The Melbourne-raised model has told People, “I always dreamt of being a girl.”
Now after 22 years as a male and a three-month recovery period from surgery, Andrej’s dream has come true. She wears a gold necklace with the nameplate Andreja to signify it.
While the 22-year-old says “what’s in between anyone’s legs is not who they are,” she is elated at the change.
“I was happy the moment had come – as happy as you can be before a surgery,” she told People.
“It was about three months before I felt like myself again.
“Every day is like a new revelation. I’m more comfortable than ever. I feel at a 100 per cent.”
Andreja appeared as a striking bride in a Gaultier spring haute couture show.
Pejic was discovered by a modelling agency while working the counter at McDonald’s in Melbourne’s Swanston Street and reached dizzy heights of international celebrity as a male model who walked in womenswear runway shows for illustrious designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier and Marc Jacobs.
Speaking to The Weekly last year, Andreja’s mother Jadranka Pejic said that she used to question, “what kind of life will he have? Will the world accept him?”
“He wanted to play with Barbie dolls and Barbie cars. I would try to hide these things from people but because it was my son and it made him happy I would slip his Barbie doll to him under the table and say, here, go and play with it, and bring it back to me when you are finished.”
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Andreja Pejic and her mother Jadranka
Speaking to People, Pejic said, “I want to share my story with the world because I think I have a social responsibility.
“I hope that by being open about this, it becomes less of an issue.”
