BOOKS

Perhaps Munroe Bergdorf first appeared on your radar back in 2017 when she became the first transgender model to be hired by beauty brand L’Oréal. Three days after they announced it, they controversially fired her. Bergdorf made the headlines, not to mention a lot of new fans, when she calmly challenged Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain about white privilege and institutional racism, standing by the comments that got her sacked. Three years later, LOréal hired her again.

Or maybe you spotted her in Anohni’s recent music video for ‘It Must Change’, or on the front cover of Rolling Stone for Trans Day Of Visibility, or chatting about the telly on this year’s Celebrity Gogglebox. Despite being the target of much racist, sexist and transphobic abuse, Bergdorf’s star continues to rise, scooping up accolades and new roles as she goes: she’s been UK Cosmopolitan’s Changemaker Of The Year, Gay Times’ British Community Trailblazer, Attitude mag’s Pride Icon, an ambassador for trans charity Mermaids, and an advocate for UN Women, to name a few.

Bergdorf will be appearing at the Book Festival to talk about her excellent new memoir, Transitional. Her eloquent, timely book calls out many social injustices: misogyny, hoarding of wealth, violence against women, oppression, and murder of trans and Black people. The modern world makes sure she has plenty to rail against and she considers it her duty to speak up for those without a voice.

It’s also her personal story, from growing up as the only Black kid at an all-boys school in the English village of Stansted Mountfitchet, to becoming an active member of the Brighton and London club scenes. She describes many transitions: her gender identity and sexuality, but also from poor mental health as well as being stronger in the wake of rape and abuse. A central theme is that individuals and societies transition and evolve all the time.

She explains that Transitional isn’t designed to turn TERFs and their views around; she is pragmatic in her view that antitrans activists ‘are beyond logic and reason’. Instead, she hopes that trans kids reading her story suffer less, knowing that some progress is being made while acknowledging much work still needs to be done.

Munroe Bergdorf, Edinburgh College Of Art, 23 August, 7.30pm.