Transgender model who was ruthlessly mocked finally gets her own back in sizzling photoshoots
Transgender people across the world face hardships everyday from the discrimination against them in society that is yet to completely accept the community.
People belonging to the LGBTQ+ community have fought long and hard, and even though some battles have been won, the war for equality is still raging across the world. Nowhere is this struggle highlighted more than in the fight of individual members of the community as they wage a battle to be accepted the way they are.
One such person is 29-year-old Jade Chua-Hoskins.
Jade grew up in the Philippines as a boy named Jon, but she was continuously ridiculed for her feminine nature and for her love of "girly toys". Deep down though, Jade always knew that she was a woman. When her mother died in 2011, she made the brave decision to start her transition and her first act was to dress like a woman.
Jade is now a model but she was rudely informed that she would "grow out" of her dream of completing her transition into a woman. Unfortunately for her haters, the fabulous model now gets to flaunt her beautiful figure in racy photoshoots.
Two years after she started dressing as a woman, Jade got 34D breast implants and lip filler cosmetic surgeries done so that she can look more like a woman. She now lives in Camden, north London, with her 37-year-old husband, Dave. The proud transgender model is clearing a path for herself as a successful model and performer.
Known to many by her stage name, Lady Phoenix, Jade told The Daily Mail:"I always knew that I was a girl or woman, I always had feminine features, no body hair, no facial hair, smooth skin and more. I would play with girly things and wore my mom's outfits, but in the Philippines, transgender was not a thing and has only recently been tolerated."
"I grew-up a laughing stock with people saying, 'He will grow out of it,' and I was told despite feeling like a girl I would become a man."
And that wasn't the only problem for Jade while growing up. Since the age of 6 years, she was the primary breadwinner for her family. He life at that point included selling newspapers on a busy street to help out her mother and sister.
Through her hard work, she was able to earn enough to go to university and earn a master's degree in business administration. She then got jobs in Kuwait and Dubai. She was able to set up a franchise restaurant in Kuwait and even worked as a manager for a McDonald's in the Philippines.
But once she visited London, she realised how open everyone was in the city, a welcome change from the scorn she had faced in the other places she had lived in since then.
She went on to explain that she always had an extremely feminine figure.
She said: "I believe I was born with more typically female genetics, I am hairless and never needed to take hormones, the only operation I've had is my boobs and lips done. I can pass as a woman and female model, at first I didn't tell the agency I was with that I wasn't a woman."
Jade did not find it necessary to ever tell any of her Tinder dates, before she got married to Dave, that she was transgender. She said: "I met for hundreds of breakfasts, lunches and dinners, only telling people 'I'm trans' when I was comfortable."
"My husband didn't know I was transgender at first, we went for dinner and it was love at first sight. He's comfortable and proud of me, within six months I met his mum, and he was unlike any man I'd met before."
Jade and her opera singer husband got married in 2016. The couple have most recently applied to be on 'Britain's Got Talent' and 'The X-Factor' as a singing duo. She has also submitted an application to participate in 'The Apprentice UK'. The model is a staunch advocate for the Models of Diversity, a company that campaigns for fair representation across media. She was even the feature in a campaign by Swimsuit for All, a brand from the US.
She said: "I want to be an inspiration to people out there and show them that being trans isn't a hinderance to anything, it's something you should be proud of and embrace. Some people perceive it as evil, a mental illness or disease, like you're a predator in the toilets. My dream is to walk the catwalk and show my distinct look in shots."
"I'm known as Lady Phoenix here in London. For me, the phoenix for me is my rebirth, rising from the ashes to become myself and embrace who I am, it's like I've been reborn."