Model Andreja Pejic, formerly Andrej
Pejic, has come out as a transgender woman.
Discovered at 17, Pejic, now 22, was
the fashion industry's most celebrated androgynous model.
“As a transgender woman I hope to
show that after transition (a life-saving process) one can be happy
and successful in their new chapter,” Pejic posted on Facebook.
She told PEOPLE
that she underwent sex reassignment surgery earlier this year and
moving forward she will only be modeling women's fashion.
“I always dreamt of being a girl,”
the Serbian-born model said. “One of my earliest memories is
spinning around in my mom's skirt trying to look like a ballerina.”
“I figured out who I was very early
on – actually, at the age of 13, with the help of the Internet –
so I knew that a transition, becoming a woman, was always something I
needed to do,” she told Style.com.
“But it wasn't possible at the time, and I put it off, and
androgyny became a way of expressing my femininity without having to
explain myself to people too much.”
Pejic said she came out to her mother
at the age of 14
“She didn't understand it at first,
but she's been very supportive since,” she said.