of questions I sent her for a proposed article, which was never published.

On March 9, 2024, days before Quiet on Set aired, series producer and Business Insider journalist Kate Taylor sent Nikolas a number of redacted Ohio court and police records concerning her fellow documentary participant Drake Bell. Taylor obtained these documents via a records request.

Alexa Nikolas is an activist and actress known for her role in the Nickelodeon series Zoey 101 and her appearance in the documentary series Quiet on Set.

Over 1 in 250 Natal Girls Were Taking Testosterone By Age 17 in Oregon, From 2016 to 2023 open.substack.com/pub/benryan/... Given swift increases in hormone uptake over time, the rate was likely much higher by 2023

My latest: New Canadian Pediatric Society President Said Parents’ Concerns About Youth Gender Transitions 'Should Not Be Prioritized' benryan.substack.com/p/new-canadi...

Azeen Ghorayshi and Austin Mitchell were 2026 Pulitzer Prize finalists for their podcast The Protocol about youth gender medicine. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/02/p...

This is incorrect. Taylor Lorenz complained to the police in Charlottesville because a man punched her in the face. He also knocked her phone out of her hand. But she filed a police report her the physical assault.

SCOOP: Detransitioner Settles Malpractice Lawsuit Days Before Trial In Oregon open.substack.com/pub/benryan/... Camille Kiefel sued the 2 Oregon mental-health professionals who each, she alleged, effectively rubber-stamped for her a referral letter for a mastectomy after one telehealth appointment.

Controversial Pediatric Gender Panel Draws Trans-Activist Push for Cancellation Trans-activist Substacker Erin Reed has prompted an uproar over a panel of skeptics of pediatric gender medicine slated for Sunday at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Boston. open.substack.com/pub/benryan/...

Did a WPATH Leader Lie About Why Age Limits Vanished From Their Trans-Care Guidelines? benryan.substack.com/p/did-a-wpat... A video I obtained of a 2022 World Professional Association for Transgender Health conference shows Scott Leibowitz making false claims about why the age limits were removed.

This is a very interesting read, particularly for long and enlightening Q&As with the study lead author and with another subject expert. It will not be popular with advocates of rapid access to gender reassignment, and broadly supports the more cautious approach now taken across most of Europe.

My latest: benryan.substack.com/p/the-author...

This WSJ oped is way too confident in interpreting the findings of the new Finnish study on youth gender-transition treatment. It doesn’t acknowledge that the study relied on a proxy measure of severe mental health problems that has limitations. www.wsj.com/opinion/finl...

How the Top Transgender Medicine Group Taught Members to Fight Misinformation...With Misinformation In a video I obtained of a 2023 trans-medicine conference, a top PR agency offered a buffet of false claims about youth gender medicine. benryan.substack.com/p/how-the-to...

The Medical Establishment Is Tearing Itself Apart Over Youth Gender Surgeries The American Medical Association said it supported restricting gender surgeries for minors. Then it said it didn’t. We still don’t know where it stands, I report for The Free Press. open.substack.com/pub/bariweis...

“One Session May Be Sufficient.” How Activist Providers Want to Overhaul Assessments for Youth Gender Transitions I obtained a video of a 2023 conference presentation regarding an “embodiment goals” focused youth-gender-care assessment model. benryan.substack.com/p/one-sessio...

Harvard Law School clinical instructor and trans activist Alejandra Caraballo is a conspiracy theorist. She throws out conspiracies such as this on a near daily basis, rarely with supporting evidence. But because of Bluesky’s strict culture forbidding dissent, her claims stand.

Major Gender Doctor Isn't 'Interested In' Whether Minors Seeking Gender Drugs Are 'Really Trans' “That’s actually not the discussion that I’m interested in," Johanna Olson-Kennedy said of whether kids are "really trans," in a 2023 conference video I obtained. benryan.substack.com/p/major-gend...

Indicators of Major Psychiatric Problems Didn't Improve After Youth Gender-Transition Treatment In Finland—They Rose benryan.substack.com/p/youth-on-g...

🚨 Congress held NIH and NSF budgets roughly flat. Scientists celebrated. Here is what actually happened. NIH awarded 4,641 fewer grants in FY2025 than the 4-year avg. New awards dropped 14%. Over $1.3B never reached investigators. NSF awards fell 22%. The money was there.

The evolution of @chasestrangio.bsky.social Chase Strangio. To see the full video: benryan.substack.com/p/chase-stra...

Chase Strangio's 2021 Warning: 'Decisions to engage with people like Abigail Shrier…are going to cost people lives.' I obtained 100s of conference videos that the World Professional Assoc. for Transgender Health fought to shield. benryan.substack.com/p/chase-stra...

I know for a fact that this claim about how the Times sourced the statement is false. The statement came from the AMA’s communications team directly. And it is very unlikely that Dr. Sheldon is unaware of this, given he was privy to recent internal discussions acknowledging the AMA was at fault.

"a group of people enclosed in a bubble, one they filled with so much hot air that it sent them soaring close to the sun"

HOW GENDER MEDICINE SET ITSELF UP FOR DISASTER For Compact, I report on what the 100s of WPATH conference videos I obtained tell us about this troubled field: compactmag.com/article/how-... 👉I 'll be publishing the conference videos on my Substack: benryan.substack.com/p/i-obtained...

NYT Claps Back: The AMA 'Contradicts' Its 'Own Statements' About Youth Gender Surgery After the AMA’s board chair claimed the group never said it opposed such surgeries, The New York Times has released the organization's full Feb. 4 statement to the contrary. benryan.substack.com/p/nyt-claps-...

@benryanwriter.bsky.social stop being a goddamn weirdo

It's hard to tell what's satire these days.

I would very much like to go a day without having to encounter the word “trauma.” We focus so intently on this concept to our detriment, at the expense of our resilience

NEWS: Judge Rules That R.F.K. Jr. Overstepped on Transgender Care The ruling provides temporary relief for 21 states seeking to stop the Trump administration from ending federal funding to hospitals that provide gender-transition care. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/u...