Apple Modelling Agency is based in Bangkok.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Apple Modelling Management will open an office in Los Angeles, California, this summer as the first transgender modeling agency in the United States.
The organization, which opened in Bangkok, Thailand in November 2014, currently represents six transgender women in addition to a stable of cisgender — or non-transgender — male and female models. The agency became the first in the world to host a transgender division.
“We see trans individuals as beautiful,” said L.A. agency director Cecilio Asuncion in an interview with The Avocate. “Our strong commitment to developing them as successful models is never about quantifying or qualifying their gender. It’s never a question of if they are women or men, it’s about their passion and commitment to being the best possible models they can be.”
Transgender issues are coming to the forefront of the public consciousness, thanks in part to high profile transgender celebrities such as Laverne Cox Caitlyn Jenner.
Transgender individuals may not have always been accepted n the modeling community, but acceptance is steadily forthcoming, demonstrated by the rise of models such as Andreja Pejic.
Before Jenner’s much talked-about reality television show, “I am Cait,” was even announced, Pejic was working on her own release, a film entitled “Andrej(A).”
According to Vogue, both productions on the same subject matter – the joy and pain of transitioning, to become a woman in both Jenner and Pejic’s cases — ” will doubtless have much in common, despite the fact that Pejic and Jenner aren’t equally used to the cameras following them.”