HBO's Transhood

 

Another Top Transgender Model

 

Easily one of the most talked about models of 2019, Brazilian-born Valentina Sampaio made history as Victoria's Secret's first-ever transgender model. Victoria's Secret aside, the 23-year-old has quite the CV, having previously been a spokeswoman for L'Oréal and appeared on the covers of ELLE U.S., Vanity Fair Italia and Vogue Brasil.

Halloween

 Halloween has become sort of a bittersweet day for me. 

While I have all the pleasant (even thrilling) remembrances of Halloween's in the past, these days since I have been living all these years as a fulltime transgender woman, Halloween has become just another day. Plus, the covid virus has taken out any idea of having another annual witches ball this year, I can't even put together a costume for that. 

Over the years though, I spent weeks (or longer) stressing on what I was going to wear on the one magical night a year I could go out and be myself. Typically I started with "streetwalker" drag and quickly advanced to a "professional woman" look. I wanted secretly to be viewed as a cis woman who showed up without a costume. 

Naturally, all these efforts met with varyingly levels of success. I went from my high heels killing my feet, to being recognized by an old acquaintance because I looked like my Mom, all the way to being asked by a future Washington politician (and his date) to another Halloween party after the one we were at. 

Then there was the first date I had with Liz when we went to a major witches ball in Cincinnati when I was dressed as a wench and enjoyed all the pirates and belly dancers. 

As I seemingly close the door on Halloween this year though, I keep thinking there is always next year! 

From the UK-Talulah Eve Brown

 Several years ago, transgender model Talulah Eve Brown made LGBTQ history by becoming the first transgender woman to be named to "Britain's Top Model" contest. 

Here she is in 2018:

 As she grew up though, Talulah encountered the same problems many of us faced:

The year was 2004 and somewhere in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, a troubled 13-year-old was saying a special prayer — a ritual repeated every night before going to sleep.

‘I used to look at the stars every night and pray “Please God, let me not grow too tall, so one day I can be a woman”.’

Today, the beautiful 26-year-old statuesque woman with feline eyes and forever legs feels she owes the cosmos a huge thank you.

‘I stopped growing at 5 ft 8 in,’ says Talulah-Eve. ‘A perfect height!’

Here she is today with her boyfriend. From the "Daily Mail TV"

Leyna Bloom

 

From Elle Australia:

"Along with being a pioneering model, Leyna Bloom is an actress, dancer and activist for both the LGBTQI+ and black communities. Her modelling career started in 2014, and by 2017, she was one of the few openly transgender models in the industry, walking at New York Fashion Week. In the same year she also became the first openly transgender model of color to appear in editorial for Vogue India. Adding to her collection of 'firsts', in May 2019, her feature film debut in Port Authority at Cannes Film Festival marked the first time a trans woman of color held a leading role in a movie featured at a major film festival."