Androgyny had always been a major part of her (back then, his) appeal. She had alternated in her youth between embracing her femininity and concealing it, first as a child growing up in a refugee camp in Serbia during the Bosnian War, then as an preadolescent émigré to Australia. The Australian agency that signed her as a male model, after a scout found her working behind the counter of a Melbourne McDonald’s on New Year’s Eve 2007, loved her resemblance to its top female model, Jessica Hart. Australian Vogue later photographed them side by side.

But what Ms. Pejic did not disclose to her agents was that her androgyny was caused in part by Androcur, a synthetic hormone she was taking to suppress her development. She had already privately acknowledged her gender dysphoria and had begun treatment, first secretly, then with the support of her family. It was the thought of raising money for an eventual transition that spurred her to model at all.

Her androgyny endeared her to some, but in other corners of the male modeling world, pressure to conform grew.

“When I first went to Milan, my agent said you have to give off a strong, masculine energy,” Ms. Pejic said. “They don’t like campiness. They like boys to appear straight and to appear masculine. I quickly learned the game of it, and how to navigate around it.”

Image The model in Jean Paul Gaultier's men’s wear show. Credit... Firstview

Even so, a nagging fear set in: that modeling, initially undertaken to make her transition possible, was taking her farther from it. “I would call my mum,” she said, “and say, ‘Who’s ever going to accept me as a woman if the whole world knows me as a boy?’ ”