Meet Ariel Nicholson, U.S. Vogue’s First Trans Cover Model

In an unprecedented news, transgender model Ariel Nicholson made landmark history as the first transgender person to grace the cover of the American issue of Vogue magazine. Nicholson, together with other models who have been pushing boundaries and breaking norms will be featured in the cover of Vogue’s issue this coming September. She will be posing alongside Bella Hadid, Sherry Shi, Anok Yai, Kaia Gerber, Yumi Nu, and Precious Lee. The model-activist shared the news with her fans through a post in the social media platform Instagram.

Nicholson stated that being given the opportunity to participate in shifting the landscape of the fashion industry is a dream come true for her. She added that the feat is special to her, as she thanked the whole Vogue team she worked with.

Ariel Nicholson was born and was subsequently raised in Mahwah, New Jersey. She discovered at an early age that she is transgender, in which she told her parents that she did not belong as boy. As she entered her fifth grade, Nicholson transitioned to using female pronouns and has taken medications in order to suppress the physical and chemical effects of male puberty. She was featured in the documentary by PBS entitled Growing Up Trans while she was in eighth grade, wherein she talked about taking estradiol, an estrogen medication that helped her transition to womanhood.

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A post shared by Ariel Nicholson (@ariel.nicholson)

Nicholson then began her modeling career when she was in high school, being signed to DNA Model Management. She has walked for different big names and brands in the fashion industry including being the first transwoman to walk for a Calvin Klein fashion show. She has also walked for Miu Miu and Marc Jacobs, as well as being featured in several advertisement campaigns, and editorials for W and Vogue Magazines, and in September 2020, she was featured in the cover of Italian Vogue. Nicholson has also been active in volunteering especially for the Gender & Family Project, an organization that supports transgender youths.

Talking about this history she achieved, Ariel Nicholson said to Vogue that this is obviously a big deal being the first trans woman to be on the cover of the magazine, while also saying that she is unsure of the impact of her achievement, as the effects would be intangible. While expressing sincere gratitude for the historic moment, she laments that she has been constantly being put in a box of being a transgender model. She further expressed that while she is in fact a transgender model, this not all that she is.

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A post shared by Ariel Nicholson (@ariel.nicholson)

Nicholson joins other transgender women who have been achieving landmark victory left and right. Last July, lead star of the FX series Pose Mj Rodriguez made the headlines after being annoucned as the first transgender performer to receive an Emmy nomination for a major acting category. She is currently nominated as the lead actress in a drama series for her role as Blanca Rodriguez, the loving but fierce and awe-inspiring mother of the House of Evangelista. Pose is a series that portrays the ballroom scene in New York City during different periods in time.

Kylie Sonique Love, the first ever contestant of RuPaul’s Drag Race to ever come out as transgender, has come back to compete for the sixth installment of the spin-off of the show, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. Kylie Sonique, who has been a constant fan favorite ever since the announcement of the contestants, has already won a major challenge in the show, which solidifies her spot as a formidable contender for the crown and to eventually win the competition.