She maybe one of the great inspiration of becoming a true Beautiful Transgender with a heart. Fighting on her dream to fulfill her greatest achievement to become one of the American Transgender Model and first ever Transgender Project Runway Model, Mimi Tao.
Mimi Tao is a famous model in Thailand. She is a regular on the catwalk, and in advertising campaigns, and appears in photo shoots modelling swimsuits and lingerie. But as a child, Mimi wore the saffron robes of a Buddhist monk. She was born a boy, and it was during training for the monkhood that Mimi started to question her identity. She told Jo Fidgen how she went from the temple to the catwalk.
Flipping through a photo album of her life, Phajaranat Nobantao can’t help but shed tears of mixed emotions. On the outside, the 22-year-old transgender model seems to have it all, but her path has not been strewn with roses.
“It wasn’t easy to get where I am today, and I’m still not where I want to be,” said Phajaranat, now known as Mimi Tao to the international fashion world.
From being a rich kid in early life, to join the monkhood, to sleeping in a toilet in Singapore, Mimi has been through more than most her age. She says she has never been chasing fame, but rather a way to get her parents out of debt.
In a flash, the impressionable 12-year-old went from a strict Catholic environment to a serious Buddhist one. She was upset to be the only child sent away from home but didn’t resist because she thought it was the only way to help her family.
The temple school required Mimi to become a monk, and after six months she was ordained. She slowly adjusted to monastic life, learning to wake up early, talk quietly and become mindful of the world around her.
But the way she saw herself was also changing. “I started to act like a girl, talk like a girl and become more interested in girlie stuff like make-up,” Mimi explained.
The school was planning a large ordination ceremony for its new monks, and Mimi wasn’t sure if she could go through with it because she already knew that she wanted to live as a girl. But once her head was shaved and she was wearing the orange robes, she decided to do it for the sake of her family.
After becoming a monk, Mimi was required to live by more than 200 precepts. She could follow them all since life in the temple school had taught her to be calmer. But behind closed doors, Mimi and four of her young friends did something considered wrong for religious boys.
“We would get together and put on make-up. At the time the best we could do was put baby powder on our faces, draw our eyebrows on with pencil and sometimes put on red lipstick,” Mimi said.
They turned their private quarters into a mini catwalk, where they modified their monk’s robes and put on fashion shows. The group shared their love of “feminine” activities, and in the second year of their monkhood, one boy introduced contraceptive pills to the others. All four started taking the pills, hoping to develop female figures.
Mimi was struggling to work out what to do next. She was stressed out, so switched on the television to take her mind off it one day. By chance, she flicked onto a documentary about Thailand’s most famous international supermodel, whose life was ruined by drugs: Rojjana “Yui” Phetkanha. After seeing Yui’s story, she knew modelling was the career for her. She became obsessed with the idea of meeting Yui and followed the model to various events. One day, she finally got face to face with Yui at a fan meeting.
“I was so happy to see her. I ran right up to her and gave her a big hug,” Mimi recalled. “I pleaded with her to teach me. I wanted to be just like her.”
Yui didn’t think Mimi was serious at first since the idea of a transgender fashion model seemed impossible. She just thought Mimi was a super fan who was a little bit overenthusiastic.
Yui didn’t agree to help until they had met 12 times and Mimi was still asking the same question. The model said she would teach Mimi on one condition, that she took the lessons seriously and stayed focused.
Yui taught Mimi everything she knew: catwalk technique, posing skills, how to get in the best light at a photo shoot and how to book jobs. Mimi spent three months studying with Yui until she was ready to enter the modelling world on her own.
REALITY SHOCK
Though she is transgender, Mimi is pre-operative and has never been drawn to the idea of surgically transforming herself. Tall, tanned, with small breasts and a stunning jaw line, she believed she was ready to take the modelling world by storm after her apprenticeship with Yui.
But she was hit hard by the reality of the Thai modelling industry. Whenever she went to a casting, she would be told: “No, you don’t have a right look for us.” One day she asked an agency to explain why she had been rejected. They simply said: “Thailand is still not ready for somebody like you.”
“It was a wake-up call,” Mimi said. “But I didn’t give up hope. I knew I was a good seed; I just happened to be in the wrong soil.”
Mimi started to explore her options. If this country were not ready for her, then she would try further afield. She searched online for modelling agencies in her dream city, New York. She emailed several with her profile, but all said she had to come in person for a casting.
She couldn’t afford to travel that far, so she searched for options closer to home. Mimi found some agencies in Singapore, and one of them agreed to give her a preliminary casting. With no money to her name, Mimi asked her mother and friends to lend her the cash for the plane ticket.
On the morning she left Thailand and landed in Singapore, she had two hours to get from the airport to her casting. But immigration detained her because her appearance didn’t match the gender on her passport.
It was two hours before she was released. By then, she was already too late for the casting. She checked her email and found an angry message from the agency, complaining about her poor time-keeping. Mimi broke down in tears, not knowing what to do.
After missing her casting, Mimi had no money to get back to Thailand. With just S$43, she bought a bottle of water and a local sim card, which she used to call her mother and friends and explain what had happened. One of her friends said she knew someone with family in Singapore. She took down the number of a friend of a friend’s mother and sent her a text message.
Mimi waited all day and heard nothing, so decided to take the train into town and figure out what to do from there. With no money to buy food and nowhere to go, she took shelter in a public toilet cubicle. She put the seat cover down, rested her feet on her luggage and leaned back against the wall so she could go to sleep.
As she dozed off, her phone started ringing. It was the mother of her friend’s friend, who asked Mimi to verify who she was. She told Mimi to take a taxi to her home and said she was welcome to stay until she found her way back to Thailand.
Mimi wasted no time. She hit the streets and approached every modelling agency she could find. At the fifth agency, Mimi was hired for a photo shoot. After her first job, other agencies in Singapore started showing interest. She wasn’t booked for any big brands at first but was happy to get her foot in the door.
She couldn’t sign a contract at that stage, because of complications with her identification papers, but she was slowly building up a reputation, working on TV commercials, catalogue photo shoots and as a runway model for local products. By the time she got back to Thailand, several Singaporean agencies were talking about her and had referred her to Thai agencies.
When Mimi was booked for her first job in Thailand, she was overjoyed, despite being paid less. “It meant the Thai modelling industry was becoming more open,” she said.
Mimi Tao is now a well-known name in the Asian modelling industry and works on everything from major advertising campaigns to high-end fashion shows. Her career is dedicated to paying off her family debt, and she never declines any job, no matter how small.
Mimi’s story has touched many people, and one day a woman contacted her offering her the opportunity to advance her career.
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