Transgender model Nathan Westling: From being sexual to male, I'm just going to be myself

Nathan Westling, who became a Top50 model in 2013 while filming a Marc Jacobs ad with Miley Cyrus, has been skateboarding since she was three years old and has been a model since she was 16. After a stint as a neutral, handsome female model, he officially revealed in 2019 that he had become transgender, in addition to having upper-body sex reset surgery and taking hormone medication, becoming Nathan, who parted ways with Natalie and became one of the rare transgender models in the modelling world. (Extended reading: Transgender supermodel Nathan Westling: Becoming myself, I spent ten years)

With a rebellious, neutral skateboarder plus female models and then deciding to become transgender as a boy, Nathan Westling faces an unfinished challenge, can the modeling industry make this minority transgender male model stand out again?

The 23-year-old is already a very admirable role model. He made his debut, combining high and low pop culture, walking between the streets and the stretch, and before transsexuality, he redefined the look and temperament of female models, with daughters performing two genders, and after transsexuality, the possibility of gender mobility was truly gender-gendered. Nathan Westling has been wearing loose-fitting skateboarding before officially switching genders, a snooky, and he is now brave enough to rewrite his "gender", which alively confirms the possibility of a person performing a neutral, female-to-female movement.

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The fashion world, a journey to find yourself

Actually growing up was really hard because i felt i was living a double life. Mae mum thought i will be this perfect sand and dressed me in really ly girly clothes, and tried to change my view of I was as a person. Ever e i left house to pursue modelling i've had able to find myself in a way to i never have had before.

Growing up is difficult because I feel like I'm living between a double lifestyle. My mother thought I was going to be the perfect daughter, put on a very feminine dress for me, and try to change the way I thought I was. Since I left home and started my modelling career, I've finally been able to find a self I've never found.

Nathan Westling for Hypebae

In his pre-transgender interviews, he once said that he lived in two worlds, that at a younger age, he lived between what he wanted to be and what his mother wanted him to be; Identity pull is more violent and hard than when he entered the business as a model, but into the fashion circle after more able to do their own, although love to dress like a boy, direct attitude, do not stick to the rules, the fashion world is transgender before his characteristics of all, but also give him the opportunity to wear fashion without gender boundaries, Play different gender roles and explore the possibilities of gender ambiguity.

The fashion world seemed to love the fact-that i was this this mid-girl from Arizona that-grew up-up-up-and-kind-of-the-one Dressed lik a boy.

The fashion world seems to love me as a fact from Arizona, skateboarding and dressing like a boy.

Nathan Westling for Hypebae

Once he shot a short film for i-D, he subverted the so-called lady standards, stepping on a skateboard, wearing a loose-fitting clothes and a cold hat, and he had his own way of expressing himself. During his visit, he expressed his love for the skateboarding brand Vans, who was a spokesman at the time, and said, "I've been wearing Vans for my own memory." Known for his neutral, male-to-female dresscode, and the old red-haired, unchanging Peugeot Five, the reporter described him as a bit of Kristen Stewart's shadow.

Privately, he's a true Vans kid (although he says skateboarding doesn't really have a rule, you can wear anything you want to wear on a skateboard), and on the stretch stage, he once walked through the men's fashion show as a model and became the first female model in the magazine Man About Town. He appeared in a leather dress with a thick shoulder pad on the cover.

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Skateboarding, breaking out

And what impact does Nathan Westling and his favorite skateboarding style do to the public to see the image of women? The origins of skateboarding were not really at stake with the fashion world until skateboarding fashion became a frequent reference to high-end brands such as Alexander Wang.

In the 1950s, a group of Dogtown skateboarders started skateboarding on the streets, from low- to middle-income families, often in a waterless swimming pool. Skateboarding allows them to link and meet, and letthem use new ways to use urban spaces. Skateboarding with the meaning of danger, freedom and creativity, and the street face-to-face collision, laid the skateboard rebel and love of adventure character.

Nathan Westling, who has been skateboarding since he was three years old, is naturally a member of the freedom and adventure. The native sex is female, we can imagine a beautiful young girl in loose clothes, skate, on the streets in the morning and evening, where he may have met like-minded friends, young women, perhaps met the men who challenged his abilities.

What's weird is skate culture is reference so much in fashion. I think it's actuallyly really cool, and it's helped me stand out and not be like all other models.

Paradoxically, the fashion world often refers to skateboarding culture, which I think is good, and skateboarding culture really let me break out in the cloud model, and different.

Nathan Westling for Hypebae

In addition to making him a different model before he was transgender, clothing actually allows him to express his sexuality in a more comfortable way, and to live more comfortably in his body, which may be the power of clothing.

From her to him, bye Natalie.

Many well-known models have only one name and one gender identity in their lives, and Nathan, who has gone from beautiful model to other sex, suffered from anxiety and depression until he took hormone medication and underwent gender reset surgery before he really lived to be what he liked.

This is why we need to pay attention to gender duality, gender stereotypes, if clothing is divided into men/women, everyone must conform to a certain set of stereotypes to live, can not cross the line of clothing and behavior lines, people who fail to obey gender duality (Gender non-conforming) will be ignored and oppressed.

In fact, in addition to Nathan, there are Finn Buchanan, the cross-male models currently active in the haute couture industry. After the creative director of the brand, C?line, changed from Phoebe Philo to Hedi Slimane, the brand added more rock and black and white elements, and the first cross-male model, Finn, appeared on the autumn/winter series of 2019.

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Photo sIG

Finn is 16 years old, native to female, but his gender identity is male, at about 13 years old began to want to be called "he." He began his modelling career about a year ago, starting with a career in women's wear, and once as an opening model for Margiela's fashion show, C?line came to the door. Margiela's fashion show is dominated by "gender blur", while C?line's is pure menswear, with the exception of Finn, all of whom are gender-specific (cis) male models.

Transgender people's gender identity or gender expression is different from their assigned gender. "Transgender" is an umbrella term: in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of the gender designation at birth (transgender men, transgender women), it may also include people who are not fully male or female than traditionally (e.g. gender-cooled/unconventional, trans-gender, trans-gender, fluid, gender-neutral). - Wikipedia

Dazed described 2019 as a year in which the fashion world valued transgender visibility, and Finn's success came before Nathan emerged in a new way, believing it would continue to be a big purple and continue to encourage young "Gender" Bender no longer looks small on himself.

Perhaps "Natalie" has a larynx, flat chest and a growing beard, but that's exactly what he's brave enough to do, as he sweeps the foundation of his past supporters, and the challenger's viewer's expectations of him and the industry's. Nathan may not be the first transgender male model in haute couture, but it's definitely one of the few examples of transsexuality after a career with native sex, which makes his situation and appearance a rainbow-political symbol, like telling us that he's not just a gender-neutral girl, but now he's crossing the boundaries of native sex. What he wants to be, it's up to him to choose.