Chanel Beauty Enlists its First-Ever Openly Transgender Model, Teddy Quinlivan
“The world will kick you down, spit on you, and tell you you’re worthless. It’s your job to have the strength to stand up and push on.”
The fashion and beauty industries have been executing initiatives to overcome boundaries in gender and sexuality – following Victoria’s Secret hiring Valentina Sampaio, Chanel has enlisted its first-ever openly transgender model, Teddy Quinlivan. Having walked major runways like Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Chloé, Quinlivan announced the exciting news on Instagram.
“I am the first openly trans person to work for the house of Chanel, and I am deeply humbled and proud to represent my community,” the model stated on a post with a video from the latest beauty campaign, where she is applying Chanel Beauty‘s Rouge Coco lipstick. She also shared an emotional story leading up to this successful moment in her career.
“My whole life has been a fight. From being bullied at school consistently, kids threatening to kill me and going into graphic detail how they were going to do it, my own father beating me and calling me a faggot, to receiving industry blowback after speaking publicly about being sexually assaulted on the job,” she wrote, followed by an inspiring message for her followers.
“The world will kick you down, spit on you, and tell you you’re worthless. It’s your job to have the strength to stand up and push on, to keep fighting, Because if you give up then you will never experience the tears of triumph.”
Scroll down below to take a look at the new Chanel Beauty campaign featuring the star. For more diversity-related news, read about how Adut Akech was mistaken for Flavia Lazarus in an Australian magazine.
