Meet Andreja Pejic, Vogue’s First Transgender Feature Model
2015 may only be a few months in, but it’s already shaping up to be a huge one for firsts in the world of modeling, likely changing the (once seemingly cookie cutter) industry as we know it forever. We’ve seen more fashion companies featuring the women in their offices vs famous faces. The first plus-size model took the pages of Sports Illustrated (and the web) by storm for a much-Tweeted first. Rye Silverman made an appearance on thousands of Facebook walls as the first transgender model for ModCloth and now Vogue is featuring their first trans model in a story asking, “Has the Fashion Industry Reached a Transgender Turning Point?”
Andreja Pejic, a 23-year-old model from Bosnia, is the most recent person to share their truth with the world this week. Not only is she the first transgender model to be featured in Vogue, she’s also the newly announced face of cosmetics company Make Up For Ever. It’s a big week of firsts for Andreja as this makes her one of the first transgender models to score a major modeling campaign. She’s accompanied by Lea T for Redken and Jazz Jennings for Clean + Clear in that category.
In the Vogue profile, Andreja recounted how she was discovered while on the job at McDonald’s. The piece shares: “The scout didn’t know if she was a boy or a girl, just that she looked like a model.” Ever since then she has appeared on runways and in fashion shoots for sartorial gods like Jean Paul Gaultier, Jeremy Scott, Thom Browne and Marc Jacobs where she has presented as both male and female, redefining the modeling world and gender stereotypes.
The new Vogue model — who shared her joy via Instagram — totally understands and appreciates the evolving landscape of the modeling world and society as a whole. She stated in the piece, “There are just more categories now. It’s good. We’re finally figuring out that gender and sexuality are more complicated.” We applaud you, world and props to you too, Andreja. <3
What are your thoughts on Vogue‘s newest feature model? Let us know in the comments.
(h/t Marie Claire, photos via Patrick Demarchelier/Vogue, Craig Barritt/Getty + @andrejapejic)
