Melbourne:
Andreja Pejic, who made her catwalk debut at the Melbourne Fashion Festival in 2008 as an androgynous male model, is now officially a woman.
The 23-year-old supermodel, who underwent sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) in America in 2014, said that it was a very intense year, adding that she achieved her personal dream and completed her transition to be able to live life as a woman, News.com.au reported.
Pejic, who will make a triumphant return to the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival, walking in The Grand Showcase Featuring Josh Goot, added that she came out to the world and the press, then started rebranding and planning her comeback.
Pejic knew she was “different” as a child and was away from who she really was because she was having to act and was going through gender issues at the time and it was no longer acceptable for her to play with dolls, dress up and only have friends who were girls.
She believed she had two options, that is, to be a gay boy or a straight boy, until she read about transgender people on the internet when she was 13. She realised this was her story and she wanted to live as a woman, although until she had the surgery, she was ambivalent about defining her gender in public.
Now, Pejicc calls becoming a woman “her truth” and to hear her speak so passionately about it is very moving.
She added that going into surgery, the hospital, the anaesthetic, pain, the possibility of complications and other physical aspects of the operation did not worry her, but she was more nervous about coming out to the press and how it would affect her career.
She said she found out that transition was a possibility at the age of 13; every day since then was a waiting period. It took her 10 years to get here and there was never a moment when she didn’t want this. No amount of physical pain would have made a difference to that.
