The transgender models breaking down the barriers of bigotry
Like the transgender soldiers US President Donald Trump decided to ban from the US military, trans models are battling discrimination on the catwalks and during photoshoots, but are determined to overcome it
Dusty Rose has spent an entire year trying to become a model. Thwarted at every turn, she finally got a lucky break in the form of Peche Di, founder of an exclusively transgender modelling agency.
The 19-year-old trans woman born and raised in the conservative southern American state of Alabama jumped for joy when she discovered the agency, founded in March 2015, through Instagram.
“I thought, ‘oh my God, this is why I came to New York, to meet people like this!’” says the 1.85 metre model, dressed in jeans, pink trainers and a strappy black vest top.
While some transgender models – such as Brazil’s Valentina Sampaio, who graced the cover of French Vogue in February, or Andreja Pejic, who walked in this month’s Fashion Week – have found success, most continue to face a wall of prejudice.
“The first day me and my mother came up here, someone screamed ‘faggot’ at me and my mother was like ‘my gosh this is New York, this is not supposed to happen here.’ And I just said, ‘oh it happens everywhere’.”