KENDALL Jenner and Gigi Hadid may be household names, but Laith Ashley is quickly rising through the runway ranks.
The 26-year-old transgender model, who emerged on the scene in 2013 after legendary photographer Bruce Weber shot his first fashion campaign for Barneys, hit several runways during New York Fashion Week two years after his transition.
“New York fashion was fun — it’s funny as I never intended to get into modelling it just happened,” Ashley said. “But being a model now is definitely exciting. I’m always shocked when I’m walking into the gym or going to the store and people recognise me.”
“It makes me feel good but it can be a bit of shock,” he adds.
The New York Post reports that with an Instagram following of over 60,000 fans, including Whoopi Goldberg and Orange Is the New Black‘s Laverne Cox, Ashley is embracing his new found fame despite a shaky start.
Realising that he there had been a “misalignment” with his gender and body at the age of five, Laith came out to his parents at 17. While his mum and dad ultimately supported him, it wasn’t without a bit of internal strife.
“My dad was fine. I told him that if he is proud of me it takes the power of people who criticise,” Ashley shares. “My [mum] is Pentecostal Christian and although she loves me she felt it conflicted with her faith.”
While Ashley underwent surgery shift his physique last year, he has been taking testosterone since 2014 in order to deepen his voice and to help him grow facial hair.
“I told my [mum] a year in advance that I was going to transition medically,” he recalls. “There was a lot of fear at first. It took me six years from the moment I came out as trans to actually begin my medical treatment.”
“Once I got over that fear, there was no stopping me. I am the most comfortable I’ve ever been.”
While Ashley maintains his trim figure by working out three times a week, the Insta-star admits that becoming a role model was never in his plan.
“I never thought of myself as a role model, it was a label placed upon me after my photos began circulating through social media,” Ashley notes. “But then I went through a period of being very overwhelmed. I focused on all the negative comments I was receiving and just wanted to disappear.”
Now looking at the glass half-full, Ashley is beginning to feel more at ease about his life.
“When I look in the mirror, I am satisfied with that image. It is how I want to present myself to the world. This is me,” he explains.
Though his modelling career is just getting started, Ashley is hopeful for the opportunities to come.
“My family and friends are very excited about my modelling. My mum brags about it to her friends at church,” Ashley says.
“I can get embarrassed easily and acting classes force you to let go. I found it therapeutic. And I think that acting classes personally help me to open myself up to other people.”
Still adjusting post-transition, Ashley hopes his journey will eventually help others.
“I am still pretty early on in my transition. I find myself not being able to connect with people the way I did before,” he discloses. “It might be partial fear, it might partially be me just becoming comfortable with myself.”
“People should be true to themselves — they don’t have to fit a box,” Ashley continues. “I know many look up to me, because I may fit the image they wish to achieve, which I find incredibly humbling, but I want them to also know that their life journey is their own.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Post
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