“I lived a long time without saying I was transgender,” Rau tells Playboy in an interview for the spread. “I dated a lot and almost forgot. I was scared of never finding a boyfriend and being seen as weird. Then I was like, 'You know, you should just be who you are. It’s a salvation to speak the truth about yourself, whether it’s your gender, sexuality, whatever. The people who reject you aren’t worth it. It’s not about being loved by others; it’s about loving yourself.'"

Playboy magazine through the years:



43 PHOTOS Playboy Magazine through the years See Gallery Playboy Magazine through the years An October 13, 2015 photo shows a November 2015 issue of Playboy magazine in Washington, DC. Playboy said Tuesday it will stop publishing nude photos in its iconic magazine for men, throwing in the towel in the face of rampant online pornography. AFP PHOTO/MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) (Original Caption) 1/29/1962 -New York,NY -: Hugh M. Hefner, Editor and Publisher of Playboy, is shown with Cynthia Maddox, the blond cover girl on the February issue of his magazine, arriving by TWA superjet from Chicago. They are here to attend a party given by Ella Fitzgerald at the Basin Street East in honor of winners of the Playboys jazz poll. British actor Sir John Mills (1908 - 2005) with his daughter, actress Hayley Mills, 1967. John's wife Mary Hayley Bell is between them. Hayley is holding a copy of 'Playboy' magazine. (Photo by David Farrell/Getty Images) A rack of magazines at a stall in New York City, April 1986. Titles include 'Madamoiselle', 'New Look', 'Muscle & Fitness', 'Playboy', 'Cosmopolitan', 'MGF' and 'GQ'. (Photo by Barbara Alper/Getty Images) Nancy Sinatra during Autographing Playboy Magazine & 1960's Album Reissue at Tower Records in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Ron Galella/WireImage) 3.17.98. Beverly Hills, California. Playboy magazine's founder and editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion 347380 15: Sable poses March 4, 1999 in New York City. Holder of the Women's Wrestling Championship title, Sable modelled for Guess Jeans and Pepsi prior to her latest shoot for Playboy Magazine. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Liaison) THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO -- Episode 999 -- Pictured: (l-r) Fitness personality Richard Simmons during an interview with host Jay Leno on September 23, 1996 -- (Photo by: Margaret C. Norton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) 371916 01: Darva Conger, the bride who rejected her millionaire husband after their marriage on national television, poses for photographers June 29, 2000 at Tower Records in New York City. Conger was promoting the August 2000 issue of Playboy magazine, where she is featured on the cover and in the center layout. (Photo by George De Sota/Liaison) 368615 01: Playmate Of The Year, Jodi Ann Paterson Waves During A Press Conference At The Playboy Mansion April 27, 2000 In Holmby Hills, Ca. (Photo By Laurence Cottrell/Getty Images) 7/9/99 Los Angeles, CA. PMOY ''99, Heather Kozar at the Video Software Dealer's Association (VSDA) held at the Los Angeles Convention. Photo by David Keeler/Online USA, Inc. Carmen Electra at a Playboy party to promote her December pictorial & her Playboy.com live chat, at Playboys New York City Headquarters. Oct. 30, 2000 (Photo: Evan Agostini / Getty Images) 388683 03: Playboy Playmate of the Year 2001 Brande Roderick poses with a blow-up of the magazine's cover sporting her image May 2, 2001 at One51 in New York City. (Photo by Diane L. Cohen/Liaison) NEW YORK, UNITED STATES: Former Enron employees Cynthia Coghlan (L) of Toronto, Canada, Christine Nielsen (C) of Portland, OR, and Cary Lorenzo (R) of New York pose 27 June 2002 with a poster of Playboy Magazine in New York. The three posed with seven other former employees for Playboy magazine in the 'Women of Enron' August issue. Nielsen appears on the cover. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA (Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images) Johnny Fayva and Dave Navarro look at the new issue of Playboy featuring Carmen Electra (Photo by J. Vespa/WireImage) Sarah Kozer, standing next to a giant Playboy magazine cover with her on it, at the 2003 Playboy Playmate of the Year. (Photo by Frank Trapper/Corbis via Getty Images) BEVERLY HILLS, CA - APRIL 24: Playmate of the Year for 2003 Christina Santiago is congratulated by Publisher Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion April 24, 2003 in Beverly Hills, California. 'American Idol's' Ryan Seacrest announced the 2003 Playmate of the Year, who will appear in the June issue with 'Joe's Millionaire's' Sarah Kozer on the cover. (Photo by David Klein/Getty Images) HOLLYWOOD, CA - JUNE 12: Model Nikki Ziering (R) and actor Jason Biggs attend the release party for Ziering's July Playboy Magazine cover on June 12, 2003 at The Nacional club in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Getty Images) UNITED STATES - AUGUST 13: Playboy magazine featuring an article on Google is seen at a newsstand in Manhattan, New York on Friday August 13,2004. (Photo by Jennifer S. Altman/Bloomberg via Getty Images) JAKARTA, INDONESIA: A hawker holds a copy of the second issue of Indonesian edition of US adult magazine Playboy while looking for customers in downtown Jakarta, 07 June 2006. A defiant second issue of the magazine hit Jakarta's streets 07 June, produced from its new headquarters on the mostly Hindu resort island of Bali. The edition is the first to reappear after violent Muslim hardliners forced the closure of the publisher's Jakarta office in April and contained no commercial advertisements. AFP PHOTO/Jewel SAMAD (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images) Tricia Helfer, Cylon Number 6 from 'Battlestar Galactica' (Photo by Albert L. Ortega/WireImage) New York, UNITED STATES: United States Olympic gold medal swimmer Amanda Beard poses with her Playboy Magazine cover during the opening day of the 2007 Licensing International Expo at the Jacob Javits Convention Center 19 June 2007 in New York. The show that runs until 21 June showcases the world's brand and property marketplace. AFP PHOTO/TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) ATLANTIC CITY, NJ - FEBRUARY 16 Kendra, one of the stars of 'The Girls Next Door,' and current Playboy Cover Girl signs a cover of Playboy Magazine for a fan as shesappears at The Pool in Harrah's Resort on February 16, 2008 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Photo by Donald Kravitz/Getty Images) BURBANK, CA - AUGUST 18: Actress and current Playboy model Christa Campbell tries to cover up her new Playboy magazine photo spread (not entirely successfully!) at an autograph party for the new graphic novel '2001 Maniacs', held at the Dark Delicacies bookstore on August 18, 2007 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Michael Tullberg/Getty Images) The Venezuelan edition of Playboy magazine with a picture of Argentine policewoman Maria de Lujan Telpuk on its cover is on display at a kiosk in Caracas, on March 13, 2008. Telpuk is the police officer who in August 2007 found 800,000 US dollars inside a suitcase which Venezuelan businessman Guido Antonini Wilson was illegally trying to get into Argentina, apparently, according to investigations, for the electoral campaign of current president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. AFP PHOTO/Juan BARRETO (Photo credit should read JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images) NEILL J. SCHUTZER/ï¿½2009 RAMEY PHOTO LOS ANGELES 8/13/09 HEIDI AND SPENCER WITH THE NEW PLAYBOY MAGAZINE. NJSBPE (Photo by Philip Ramey/Corbis via Getty Images) Issues of Playboy and Penthouse magazines are arranged for a photo in New York, U.S. on Thursday, July 15, 2010. FriendFinder Networks Inc., the owner of Penthouse, said it will offer $210 million to acquire Playboy Enterprises Inc., challenging a bid from Hugh Hefner to take the company private. Photographer: Jonathan Fickies/Bloomberg via Getty Images NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 14: Playboy magazine on seat at the The Blonds Spring 2012 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Center 548 on September 14, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images) MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - DECEMBER 14: Daiana Guzman presents the cover of Playboy magazine edition December 2011, 2011 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Angel Delgado/Clasos.com/LatinContent/Getty Images) MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - MAY 07: Actress Erika Garcia attends the Playboy Mexico Magazine May 2012 issue photo call at La Mansion on May 7, 2012 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Victor Chavez/WireImage) A picture taken on March 6, 2013 shows the first Hebrew edition of the iconic men's magazine Playboy in Israel following the magazines debut in the Holy Land at a shop in the Mediterranean coastal city of Tel Aviv. The articles -- which will be read from right to left, like Arabic -- would be a mix of original Israeli writing and translations from US and foreign editions, spokeswoman Danielle Peters told AFP. AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images) MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - SEPTEMBER 11: Colombian adult film actress Esperanza Gï¿½ez (r) poses with a fan while she signs copies of Playboy Mexico magazine september 2014 cover model at Galerias Plaza de las Estrellas on September 11, 2014 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Victor Chavez/WireImage) Magazine issues from the period are on display at ?Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979', an exhibit hosted by the German Architecture Museum on the Museumsufer in Frankfurt, Germany, 08 April 2014. The exhibit shows the central role of the magazine during the avant-garde architecture from the fifties up to the end of the seventies, when the magazine presented innovative and visionary architectural designs, becoming one of the most important mediums of avant-garde design. (Photo by Horacio Villalobos/Corbis via Getty Images) Norwegian model Christina Gjerdrun, 23, launches the first copy of Playboy magazine's Norwegian edition in Oslo, November 19. Gjerdrum is featured as Miss December and January in the magazine. NORWAY PLAYBOY Among the garbage and equipmente, a large collection of Playboy magazines - with issues from as early as 1991 - was found stored in an office. USP public relations says it belongs to the students; their representative say that they didn't even know it existed Photo: Gustavo Basso/NurPhoto (Photo by NurPhoto/Corbis via Getty Images) UNITED STATES - AUGUST 13: Playboy magazine featuring an article on Google is seen at a newsstand in Manhattan, New York on Friday August 13, 2004. (Photo by Jennifer S. Altman/Bloomberg via Getty Images) MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - MAY 02: Tracy Saenz attends the Playboy Mexico magazine may 2016 issue photocall at Fiebre de Malta on May 2, 2016 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Victor Chavez/WireImage) LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 23: Playmate Jaime Faith Edmondson celebrates the release of Playboy magazine's 'The Freedom Issue' at No Vacancy on June 23, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for Playboy) LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 23: Playmates Heather Rae Young and Hiromi Oshima celebrate the release of Playboy magazine's 'The Freedom Issue' at No Vacancy on June 23, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for Playboy) MEXICO CITY, MEXICO - JULY 04: Natalia Subtil shows the magazine during the launching of the new Playboy at Aida Restaurant on July 04, 2016 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Hector Vivas/LatinContent/Getty Images) Publisher director of the controversial Indonesian version of Playboy magazine, Erwin Arnanda, shows the first edition in Jakarta April 6, 2006. The local version of Playboy magazine will go on sale on Friday despite growing protests from conservative Muslim groups and nationalist politicians. REUTERS/Dadang Tri The December issue of Playboy magazine features Olympic gold medalist ice skater Katerina Witt on the cover. Witt, 33, posed nude for a 10-page pictorial in the magazine. SJO/SV/ME Playboy magazines are displayed on a news stand in New York, U.S., on Thursday Nov. 12, 2009. Playboy Enterprises Inc., the men's magazine publisher, is in talks to sell itself to Iconix Brand Group Inc., according to two people close to the situation. Photographer:Rick Maiman/Bloomberg via Getty Images Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE

“When I was doing this shoot, I was thinking of all those hard days in my childhood,” she adds. “And now everything happening gives me so much joy and happiness. I thought, 'Am I really going to be a Playmate -- me?' It’s the most beautiful compliment I’ve ever received. It’s like getting a giant bouquet of roses.”