Andrea Pejic was once known as Andrej Pejic, a male model who walked the runway in women's fashion shows. Now, the 22-year-old is publicly coming out as a transgender woman and making a commitment to only model women's clothing from here on out.
Pejic, has appeared on the covers of Elle and French Vogue, underwent gender reassignment surgery and legally changed her name to Andrea. In an interview with People Magazine, Pejic revealed that she "always dreamt of being a girl," unveiling her earliest memory of wearing her mother's skirt and spinning around like a ballerina.
The Serbian-born model said she grew up trying to hide her true identity because she wanted to please her parents, but at the age of 13 decided to go into the library and look up "sex change."
"I was proud of my gender non-conforming career," Pejic explained to People Magazine. "But my biggest dream was to be comfortable in my own body. I have to be true to myself and the career is just going to have to fit around that."
She revealed that her family was very supportive of her decisions and "about a year and a half ago," she took the leap for surgery.
She recently posted a selfie on her Facebook page and thanked her fans for their support, writing "You've all helped me through this journey ... the response to today's announcement truly overwhelmed me and reminds me of why I chose to do this publicly. 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."
Pejic said her mission is to reach out to a younger generation that has a hard time understanding who they and accepting their identity. She added that everyone "deserves the same respect as any other human being on this planet."
She concluded her stated writing, "As a transgender woman I hope to show that after transition one can be happy and successful in their new chapter without having to alienate their past. Most importantly, differences should not equal divisions, let's all stand together in union. #betruebeyou."
Pejic became a model when she was 17 and walked the runway for designers like Jean Paul Gaultier - in both men's and women's fashion shows. She has joined the list of influential people in the industry to break down barriers in the LGBT community.
