By Natalia Rueda 
The Miss Netherlands gala this past Saturday marked a momentous milestone in Dutch history: Rikkie Valerie Kollé, a 22-year-old transgender woman, was chosen as the pageant’s winner, becoming the first transgender woman to be crowned Miss Netherlands.
Kollé’s story of transitioning from the male gender identity she was born with to the female identity she has come to identify with began at the age of eight. At age 11, she changed her name from Rik to Rikkie, declared herself a woman, and at 16 began taking female hormones and underwent a sex reassignment operation which helped her feel more comfortable in her body. Throughout this process, she had the full support of her family.
Her story of resilience resonated with the pageant’s judges, and her coronation will now pave the way for greater representation and inclusion in the pageant world. Kollé will be the second transgender woman to compete in the pageant, after Ángela Ponce of Spain, who made history by being the first trans woman to compete in and win the 2018 Miss Universe.
Kollé’s victory has also been met with a mixed response from people on social media, with some voicing their approval of greater inclusivity in beauty pageants, and others seeing her victory as evidence of an unfair advantage due to her transition. These polarizing views are mirrored in current debates around trans participation in Olympic sports.
However, for Kollé, her position as Miss Netherlands will continue to break down barriers within a beauty pageant industry that has only recently acknowledged gender identity diversity. As she said on her social media profiles, “I think I was born in the wrong body. I was born little Rik, but I wanted to be the great Rikkie. The transition from man to woman became something that made me feel at home, and transgender woman too.”
Her words and her accomplishment show that true beauty lies in the courage to own one’s truth, no matter how complex it may be. Kollé is due to compete in the Miss Universe pageant, with the exact date and location still to be announced. She’s already become a role model for the LGBTQ community, embodying the hopeful message that dreams can come true, regardless of gender identity or expression. Kollé is living proof that no glass ceiling is too high to break.