Model and transgender activist Geena Rocero: featured in Covergirl's #GirlsCan movement

During her TED talk last year, she showed a picture, left, of herself growing up as a young boy in the Philippines.

GEENA ROCERO, the best-known transgender person from the Philippines and who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, was featured in Covergirl's #GirlsCan campaign and interviewed last week by journalist Soledad O'Brien.

“At COVERGIRL, we’ve always celebrated strong, inspiring women who don’t let anyone or anything stand in their way,” said Esi Eggleston Bracey, VP and General Manager, COVERGIRL Cosmetics. 

“Our family of feisty, fabulous COVERGIRLs embody this spirit, as each of them have broken boundaries in their own lives and careers. We feel so strongly about empowering women that with #GirlsCan, we’re putting $5 million dollars worth of funding into people and programs with the same passion that we have to motivate women to kick ‘can’t’ to the curb – for good.”

O’Brien’s story focuses on how Rocero has used her celebrity as an international model, to bring change for transgender Filipinos in the Philippines.Rocero came out in 2014 during a TED talk. Until then, even some of the people closest to her, including the photographers who used her as a model, didn't know her complete story.

The model-turned-activist founded an organization Gender Proud to help people to discover and proclaim their true selves.

With courage, determination, and passion, Rocero isn’t “afraid anymore to think small” and plans to change civil rights for her transgender community across the globe—proving that #GirlsCan change the world! 

COVERGIRL#GirlsCan is a movement with a mission: to help young women overcome barriers to break boundaries, empowering them to be the next generation to rock the world. The movement was kick-started earlier this year with an inspiring video starring COVERGIRLs Queen Latifah, Ellen DeGeneres, P!nk, Sofia Vergara, Becky G, Katy Perry and Janelle Monáe. With more than 10 million views already and counting, this movement of positivity and #GirlsCan power struck a chord and inspired a provocative conversation.

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COVERGIRL announced it will donate a minimum of $5 million over the next five years to support the work of individuals and nonprofit organizations that are helping women break barriers and blaze trails. Additionally, COVERGIRL announced through #GirlsCan the first two beneficiaries of its financial commitment: Girls Who Code and the Soledad O’Brien + Brad Raymond Starfish Foundation.

The COVERGIRL #GirlsCan movement will be further ignited by a calendar of content creation, social conversations, funding partnerships, events and activations with a variety of organizations and media partners over the next five years. 

Girls — and women — are encouraged to share their own stories on social media using the movement's built-in hashtag #GirlsCan.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.