The second season of 'Baylen Out Loud' drops new episodes weekly, Tuesdays on TLC at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT.
Baylen Dupree and her financé, Colin Dooley, talking and drinking smoothies at their home in Arlington, Virginia.

Baylen Dupree was walking through a store when something felt off. She had a strange sensation that she was being followed.

She was ticking, a symptom of her then-undiagnosed Tourette syndrome, and noticed she was being filmed.

When she returned home, she decided to tell her own story, rather than have it be shared by someone else. She posted a video on TikTok: “I’m trying to figure myself out,” she said. “I’m ready to come out of my shell.”

In 2020, she quickly amassed a following of devoted fans, as well as intrigued viewers and others in the Tourette’s community, who were captivated by her unfiltered videos as a young person managing vocal and motor tics. "I wanted to take my power back," Dupree, now 23, tells USA TODAY.

As her platform grew and her symptoms reached their most extreme heights, hate began to flood her comment section, with trolls accusing her of faking or exaggerating her condition for attention.

But Dupree continued posting, eventually amassing 10.8 million followers on TikTok. In January 2025, her reality show, “Baylen Out Loud,” premiered on TLC and is now in its second season.

"Over the past five years, the progress I've made has been exponential," she says over video chat. "I've come a long way from where I started. My medical journey has been a process, and it's been hard."

What people get wrong about Tourette syndrome

Tourette syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by sudden, involuntary movements and/or sounds called tics that can’t be easily controlled.

Common motor tics can include eye blinking and head jerking, while complex motor tics can manifest as stepping in a pattern or repeating observed movements. Vocal tics can include grunting or barking, and complex, but less common, vocal tics include using vulgar or swear words, repeating others’ or one’s own words or phrases. Tics can worsen under stress or excitement, and can change over time, typically improving from the teenage years to adulthood.

There’s no cure for Tourette syndrome, but treatments are available.

Dupree has coprolalia, which causes her to say curse words and socially inappropriate remarks. One of the most common misconceptions about Tourette syndrome, she says, is that everyone has the same symptoms, or that everyone with the condition cusses. While coprolalia is the most widely known symptom of Tourette syndrome, it’s also one of the rarest; only about 10% of people with Tourette’s exhibit coprolalia.

Dupree struggled to get a diagnosis: 'It's hard to be believed'

Dupree's tics were minimal in high school, but intensified during COVID-19 lockdowns. None of her friends knew she had Tourette syndrome; she "hid from the entire world."

She also struggled to find a neurologist who specialized in Tourette syndrome, and often felt like just a patient, not a person.

"It's very easy to be misled and extremely misdiagnosed... it's hard to be believed," she says, adding that she knows multiple people in the Tourette's community who were sent to psych wards because of their condition.

One doctor told her, "I have no idea what's wrong with you, but you can't drive, you can't work, you can't go to school." As she searched for more doctors, she would spend months working with a neurologist, only to discover that their specialty was epilepsy or Parkinson's.

Starting 'Baylen Out Loud' required a 'huge leap of faith'

For Dupree, the most challenging part of filming "Baylen Out Loud" is having no control over the way she is presented. She loves her crew and working with TLC, but says it's "extremely challenging" for Tourette syndrome to be shown "the right way." Her condition could be exploited for views or drama, and she says starting the show required a "huge leap of faith."

Dupree struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a comorbidity of her Tourette syndrome.

"It has so many different things under the umbrella of Tourette's, so making sure that it is presented to the audience in the most perfect, correct, understanding way is definitely a risk when you don't really know how it's going to be edited," she explains.

'Baylen Out Loud' shows her hardships and progress

Dupree uses comprehensive behavioral intervention for tics, also known as "CBIT" therapy, to manage her tics, and viewers get a look into her sessions with Dana Wachter, RN.

This is a non-medicated treatment that trains the patient to be more aware of their tics and urges, do competing behaviors to stop an urge, and make daily changes to help reduce tics.

Dupree began working with Wachter before her social media fame.

"A lot of (Dupree's) comorbidities, such as the depression and anxiety, were triggering her tics," Wachter says. "We discussed listening to music to help bring down the what we call premonitory urge, which is the sensation you feel prior to ticking."

Wachter compares suppressing a tic to forcing your eyes open. You can hold out for a while, but eventually your eyes will start to burn, and you will blink. Calming activities, such as listening to music or playing with a pet, are emphasized in CBIT therapy for suppressing the urge to tic.

"Her progress has been amazing," Wachter says. "She's getting married now, but the most fulfilling part for me as a therapist is... she was the one who was struggling, asking for help, and now she's helping others."

"Masking," a tool learned in CBIT therapy, is uncomfortable and challenging for her, but she "uses it all the time." She's learned how to camouflage tics into sentences or whisper them into her arm.

She also works with Dr. Alice Flaherty, a neurologist specializing in Tourette syndrome, to manage her medication. Dupree calls both her and Watcher "family." They're even invited to her 2026 wedding (the planning of which is central to this season of "Baylen Out Loud").

Dupree doesn't tic like she did at the start of the show, and sometimes those "good tic days" feel "weird." But says she's "still Baylen with or without Tourette's, or OCD."

"At the end of the day, my tics are not my identity, my OCD, none of that is my identity, but I do see it as part of me in a weird way, because it's never going away," she says.

What Dupree wants viewers to take away from 'Baylen Out Loud'

Dupree didn't realize what an impact she'd have on viewers — and she still doesn't, until fans stop her in the street or comment on her social media posts.

"It's insane to think that 'Baylen Out Loud' is helping so many people not only figure out themselves, but understand themselves," she says. It's her favorite part of having the show.

"I went to a Commanders game the other day, and this woman came up to me and said, 'My son is alive today because of you.' That's why I do what I do."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: She was filmed in a store while ticking. Now, 'Baylen Out Loud' is telling her own story.

Reporting by Alyssa Goldberg, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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