✍ = 中文翻譯Last updated 20:19, March 31 2017
A supermodel with a unique success story has a message of hope for those struggling with gender identity: it can, and does, get better.
Andreja Pejic, who has walked for Marc Jacobs, Jeremy Scott, Thom Browne, and Jean Paul Gaultier, was the first transgender model to appear in American Vogue.
For Pejic, who was discovered as a 17-year-old working at McDonald's, modelling began as a means to an end: supporting herself, her family, and funding her gender confirmation surgery, which took place in 2014.
Today, she's a willing advocate for transgender rights. Speaking after the inaugural Smith and Caughey's fashion show, which she had flown to Auckland from New York to open and close, Pejic told store ambassador Antonia Prebble her role as an activist for the community was nothing to shy away from.
"It's a beautiful addition to my modelling career, because it's meant this means something more to so many young people who are watching, and who want better representation," she said.
"I feel lucky to be [living] in this time, because, five years ago, a lot of these things would not have been possible."
Indeed, Pejic had been advised that transitioning would harm her successful career as the world's first androgynous supermodel. This month, she has landed yet another accolade: she's the first transgender model to appear on the cover of GQ Magazine.
Clad in a burgundy knit mini dress and thigh-high suede boots, she told assembled VIPs she hoped it might score her a Hollywood husband - "I think I'm ready for that."
"Also, I beat Caitlyn [Jenner, to the cover]."
Pejic's role in raising the transgender community's profile is undeniable.
Industry attitudes towards transgender models are moving in the right direction Pejic says. (Brazilian model Valentina Sampaio, who also identifies as transgender, was on the cover of French Vogue last month). But she's not sure transgender models have had their "biggest moment".
"There's a lot of talk of transgender people and models being included than there is action," she said.
"I'd love to see more action, less words."
A recent photo of Pejic next to Caitlyn Jenner at the Vanity Fair Oscars party - captioned "Hi Middle America" - is symbolic of Pejic's A-list status. But the 25-year-old's 281,000 Instagram followers might be surprised to learn she's a normal millennial, too.
"I've definitely got a quirky personality and sometimes you don't get out of bed for a few days, and you just order take-out and get into a Netflix hole, when you're not working," she said.
"It's a necessary part of growing up."
RETURN TO THE CITY OF SAILS
One of Pejic's first modelling jobs was in Auckland for Black magazine, when she was living as Andrej. She returned to the city for the two-night, whistlestop gig before flying to Melbourne for a week to spend time with her family.
When she was eight years old, Pejic, her mother and brother fled war in the former Yugoslavia to settle in Melbourne. Pejic has been quoted saying Australia was a "great place to grow up", citing safety, sun and a socially progressive approach to refugees.
The incumbent Australian government's policy on asylum seekers is "completely backwards", she said after Friday's fashion show.
"Sadly, the rest of the world is adopting those methods - it's getting worse and worse for refugees and for asylum seekers, and it's sad because they're not the problem.
"The problem started on Wall Street - it didn't start with immigrants or refugees. It feels like they're being targeted as a scapegoat."
Pejic's parents, a Bosnian Serb and a Bosnian Croat, divorced soon after she was born. Her mother fled Bosnia for Serbia with her children, before NATO air strikes in 1999 made them refugees for a second time.
The hardest thing about the experience, Pejic said, was "being treated like an enemy".
"We felt like outsiders. It's no way to grow up.
MESSAGE OF HOPE
In New Zealand, the government funds three male-to-female gender confirmation surgeries and one female-to-male surgery a year, which are performed overseas. As of January this year, there were more than 70 people on the waiting list.
Access to healthcare and employment are among the greatest barriers transgender people face, Pejic said. She had previously said her surgery cost the equivalent of NZ$37,500.
"I saved every cent I had to do this," she said.
"It can and does get better, and you have to keep strong."
- Stuff
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