The sultry black and white photographs show a girl with the kind of coolness that can’t be defined. She’s iridescent, and effortlessly stylish – all quiet composure and impossible cheekbones, a classic trench coat slung over her shoulders. At 23 years old, she has the serene smile of a young woman who really knows herself, and is comfortable in that self. If you didn’t recognise her, you’d never guess that a couple of years ago New York magazine named her “the prettiest boy in the world.”
Andreja Pejic has been in hundreds of fashion shoots throughout her career, but this is her first time in American Vogue – and it’s the first time a transgender woman has been featured on those hallowed glossy pages.
To the more cynical among us, it might seem like a small milestone. But it’s one that matters, dovetailing with a larger movement in popular culture towards acceptance of gender and sexual differences.
Whether you’re interested in fashion or not, Vogue still has incredible authority over what’s cool, what’s desirable, and what’s acceptable. For a cultural influencer on that scale to make a gesture towards diversity, that’s a sign of something pretty cool happening.
It’s less than a year since the Melbourne-raised model publically came out as transgender. The four-page Vogue feature, appearing in the May 2015 issue, relates Andreja’s story – from a childhood in a Serbian refugee camp, to ruling the Paris runways in Jean Paul Gaultier – and takes it as a starting point to explore the growing cultural and political acceptance of transgender identity. “There are just more categories now. It’s good,” Andreja says in the interview. “We’re finally figuring out that gender and sexuality are more complicated.”
What makes Andreja so captivating isn’t her gender. It’s not her extraordinary prettiness either. It’s her verve; the strength and grace that she projects. It takes a lot of guts to be authentically yourself. Even more so when everyone expects you to be someone else.
The strides she’s making for transgender acceptance are incredible, but beyond that, her courage is inspiring for anyone. Identity is something we all grapple with in our own ways. A young woman reaching a strong sense of self, and the confidence to express that self without apologies, is something worth celebrating – in fashion magazines, and elsewhere.
Because fashion isn’t just about clothes. As Virginia Postrel writes in her extensive work on the concept of glamour, “The elements that create glamour are not specific styles – bias-cut gowns or lacquered furniture – but more general qualities: grace, mystery, transcendence.” What we really want to see in fashion magazines is women we can admire for more than just their flawless skin and glossy hair. We want to be around them and be like them because of some ethereal inner strength we can sense in them.
I’ve been obsessed with Andreja since she first started making headlines in 2011, and it’s been fascinating to watch her grow and progress over the years since. Back then, she was known as Andrej, a startlingly pretty male model who swiftly took the fashion world’s breath away. For all the criticism about fashion being narrow minded and exclusive, it is one sphere that has always been willing to play with gender and sexuality from all angles. And for the past five years, Andreja has played a powerful role in that.
From the start of her career, her impact on the conversation about gender fluidity has been huge. For a long time, she described herself as living and working “in between genders.” Her androgynous style was unnerving to some, but it captured the imagination of many more. She brought androgyny into the moment, forcing people to challenge their assumptions, making us question all sorts of things about the boundaries we create between men and women.
Now, the most important question she’s making us ask is what being a woman really means. She didn’t ‘become’ a woman when she had sex confirmation surgery. She made this point back in a 2012, when an interviewer for Toronto’s CityNews asked her if she wanted to be a girl. “If I wanted to be a girl,” she answered slowly, “what would I have to change?”
One way she’s sharing that message now is through an upcoming documentary, Andrej(A), which she’s been working on with award-winning director Eric Miclette, after raising over $63,000 in support through Kickstarter. “I want to share my story with the world because I think I have a social responsibility,” she told People last year. “I hope that by being open about this, it becomes less of an issue.”
Her influence comes at a good time, with the movement for transgender visibility is gaining real momentum. From the activism of public figures like actress Laverne Cox, and Laura Jane Grace of the punk band Against Me!, to TV shows like Transparent and Orange is the New Black, transgender identity is becoming more and more visible.
And now, Olympic gold medallist and reality TV star Bruce Jenner has confirmed that he identifies as a woman, which – if the months of speculation on the issue is anything to go by – is sure to have a significant cultural impact. There’s obviously still a long way to go, but it’s clear that we’re on the cusp of a new age of acceptance and understanding.
In the Vogue story, Andreja says: “Being known to the whole world with this transition, I thought, Who is ever going to love me? How am I going to have a relationship with a man if all of this is public?
“Then I got to a place where I was like, ‘I’m successful and happy with what I’ve achieved. There’s nothing I should be ashamed of. You can take it or leave it.’ ”
The world can always use more women like that. Girls with guts, who aren’t afraid to be themselves and make their mark on the world, regardless of what anyone thinks. And that’s why women like Andreja need to be in Vogue.
[Image: Vogue]