I was born on the South Side of Chicago to a Filipina mother and an African American and French Creole father. My life was shaped by survival, imagination, movement, and reinvention. After my mother was deported back to the Philippines during my childhood, I was raised by my father, a Marine Sergeant who taught me discipline, resilience, and strength. Between those worlds, softness and structure, I learned how to create myself long before the world understood who I was.

Long before fashion or film, dance became my first language. I trained in ballet, jazz, lyrical, hip hop, modern, tap, and vogue, eventually performing with the American Ballet Theatre alongside Misty Copeland at fourteen years old. Soon after, I left Chicago for New York at seventeen with little more than instinct, ambition, and faith in a larger future.

New York transformed me. I experienced homelessness while working during the day and finding refuge at night within the underground ballroom community. Ballroom became more than performance. It became family, survival, artistry, and liberation. It taught me how to exist unapologetically in a world that often tried to erase people like me.

Over the years, that journey carried me from sleeping on trains and couches to becoming the first openly trans woman of color to lead a film at the Cannes Film Festival through Port Authority, executive produced by Martin Scorsese. I later appeared on Pose Season 3, bringing authentic ballroom culture and lived experience to the screen.

In fashion, I became the 1st  openly trans woman of color to appear in any Vogue magazines ever following after the legacy of Tracey Norman, the 1st pioneering Black trans model who appeared in Vogue Italia in the 1970s. I became one of the first openly trans women of color to enter spaces historically closed to us, including the Met Gala and major global beauty campaigns. My work has included collaborations with  Dior,  Moschino x  H&M,  Tommy Hilfiger,  L'Oréal Paris,  Levi’s, and  TRESemmé, with runways spanning New York, Paris, and Milan.

In 2021, I became the first openly trans woman to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, a moment that represented far more than fashion to me. It symbolized visibility, possibility, and a future where trans people can exist fully without limitation.

Beyond the industry, my purpose has always been rooted in advocacy, storytelling, and human connection. I have spoken at institutions including Harvard University, Brown University, and Columbia University on identity, representation, race, climate justice, and self-worth. 

Everything I create comes from a desire to make people feel seen.

I am interested in the rawness of humanity. The beauty inside survival. The art of becoming. My life has never been about fitting into the world as it existed. It has been about helping imagine a new one.

Welcome to my world.