Hari Nef Become's Elle Magazine's First Transgender Cover Star

'In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to change my body.'

Elle magazine have made history with their upcoming September issue, featuring a transgender woman on its cover for the first time.

The woman in question is Hari Nef - a model and actress from Massachusetts, whose career has gone from strength to strength in 2016.

Not only has the 23-year-old just landed her first UK magazine cover, she was also the first trans fashion model to be signed to major agency IMG.

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Elle

Since being snapped up by the agency, Nef has walked or Gucci at Milan Fashion Week and became the new face of label Mansur Gavriel.

She’s also landed a role on TV show ‘Transparent’, having graduated from a drama degree at Columbia University.

In a preview of her interview with Elle, Nef reveals her ultimate aim is for gender neutrality.

“In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to change my body,” she said.

“I wouldn’t have to do all this stuff. I wouldn’t have to be pretty, or ‘feminine’ and people would respect that.”

Elle hail Nef as an ‘icon of change’, and editor-in-chief Lorraine Candy told The Guardian that she “seemed to highlight everything that is changing about the world right now”.

The magazine revealed the upcoming September issue will have a new design “to mark a new era in fashion” - an era that, in Candy’s words, is “not defined by any one thing”.

The September issue of Elle will be available on newsstands from 3 August and comes with a choice of five covers including Kristen Stewart, Zayn Malik and Amandla Stenberg.