'Human Ken Doll' Rodrigo Alves comes out as transgender woman, says 'I always felt like Barbie'
Rodrigo Alves, popularly known as 'The Human Ken Doll,' has come out as a transgender woman and said she has "always felt like a Barbie."
Alves, who had made quite a name for herself and been nicknamed 'the face of plastic surgery' after spending more than $650,000 on more than 70 operations, confirmed the transition to the Mirror and said, "It feels amazing to finally tell the world I’m a girl."
The 36-year-old said she now prefers to go by the name 'Roddy' and wants people to use the pronouns "she" and "her" while referring to her.
It's not a change that's come out of nowhere. Roddy said she had breasts as a child because her body pronounced more estrogen than the average male, and that growing up, she used to play with dolls and wear her mom's dresses and heels.
"I was bullied at school because I was very feminine," she revealed. "Boys would play football and girls volleyball. I’d always be with the girls."
She revealed she was physically and sexually abused as a teen, and that she tried her best to behave like a man but was never happy. "I would see a beautiful woman and feel jealous because I wanted to be like them," she said. "I think like a woman, I act like a woman because I have always been one deep inside."
During a photo shoot in New York a year ago, Roddy said she finally realized that she wanted to live the rest of her life as a woman after asking to dress in women's clothes for the occasion and then later taking them home.
"I began wearing the lingerie at home and it made me feel beautiful," she revealed. "It was an awakening. It finally all became clear to me."
Within a month, she was diagnosed with gender dysmorphic disorder and given the medication to start the transition into a woman. While she has already had butt implants, she will be completing her transition with gender realignment surgery next year.
That procedure will see surgeons perform a penile inversion and remove her testicles, though, before that, she will be receiving silicone breast implants, face feminization surgery, and have her Adam's apple removed.
"I finally feel like the real me. Glamorous, beautiful and feminine," she gushed. "For years I tried to live my life as a man. I had a fake six-pack put in, I had fake muscles in my arms but I was lying to myself. I’m a woman and have always had a feminine brain. Now my body matches my mind."