Vogue Paris features trans cover model

Valentina Sampaio in Vogue Paris's March edition cover

Paris: Vogue Paris is to become the first French magazine to feature a transgender model on its cover, according the honour to Valentina Sampaio of Brazil for its March edition. Calling Sampaio the "glam standard-bearer of a cause that is on the march", the French edition of Vogue describes the 22-year-old as a "femme fatale"

"Beyond her evident physical qualities and her sparkling personality, (Sampaio) embodies... a long and painful fight against being perceived as a ‘gender exile'," wrote the magazine's editor-in-chief Emmanuelle Alt.

A sultry Sampaio, bathed in dark purple and blue light, appears over the words "Transgender Beauty", with a subtitle reading "How they are shaking up the world," on the cover to appear on February 23.