Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox might be two of the world’s most famous transgender women. But the truth this, there are MANY amazing transgender “sheros” to look up to.
These trailblazers are shattering stereotypes and breaking boundaries. It’s a beautiful thing!
That’s why in this post, I’ve rounded up 20 transgender role models and celebrities worth knowing about. Read on to be inspired!
1. Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox rose to fame on the hit TV series, Orange is the New Black, and has gone on to become one of the most visible trans superstars and activists. She’s the first transgender actress to be nominated for an Emmy Award and the first transgender person to appear on the cover of TIME magazine.
2. Mj Rodriguez
Mj Rodriguez is a transgender actress and singer who made history as the first trans woman to receive an Emmy nomination in a major acting category. She was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in 2021 for her role in the TV series, Pose. In January 2022, she went on to become the first transgender actor in history to win a Golden Globe.
3. Lili Elbe
Lili Elbe is the subject of the book and movie,The Danish Girl. She’s notable for being the first transgender woman to undergo gender reassignment surgery in 1930 in Germany. Her initial surgeries were a success. Sadly however, her last surgery (to transplant a uterus so she might be able to have children), led to her death.
4. Rachel Levine
Rachel Levine is the first openly transgender person to be confirmed by the United States Senate before taking office. She was nominated by Joe Biden in February 2021 and currently serves as the assistant secretary for health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
5. Valentina Sampaio
Valentina Sampaio is a Brazilian-born transgender supermodel. In 2019, she made history as the first transgender model to work with Victoria’s Secret. Then, in 2020, became the first transgender model to appear in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
6. Andreja Pejic
Andreja Pejic is a supermodel who walked the runway for both men’s and women’s fashion shows before transitioning as a woman in 2014. She’s been featured on countless magazine covers and was the first transgender model to be featured in a major beauty campaign as a face of Make Up For Ever.
7. Caroline Cossey
Caroline Cossey (also known by her stage name, Tula) is a British model who appeared in the 1981 James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only. She was later outed as transgender by the British tabloid News of the World. In 1991, she became the first trans woman to pose for Playboy and has gone on to become one of the world’s most well known transgender women.
8. Jazz Jennings
Jazz Jennings is an inspiring role model for transgender youth. She first appeared in a 20/20 interview with Barbara Walters in 2007 called I’m a Girl – Understanding Transgender Children. Since then, she’s been featured as the face of Clean & Clear’s See the Real Me campaign and stars in a TLC reality series called I Am Jazz.
9. Janet Mock
Janet Mock is a transgender writer, director, producer, and activist. She’s the author of the NY Times best-selling book, Redefining Realness. She is also the writer, director and executive producer of Pose, an Emmy Award-nominated TV series about NYC’s drag ball culture scene.
10. Christine Jorgensen
Christine Jorgensen is a former soldier who became a media sensation in the U.S. after undergoing gender reassignment surgery in Denmark in 1952. While her transition was ridiculed at the time, she brought national attention to gender issues. She went on to become a successful entertainer.
11. Candis Cayne
Candis Cayne was the first transgender actress to play a recurring transgender role on primetime TV. She starred in ABC’s Dirty Sexy Money from 2007-2009. Prior to her acting career, she performed as a drag queen in the early 1990s. She also made several appearances in Caitlyn Jenner’s reality show, I Am Cait.
12. Jennifer Pritzker
Jennifer Pritzker is notable for being the first transgender billionaire. An heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune and a former high ranking lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, she came out as transgender in 2003. She has since donated $2 million for transgender studies to the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
13. Marci Bowers
Marci Bowers is an OB/GYN and surgeon who was the first transgender woman to perform gender reassignment surgery. Her work has been highlighted on Oprah, Discovery Health, and the TLC reality series, I Am Jazz. As of 2020, she has performed over 2,000 vaginoplasties for transgender women.
14. Geena Rocero
Geena Rocero was a successful fashion model for 12 years, appearing in major campaigns for Target, Rimmel, Revlon, Macy’s, and more. She came out as transgender during a TED Talk in 2014. Geena went on to co-found GenderProud, an organization that helps transgender communities around the world advocate for legal rights.
15. Jenna Talackova
Jenna Talackova is a Canadian model who made headlines when she won the right to compete in the Miss Universe Canada pageant in 2012. She went on to make it into the Top 12 and was selected Miss Congeniality. Jenna currently works as a model for the prestigious Wilhelmina agency while continuing to champion transgender rights.
16. Leyna Bloom
Leyna Bloom is a transgender model, actress, and activist. She has walked the runway at Paris Fashion Week and appeared in magazines such as Vogue India and Glamour. In July 2021, she made history as the first transgender woman to appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
17. Kataluna Enriquez
Kataluna Enriquez is a notable trailblazer who made history as the first openly transgender Miss USA contestant. She was crowned Miss Nevada USA in June 2021 and went on to complete in Miss USA in November 2021.
18. Renée Richards
Renée Richards is a trans woman and former tennis player who competed professionally in the 1970s. In 1976, she challenged a United States Tennis Association decision banning her from competing in the women’s category at the U.S Open. The New York Supreme Court ruled in her favor, marking a victory for transgender athletes.
19. Tracey Norman
Tracey Norman was the first African-American transgender model to break into the fashion world. She was discovered by fashion photographer Irving Penn in 1975. She was then featured on a Clairol hair color box before being “outed” in 1980. She moved to Europe to continue her modeling career and appeared on covers including Vogue Italia and Harper’s Bazaar India.
20. Nikkie de Jager
Nikkie de Jager is a Dutch makeup artist and popular YouTube personality with over one billion views. She completed her transition as a teen, but didn’t come out publicly as transgender until 2020. She has collaborated with beauty brands including OFRA, Maybelline and Lady Gaga’s makeup brand, Haus Laboratories.
Who are YOUR favorite transgender role models?
Wow, was it hard to limit this list to just 20 transgender role models! There are so many more incredible transgender people (both male and female) that deserve to be celebrated.
That’s why I’d love to hear from you on this topic. Who else do you think should be included?
Please share your favorite transgender role models and celebrities in the comments below!
Love,
Lucille
To be honest I don’t identified with any of them.I want a makeover but in Eastern Montana it’s highly unlikey.Being a later Transgender hasn’t helped.I met Zoey in my town(on hormones).Well thinking about pm but maybe not.There just not alot of help period.
OXOX
Theresa
My Aunt Catherine Morgan, who in 1969 expertly dressed in my older sisters’ very fancy ‘confirmation dress’ (including the veil-cap, without the veil, to help my hair appear to be pulled back in a ponytail) and took me out with her in public (see attached photo sitting on her fancy bed just before we left) to a mother-daughter/niece-aunt/granddaughter-grandmother banquet at her Unitarian Church. She openly taught me how to be “lady-like” in how I sat, walked, talked, gestured, and interacted with other women/her friends as she always called me “my little Cathy”.
As an older Tgirl my pick on this topic goes to a particular early days girl named Canary Conn. Because in the 70s she was doing a few talk shows ever so courageously and in the early days of very little info on the topic, it was her way of detailing her testimony of gender dysphoria that I was able to make sense of my own mindset and feelings. Besides that she is a remarkable talented singer and performer. She inpires me and holds a special place in my heart.
I would add Calpernia Addams – subject of the movie A Soldier’s Story. She met a wonderful and understanding man that accepted her for who she is and he was beaten to death by a fellow soldier. Instead of going to pieces, she went on to become a hospital administrator and had a reality TV show for awhile.
I have been so frustrated in communicating with both trans people as well as cisgender people about trans and gender related issues until just recently, until I found Zinnia Jones on Facebook and on You Tube. For me she is the ultimate heroine for these topics as well as so many others! From reading one of her articles, one on dysphoria and gender dysphoria I am relieved because I see that I fit into this most elusive state of being underlyingly unhappy somehow! She has the sharpest mind I have ever witnessed with anyone Terran Human and continues to astound me with it video after video. I do not aspire to all of her views but I can never hope to explain anything with anywhere near the clarity that she does! I feel blessed to know her and my girlfriend here where I live as well!
I am chronologically 69yrs. which means that I view the world differently than a 27-8 year old does but I also view myself as transtemporal and as such wonder how I was 200 years ago as a man or woman or whatever but in this life I have to admit that I am a woman and hopefully becoming a better one all the time despite my age and my low self-esteem which I tend to mask by bragging about myself! Anyway there must be plenty of life left in this old girl who doesn’t look old but who feels all so old!
Jamison Green who has done more to change the law for equal rights and protection and more to change the health care systems for the benefit of all the gender variant than anyone else I know of should certainly be included. The picture is of Jamison and I at the First Event Conference in Boston.
Well, first liar dont stand a chance??? I am 69, just now starting spiro (i have high bp so we are easing into the first one that lowers it.
For me, bein my age and the “son” of a navy fighter pilot, when he said you cant be a girl (I at three or four when I first noticed and had explained to me the physical diff between us) and innocently proclaimed
“I want to be a girl”. ABSOLUTELY CAN’T BE DONE! YOU WERE BORN A BOY AND THATS THE WAY IT IS!!”
OK, OK , , , I was just askin…
Shit!
Anyway, when I heard about the early pioneers I knew my father had lied to me again,he hadnt actually, wasnt doable in the late forties or early fifties.
Finally, when Candice Cayne said in an interview that she woke up one morning and decided she wanted to spend the rest of her life as a woman.
DUH! ME TOO! So here we go.. everyone says I wont get much result from the mones but my gp gave me Jalyn (for prostate) which (nobody tells me nuthin) which I have been taking for a year or so and it has caused (due to the 25 mg of spiro in it) hair loss on my legs and body, I would swear that my nipples are being pushed out a bit…..and I havent started E yet.
So for me obviously, TIMES AWASTIN’!! But it is an enormous comfort and relief to be finally on the path. May never get to the end but, Im on the way
Thank you all,
Leah
Way to go, Leah! It’s not easy, but when you wake up as more and more of a woman each day, it’s sweetly rewarding.
Best wishes,
Joan
I’ve never had a role model. Not in the trans community, not in real life, not even my own parents. If fact they were so bad, anything but role models, that I was taught that minority groups like ours were abnormal, mental, and should all be shot and killed. So when I first discovered who I really was, I felt so much shame, I lived over a decade in repression, depression wanting to kill myself. I believed everything they taught me because that’s the way I was raised. Now I know the things they taught me aren’t true. I still don’t have a role model,, let down by so many people, I’ve had to become my own. But I’m just very grateful for all the friends I have now made in the trans community, and for beautiful people like Lucille, and the work she has done here. Not only does she demonstrate her love and compassion for all the people here, but she provides an excellent and helpful educational resource which has really changed and helped me to become the best expression of the person who I really want to be. Thank you so much.