Kylan Arianna Wenzel Is First Transgender Woman Allowed To Compete In Miss California Pageant
Posted: 01/11/2013 3:01 pm EST | Updated: 01/11/2013 3:16 pm EST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/kylan-arianna-wenzel-transgender-miss-california_n_2457523.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003#slide=1972008 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/11/kylan-arianna-wenzel-transgender-miss-california_n_2457523.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003#slide=1972008)
When Kylan Arianna Wenzel takes the stage Saturday for the preliminary round of the Miss California USA pageant, the tall knockout will be representing a lot more than her hometown.
Wenzel, 26, will be the first transgender woman allowed to compete in a Miss Universe Organization pageant since Donald Trump changed the rules to allow women like Wenzel to enter officially.
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In a profile published this week in Frontiers magazine, Wenzel said that she has dreamed of becoming Miss Universe since she was a little girl, watching Miss USA Brook Lee bring the crown back to America in 1997.
Since hearing of the rule change, Wenzel has rearranged her life to compete, according to Frontiers, quitting her job as a shift manager at Jamba Juice and moving her sex reassignment surgery up.
"You have to put it out to the universe -- what you want to do -- and you have to follow up on it," Wenzel remarked to Frontiers. "So, let's say for transgender individuals, even if you haven't had your sex change and you're not sure, you have to act like you are Miss Universe or you are the woman you see yourself being. And you do that in everyday life."