It might surprise you to know that a number of women in the fashion industry were not always female. It takes a truly brave person to come out as a transgendered, especially as a model! Here is a list of 9 gorgeous female models who were born a males. I did my best to show you the most naturally feminine and beautiful girls from all over the world, particularly those who are already ‘out’ and helping raise awareness and acceptance of their situation.

I do my best to give credit to their twitter and modeling pages, but sometimes it’s hard to find. If you have any more info on these girls, feel free to post in the comments! As always, our list is in no particular order.

01) Coco

Coco is a 23 year old model from Japan, and you can read her blog here (Japanese only)

02) Fabiana Oliveira Mello

Fabiana is a supermodel from Brazil, and has worked for the biggest names in fashion. She doesn’t have a fan page or twitter, but you can find her on Facebook here.

03) Choi Han Bit

24 year old Choi Han Bit gained fame for making it to the finals of Korea’s version of America’s Next Top Model in 2009. You can find her on twitter here (Korean only).

04) Kim Petras

Kim is actually not a model, but a pop singer from Germany. She got a lot of attention in the media for having gender reassignment surgery at the age of 16. Her blog is here, and she is on twitter as well.

05) Kayo Satoh

Kayo is a hugely successful supermodel in Japan, as well as a world renowned Street Fighter champion. She has a blog, but it is in Japanese only.

06) Vicky Ericsson

Like Kim Petras above, Vicky is another young transexual from Europe. She works as a model in Sweden, and speaks about it on her blog (which is in Swedish only, unfortunately)

07) Lea T

Possibly the most famous transgendered model in the world, as she revealed her secret on Oprah of all places. Lea T is a huge supermodel from Brazil, and has a Facebook fan page with 7000 followers, but I’m not sure if it’s official.

08) Liu Shi Han

Of all the places in the world that must be tough to come out as transgendered, China has to be among the top. And Liu Shi Han did just that on her blog (simplified Chinese only) not long ago. She does most of her modelling work outside China; mostly in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

09) Nong Poy

Nong Poy, aka Treechada Petcharat, is a famous model and actress from Thailand, where she had sex reassignment surgery at 17 after hiding it from her parents and friends all of her life. She won BOTH of Thailand’s famous transgendered beauty pageants – Miss International Queen and Miss Tiffany’s in 2004.