Anjali Lama | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1985 |
| Nationality | Nepal |
| Known for | Nepal's first transgender model |
| Modeling information | |
| Hair color | Black |
Anjali Lama (born c. 1985) is Nepal's first transgender model. She is also a trans rights activist.
Lama was born c. 1985 into a farming family in Nabin Waiba, Nuwakot District, and was the fifth of seven siblings.[1][2] She was gender variant as a youth, and her perceived effeminacy was mocked by family members, teachers and schoolmates.[3] She left Nuwakot at age 18 to Kathmandu, where she says she experienced "mental torture" due to incongruence with her gender identity.[4][5] She was dismissed from her job in a hotel as the staff did not accept Lama presenting as feminine.[4]
When Lama moved to Kathmandu, she watched Sangharsha, a television show about transgender people, and identified with the people on the show.[4][6] At the suggestion of other trans women she had met, Lama became involved with the Blue Diamond Society, an LGBT group in Nepal.[3][7] Despite initially being outed and rejected by her family once a member of her village told them she was trans,[8] she told her family she was a trans woman in 2005.[7]
She later joined a modelling agency in the city.[8] Her early years modelling were difficult, as she experienced career discrimination due to being a trans woman.[9] In 2007, Lama competed in Miss International Queen[10] and in 2010, she made her catwalk debut.[4]
A 50 minute long Documentary Film was made about Lama titled "Living inside Someone Else's Skin".[11][12]
In 2017, she became well-known as the first transgender model to feature at the Lakmé Fashion Week show in India.[13][14][15] That year, she appeared on the cover of Elle India[16] and worked with Calvin Klein in 2019, becoming the first trans model from the Indian subcontinent to be featured in an international brand campaign,[17] and was announced to appear in the all-women Hollywood film Women's Stories in 2021.[18]