Slay Model Management: Putting Transgender Beauty in the Spotlight

They're glam. They're beautiful. They're all models, and they're all trans.

Documentary filmmaker Cecilio Asuncion ("What's the T?") serves as Slay Model Management's Director of Scouting and Development, and aims to break down barriers that have prevented trans models from rising to the top echelons of the fashion industry. Opening its doors in downtown Los Angeles this fall, Slay Model Management claims to be the world's first exclusively transgender modeling agency; you must be trans to even get in the door.

"We believe one's gender identity should not be a hindrance to one's fashion dreams," says Asuncion. "It's time the world recognizes the trans community's amazing talent."

That task lies as much with forward-thinking fashion designers and directions as it does on the Slay models themselves. The agency scored a major success when model Arisce snagged a layout in German Vogue. She believes being represented by an agency that consists solely of transgender models frees her from the need to conform to preconceived notions of what a top model should be like.

More buzz was generated when the agency recently signed 12-year-old Alex. Her discovery is a modern version of Lana Turner at the soda fountain:

"My mom saw an ad for Slay on Facebook, and asked me if I wanted to try it out," she recalls. "And it kinda of just fell into place. I really enjoy it, it is really fun. And it shows people a new perspective of transgender people and makes me proud that I can be a role model."

But as with any modeling agency, each model must meet a high standard and represent a physical ideal. "Models must have the right height, measurements, and a drive like no other!" notes Asuncion.

Famous Footsteps

While some observers decry anyone, transgender or otherwise, at Alex's age entering a notoriously cutthroat and fickle industry, it is fairly common and with notable success stories: Milla Jovovich began modeling at age 12, Tyra Banks at 15, and Cindy Crawford at 17. With her fresh face and luminous skin, Alex lacks any of the signs of aging that is so anathema to the beauty biz; her allure makes as much good business sense as it does social justice.

Nor is being transgender entirely unheard of. Alex and the rest of her Slay peers follow in the stilettos of wildly popular trans model Andreja Pejić, who before her full transition to female in 2014 would alternate from one gender to another depending on the designer and show.

Fit to a 'T'

Arguably, transfolk have never been as popular: Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner beam their experiences into our homes weekly, while films like "Transamerica" and "The Danish Girl" and the television series "Transparent" hint that Hollywood is coming around to treating the subject seriously rather than for shock-value.

But taking something seriously and accepting it into society as a whole are two different concepts and two very different stages of progress, as Asuncion makes clear. Ironically, transpeople have an easier time getting onto a film set than getting into a campaign for Walmart.

"The day I see a trans model pushing a shopping cart in a campaign for a major retailer - and no one bats an eye - is the day I will know my work is done," he says.

The "T" in LGBT has always been a political marriage, and as such, never a precise fit. The trans experience has less to do with sexual orientation than it does gender identity. As gays and lesbians continue to win equal status to their heterosexual peers - from modeling to marriage - the spotlight now begins to shine on transpeople as the next social inclusion into American society.

For Alex, who by her reckoning identified as female at the age of two, and who could well become a poster child for young transfolk, it is a daunting burden but not one of which she is unaware, nor afraid to face. Though she may be at the tip of the iceberg in her career, she balances it with an everyday life school and friends, gymnastics and listening to Arianna Grande.

"I am a young person, but I do feel proud for being one of the faces for transgender models," she tells EDGE. "And even being known as transgender makes me proud. It gives the chance to show other people what it is like to be a transgender model; it's a job I would like to keep doing and help people understand what it is like to be trans."

Be it ever so slowly, transgenders are finding their footing: on the catwalk, in the media, and hopefully in everyday life.