She has been very open, honest and admirable in the approach to such a personal issue. It's great to have yet another positive trans role model in the public eye.
"I had the surgery early this year, and I told my men's agent at DNA [Pejic's New York agency] about two weeks before the operation," she revealed. "I just said, 'This is what's happening,' because I didn't want anything to stop me. I had decided. And then recently, I had a meeting with the women's team, and they've been very positive about moving from the men's board to the women's board, which is amazing. It's something I guess no one's ever done. Actually, all over the world I was [on both boards], but not in New York. I guess the American market isn't as progressive."
"The modelling thing came up, and I became this androgynous male model, and that was a big part of my growing up and my self-discovery," she said. "But I always kept in mind that, ultimately, my biggest dream was to be a girl. I wasn't ready to talk about it before in a public way because I was scared that I would not be understood. I didn't know if people would like me. But now I'm taking that step because I'm a little older - I'm 22 - and I think my story can help people. My goal is to give a human face to this struggle, and I feel like I have a responsibility…. It was a personal decision. I took this step, and I said to myself, 'My career is just going to have to fall into place around it'. So I hope that I can continue my success."
"I added an 'a' because it's not a full transformation - it's just an evolution, I thought about whether I should change it or not for a while. In the West, Andrej isn't really a masculine name. But I think [the name change] is something that my mum really wanted because, traditionally, Andrej is a Christian Orthodox name, and in that religion, it's definitely a male name. So I kept the 'j' and added an 'a', which actually becomes a name that I don't think exists. But I wanted to keep the 'j' because that's me. That's my name."
I wish her the best of luck!
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