Lakme Fashion Week catwalk Anjali Lama became the first transgender model
It was her big moment. Anjali Lama sashayed down the catwalk in the swanky Mumbai auditorium. A fitted, cream dress highlighted her tall, slender frame. Her pulled-back hair showed off her high cheekbones. Modeling at Lakme Fashion Week often seemed like a dream far beyond her reach, but Lama has become the first transgender woman to model at one of the top events on India’s fashion calendar and one sponsored by a top Indian cosmetics brand. Growing up as the fifth son in a poor farming family in Nepal, Lama didn’t dream early in life to be a fashion model. First was the painful struggle to accept that he felt deeply female. “I knew even as a child that I didn’t like being a boy, wearing those clothes,” Lama said by phone as she juggled fittings and photoshoots in Mumbai, India’s entertainment capital.
In this Feb. 1, 2017 photo, Anjali Lama, center, a transgender model from Nepal, interacts with other models after walking the ramp during Lakme Fashion week in Mumbai, India.
Today, she has signed up with a talent management agency in Mumbai and is exercising and carefully monitoring her diet in preparation for her catwalk debut. And it is not an achievement that has gone unnoticed by her estranged family, with her brothers finally reaching out to her in support. Now the dream is to become a successful model and make enough money to undergo a sex change operation. “Inside I already feel like a woman, but I want to become one in the true sense of the word,” says Lama.
The years in the village were hard. Other children in school made fun of the boy, then called Nabin Waiba, and he struggled with figuring out why he felt so uncomfortable. “I began to feel really confused and depressed. I kept asking myself ‘I’m a boy, so why do I feel this way?’ “I tried to change but it was mental torture.”
Paris Lees is a journalist, presenter and transgender rights campaigner who has challenged how the media talk about transgender issues. She founded the first British magazine aimed at the trans community, META, as well as working for a number of other publications. Lees has also made appearances on Question Time and Newsnight, as well as speaking at the Oxford Union. She currently works with Trans Media Watch to help Channel 4 remove transphobic material from its content. She has also spoken out over a number of incidents deemed transphobic, including media coverage of transgender teacher Lucy Meadows and a column by Julie Burchill in which she described trans people as "a bunch of bed-wetters in bad wigs". She was awarded the Positive Role Model Award for LGBT in the 2012 National Diversity Awards, Ultimate Campaigner at the Cosmopolitan Women of the Year Awards, and also topped the Independent on Sunday’s Pink List in 2013. After a tough start in life, which culminated in a spell in prison, Lees spoke of the change in media coverage of transgender people. Speaking when she was named Young Campaigning Journalist of the Year award at the MHPC 30 To Watch awards earlier this year, Lees said: “"When I first transitioned I was depressed and isolated. I looked to the media for inspiration and all I saw were people like me being ridiculed. "Five years on and things are looking very different."
"It was like a rebirth for me. I remember thinking, 'Oh my God, I'm not alone in this world. There are others like me,' she said.
Inspiration, when Anjali needs it, comes from her mother. For a professional role model, she looks up to Adriana Lima. In the fashion world — and in India — Anjali says she’s found nothing but acceptance. “India is (more) developed than where I come from, and people here are, by and large, helpful. This triggered my decision to come to India and explore career opportunities… Fashion is a strong subject and it has the possibility to turn around the overall environment and psychology of even the most rigid minds."
In this Feb. 1, 2017 photo, Anjali Lama, center, a transgender model from Nepal, interacts with other models after walking the ramp during Lakme Fashion week in Mumbai, India.
Today, she has signed up with a talent management agency in Mumbai and is exercising and carefully monitoring her diet in preparation for her catwalk debut. And it is not an achievement that has gone unnoticed by her estranged family, with her brothers finally reaching out to her in support. Now the dream is to become a successful model and make enough money to undergo a sex change operation. “Inside I already feel like a woman, but I want to become one in the true sense of the word,” says Lama.
The years in the village were hard. Other children in school made fun of the boy, then called Nabin Waiba, and he struggled with figuring out why he felt so uncomfortable. “I began to feel really confused and depressed. I kept asking myself ‘I’m a boy, so why do I feel this way?’ “I tried to change but it was mental torture.”
Paris Lees is a journalist, presenter and transgender rights campaigner who has challenged how the media talk about transgender issues. She founded the first British magazine aimed at the trans community, META, as well as working for a number of other publications. Lees has also made appearances on Question Time and Newsnight, as well as speaking at the Oxford Union. She currently works with Trans Media Watch to help Channel 4 remove transphobic material from its content. She has also spoken out over a number of incidents deemed transphobic, including media coverage of transgender teacher Lucy Meadows and a column by Julie Burchill in which she described trans people as "a bunch of bed-wetters in bad wigs". She was awarded the Positive Role Model Award for LGBT in the 2012 National Diversity Awards, Ultimate Campaigner at the Cosmopolitan Women of the Year Awards, and also topped the Independent on Sunday’s Pink List in 2013. After a tough start in life, which culminated in a spell in prison, Lees spoke of the change in media coverage of transgender people. Speaking when she was named Young Campaigning Journalist of the Year award at the MHPC 30 To Watch awards earlier this year, Lees said: “"When I first transitioned I was depressed and isolated. I looked to the media for inspiration and all I saw were people like me being ridiculed. "Five years on and things are looking very different."
"It was like a rebirth for me. I remember thinking, 'Oh my God, I'm not alone in this world. There are others like me,' she said.
Inspiration, when Anjali needs it, comes from her mother. For a professional role model, she looks up to Adriana Lima. In the fashion world — and in India — Anjali says she’s found nothing but acceptance. “India is (more) developed than where I come from, and people here are, by and large, helpful. This triggered my decision to come to India and explore career opportunities… Fashion is a strong subject and it has the possibility to turn around the overall environment and psychology of even the most rigid minds."
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