What Lea T has done for high fashion's runways, Isis King did for "America's Next Top Model." And now she's back to do it again.
In 2008 King, the 25-year-old model from Maryland, became the first transgender model to participate on the Tyra Banks' reality show. This September she'll return for ANTM's "All-Stars" cycle, which features 14 former competitors from the show's 16 "cycles" (that's seasons to all you non-watchers).
Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive video previewing King's return. It's a short little clip, but it's nice to see that the show is willing to focus on other aspects of King's personality -- like her insane googly eyes, apparently -- and not simply her transgender status.
"America's Next Top Model"'s embrace of King as an all-star should come as no surprise. Banks herself paid for the model's sex reassignment surgery in 2009, reported Entertainment Weekly.
Between King's return, androgynous Andrej Pejic's appearance on the cover of New York's Fall Fashion issue and the frequent appearance of Lea T. on this year's runways (and in a bathing suit, no less), fashion is certainly embracing its gender-ambiguous moment.
Which is just one more reason we'll be watching "America's Next Top Model All-Stars" on Wednesday, September 14 on the CW. The first reason? Crazy, caffeine-fueled, newly-minted author Tyra. Girl is nuts and we just love to watch.