Transgender Britain’s Next Top Model contestant: ‘It was easier to come out as gay’
By Will Stroude
The first transgender woman to appear as a contestant on Britain‘s Next Top Model has opened up about her experiences on ITV’s Lorraine.
Tallulah-Eve Brown, 22, who currently hold the Miss Transgender Birmingham crown, told Fearne Cotton that seeing Big Brother’s Nadia Almada win the Channel 4 reality series in 2005 helps her understand her identity for the first time.
She said: “Growing up was difficult for me. I didn’t understand what I was – there was no education about it.
“I didn’t understand what I was, my whole life, pretty much. Then I read a story about Nadia from Big Brother and I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is me’.”
Brown, who will battle it out with 11 other girls to become Britain’s next top model when show’s 11th series kicks of tonight (March 16) on Lifetime, also revealed that she first came out as gay at school not because she didn’t know she was transgender, but because it would be more easily accepted by her peers.
“At school people were never going to understand that so I just came out as gay,” she explained.
“As I got older I started to experiment, and I thought ‘I don’t care what people think’.”
Brown, who started her transition back in 2015 and underwent gender confirmation surgery last year, said she received exactly the same treatment as her competitors during her time on the show.
“Putting me on the show was a big thing for them. They treated me like all the other girls, there was no special treatment or anything like that,” she said.
The new series of Britain’s Next Top Model begins on Lifetime at 9pm tonight. Watch a clip of Tallulah-Eve”s appearance on Lorraine below:
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