Supermodel Andreja Pejic Comes Out As Transgender

Supermodel Andreja Pejic recently announced to the world that she is transgender.

Once known as Andrej Pejic, the model has made a public statement proudly owning her identity:

“To all trans youth out there, I would like to say respect yourself and be proud of who you are. All human beings deserve equal treatment no matter their gender identity or sexuality. To be perceived as what you say you are is a basic human right.”

According to the Huffington Post, Andreja has been featured on the covers of Elle and French Vogue. Pejic has become famous for her androgynous look and for modeling both men’s and women’s fashion. But according to her agency, which supports her 100 percent, Andreja will be exclusively modeling women’s clothes from now on to fully embrace her new identity. Pejic’s friends and family have supported her as well.

Andreja opened up to Style about her sexual reassignment surgery and her change from Andrej Pejic to Andreja:

“I figured out who I was very early on—actually, at the age of 13, with the help of the Internet—so I knew that a transition, becoming a woman, was always something I needed to do. But it wasn’t possible at the time, and I put it off, and androgyny became a way of expressing my femininity without having to explain myself to people too much. Especially to my peers [who] couldn’t understand things like ‘trans’ and gender identity. And then obviously the modeling thing came up, and I became this androgynous male model, and that was a big part of my growing up and my self-discovery. But I always kept in mind that, ultimately, my biggest dream was to be a girl.”

The Washington Post reported that Andreja Pejic first made a name for herself in 2010, exhibiting a rare and stunning beauty in every outfit she wore, men’s or women’s. Carine Roitfeld, the editor of Paris Vogue at the time, is the one who discovered Pejic and introduced her androgynous glamour to the world. Since then, Andreja has become a widely successful supermodel. Pejic has modeled for designers like John Paul Gaultier and Marc Jacobs.

Andreja is 22 years old and hopes to have a long career in the fashion industry. With tolerance and acceptance on the rise worldwide, Pejic can expect to receive a warm welcome from the transgender community and the general public.

Andreja came out as transgender publicly to her Facebook fans on Thursday night, saying:

“I think we all evolve as we get older and that’s normal but I like to think that my recent transition hasn’t made me into a different individual. Same person, no difference at all just a different sex I hope you can all understand that.”

For more news in the transgender community, check out The Inquisitr’s recent report on Barack Obama’s new legislation to protect transgender people like Andreja in the work place.

[Image courtesy of i.models.com]