Top 3 Reasons I Love Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair Cover and All It Represents (Plus my 1 reservation)

Photo via Vanity Fair

1.         No matter celebrity status, success, money or privilege, coming out to the world as a women took more courage than most people display in their entire lives.

As accepting as many liberal Americans are today, I sometimes forget (or maybe just want to) that not everybody is not as accepting and freethinking as my friends and I are. Heck, just saying that, I realize some of my friends may be thinking—I’m not that free thinking, Sheila!

2.         Caitlyn Jenner’s very public transition from a celebrated male athlete to a confident woman will help so many confused young people.

For any young people confused my their gender identification, having a world-famous role model to use as proof that there is nothing wrong with what they feel in their heart, can hopefully be transformational and a source of support.

3.         It is never too late to make major changes in one’s life and self.

Jenner is setting an example that no matter how one has portrayed oneself to the world, no matter for how long, it is still possible at any point in one’s life to say, this is the real me. Jenner shows that regardless of what some will say, one can come into one’s true self at any age.

Photo of Caitlyn Jenner from Vanity Fair

 My one reservation

How wonderful that Jenner has the wealth, the status and the privilege to make her transition in such a well-supported way.

Her status as a respected athlete and her fame from reality television has given her the opportunity to transition with the best team of specialists available.

Money was no object at any point of this change.

Her ability to be photographed by the world-famous Annie Leibovitz and to be styled by the top makeup and hair professionals available, and to be dressed in the finest of couture, and to be lighted and primped and polished and photoshopped to perfection, does not represent the reality of most people transitioning.

We are again presented with an idealized female representation of beauty that most of us can never achieve.

Of course, that is not to say that this cover is not beautiful. It is.

I imagine most of us, were we to be given the opportunity to be on the cover of Vanity Fair, would not say no to being beautified by the experts…