Geena Rocero

Geena Rocero (born 1983 or 1984) is a transgender model, TED speaker, and advocate. Rocero is the founder of Gender Proud, an advocacy and aid organization that stands up for the right of transgender people all over the world to "self-identify with the fewest possible barriers".

Personal life

Geena Rocero was born in Manila, Philippines to a working-class family. She started competing in beauty pageants at age 15.

Rocero immigrated to San Francisco, California at age 17. In 2005, Geena Rocero moved to New York City, and she became a U.S. citizen in 2006.

Career

Rocero was discovered by a fashion photographer in a restaurant on the Lower East Side of Manhattan when she was 21 years old. She was then signed to top agency NEXT Model Management and spent 12 years modeling for international swimsuit and beauty editorials, earning herself a large fan base.

In 2014, Rocero was featured on the fifth anniversary cover of C☆NDY magazine along with 13 other transgender women: Janet Mock, Carmen Carrera, Laverne Cox, Isis King, Gisele Alicea, Leyna Ramous, Dina Marie, Nina Poon, Juliana Huxtable, Niki M’nray, Pêche Di, Carmen Xtravaganza and Yasmine Petty.

Adding to her resumé in 2015, Rocero became Executive Producer of “Beautiful As I Want To Be,” a digital series for Logo focused on transgender youth. The show spotlights young trans people, and pairs them with a coach or mentor in the trans community. In the first episode, Zeam, a young trans man and artist, is paired with Caitlyn Jenner. Jenner in the episode mentions Rocero as "the first trans person I ever met". And Rocero has also been featured on Jenner's show "I Am Cait."

Activism

On March 31, 2014, in honor of International Transgender Day of Visibility, Rocero came out as transgender while giving a TED talk in New York City. On September 19, 2014, excerpts of Rocero's TED talk were featured on NPR's TED Radio Hour podcast.

In 2014, Rocero launched Gender Proud, "an advocacy & awareness campaign that aims to advance the rights of all transgender individuals."

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geena_Rocero
photo credit:"Model Geena Rocero Coming out Transgender (13563189244)" by Steve Jurvetson from Menlo Park, USA - Model Geena Rocero Coming out Transgender. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons.