NEW YORK, July 25 (UPI) -- Supermodel Andreja Pejic, formerly known as Andrej Pejic, came out as transgender in an interview after spending years as an androgynous model.
The Bosnian-born model has dressed in both men's and women's clothing, only calling herself androgynous. In an interview with Style.com, Pejic said she now identifies as a woman after receiving sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) earlier this year.
"I figured out who I was very early on -- actually, at the age of 13, with the help of the Internet -- so I knew that a transition, becoming a woman, was always something I needed to do. But it wasn't possible at the time, and I put it off, and androgyny became a way of expressing my femininity without having to explain myself to people too much," Pejic told Style.
Pejic said she kept the name Andrej because of its Eastern Orthodox origins and added the "a" to make it feminine. She only has one message to the public regarding transgender people.
"We're human beings, and this is a human life. This is reality for us, and all we ask for is acceptance and validation for what we say that we are. It's a basic human right."
Pejic will star in Sofia Coppola's rendition of The Little Mermaid and is already planning for fashion week.
