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Trans Vanity Fair project
Festive Bussy via Tumblr

Where's my Vanity Fair cover?

Trans women without the celebrity status of Caitlyn Jenner are using Tumblr to create their own front page news

This week, Kai Cheng Thom, an Asian trans woman, wrote an open letter to Caitlyn Jenner. "Caitlyn, I want to know what you think about the fact that just the other day, while I was taking the subway home, two men came up to me and started sexually harassing me – and then, after staring at my chest for several seconds, started threatening to tear off my clothes to find out 'whether it has a dick'," she said.

"About the fact that I was surrounded by people who watched and did nothing. About the fact that stuff like this happens to me, to most transwomen who can’t afford or don’t want feminization surgeries every day. Do you ever take the subway, Caitlyn? Do you ever worry about this kind of violence, chartering private planes and driving your $180,000 Porsche?"

Caitlyn Jenner is not a normal trans woman; normal trans people do not get Vanity Fair covers and ABC interviews. Jenner's breakout moment was undoubtedly an important one, but was it important just for her? What about the other trans people who don't get compared to Jessica Lange, who work 9-5 jobs, who get threatened in the street?

Krystal Frasier has created #MyVanityFairCover, a bid to throw a spotlight on all the trans women who don't get asked to be on the front of glossy magazines. She tweeted templates enabling trans women to make their own Vanity Fair covers and wrote on Tumblr: "We’re beautiful, and we all deserve to feel beautiful, and be acknowledged by the world. Admiration and praise for trans women shouldn’t only come if we fit a narrow definition of beauty."