Victoria’s Secret Just Hired its First Openly Transgender Model

Meet Valentina Sampaio, the lingerie giant’s first transgender model.

After announcing that this year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show would be canceled due to declining ratings and controversy over a lack of diversity, the lingerie brand has hired its first openly transgender model, Valentina Sampaio.

The Brazilian model posted on Instagram and tagged Victoria’s Secret along with the hashtags #vspink, #campaign and #diversity, which first sparked rumors that the brand had hired a transgender model.

She then posted a video with similar hashtags that further fueled the rumors.

Her agent Erio Zanon confirmed the rumors and told CNN that Sampaio had indeed been hired for a Victoria’s Secret PINK campaign that’ll be released this month. 

The news comes after chief marketing officer Ed Razek was criticized for a 2018 Vogue interview about casting the runway show in which he said: “It’s like, why doesn’t your show do this? Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy. It’s a 42-minute entertainment special.”

Well, it looks like Sampaio is finally making that “fantasy” a reality. 

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