Gemma Cowling

Cowling was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia. She came out as a transgender woman and began transitioning after completing school, stating that she didn't feel like school was a safe and inclusive place for her to do so.^[3]

She made her runway modeling debut in 2016 at the Adelaide Fashion Festival.^[4] Later that year, at the age of nineteen, Cowling became the first Australian-born transgender model to sign with an agency.^[5] She was first signed with Azalea Models. She later signed with Milk Models^[6] and Chadwick Models.^[7] In 2017 Cowling became the face of TONI & GUY's new campaign You Define You.^[8]

Cowling has spoken out about people in the fashion industry exploiting her and other transgender models because of their gender identity in order to make a brand seem progressive.^[9][10]