When Geena Rocero walks into a room, what you see is not what you get.

At first glance, she is the consummate fashion model. Against a roll call of similarly tall, perfectly symmetric and high-cheekboned mannequins, she does not strike one as peculiar.

The audio and video seem to lock. Visually, Geena is the epitome of the ideal female—voluptuous and slim in the right places. When you look at her, you see a woman. When you listen, her voice laced with honey, you hear woman. No one is playing tricks with your mind. No one need have known her secret.

Geena says, "I was very afraid. My modeling agency did not know. I kept it a secret because I didn’t want to be pigeonholed."

But turning 30 changed all of that. In an article in Huffington Post , she revealed that her then-boyfriend asked what turning 30 meant to her. To which she replied, "'It means letting go. It means no more secrets."

When she speaks, you realize that you’re not with someone who fits in a box.

March 19, 2014

In less than 10 minutes, Geena finishes delivering a speech that will blow the hinges off her carefully constructed life.

TED talks feature the stories of our time – delivered by either experts in their fields or people with extraordinary lives. No one goes on that stage with merely a confession.

Listening carefully to Geena, one can hear the audience gasp when she reveals a photo of herself, dressed in traditional Filipino costume –but the image is that of a boy.

She admits, “For a long time, I let my FEAR paralyze me. Fear of what people would say, fear of being rejected, fear of ‘I am not enough,’ fear of the many "what ifs" that led to procrastination. I had a moment of realization that having fear is totally normal, and to acknowledge that. So when I had that clarity, it gave me absolute freedom to do things that are aligned with my truth and purpose.”

Geena was given the gender assignment of “male” when she was born. Her TED talk, in its 9:47 time frame, succinctly but honestly describes Geena’s journey – how she was discovered by TL, her transgender “fairy godmother,” how she hit the pageant circuit, how she had surgery in Thailand at 19 and how it led to her biggest milestone: seeing “F” as her gender marker when she moved to the United States.

Her talk, now with more than 2 million views, has since lit a fuse that will lead her to the White House, to Colombia, to Hong Kong, another series all over the US, and, back home to Manila. Geena describes the whirlwind that has ensued: “I have met so many inspiring communities and trans individuals. [Because of me,] they are full of hope and they have become resilient in making sure their voices are heard. All the work that the trans activists are doing is for the next generation. We are hoping that their lives will be better than ours.”

“People are ready for this. I don’t want to be labeled. I just want to pursue my dream,” relates Geena to Rappler, during a live interview in Manila.

Geena admits that she has had it good. Her parents were supportive. She was not shunned, she was accepted and she was applauded. And that is why she wants to pay it forward, so that others may have the same opportunities.

The day of her TED Talk, Geena launched Gender Proud, an organization to promote equal rights for the transgender community. The reality is that the suicide rate among transgenders is 9 times higher than that of the general population. Even the actress Laverne Cox attempted it at the age of 11.

Geena intends to make full use of technology to ripple out her message. She explains, “Anthropology and technology go hand in hand. We live in a globalized, interconnected world where culture overlaps and is fluid. A simple tweet or FB message from the Philippines can affect a person in South Africa.

When I post on social media about my transgender rights, someone from the Philippines is realizing and questioning their own rights. Because of this they will demand from their government equal rights. Demanding human dignity should be without borders.”

While it is easy to categorize Geena’s desire for identity under the niche of transgender individuals, it resonates with every person who wants to be accepted for who they are.

Whether you are a single mother seeking to be loved instead of viewed as someone with collateral goods, or a gay teenager still in the closet, or a woman who wants to be respected for who you are and not what you look like, everyone who wants to break free of societal expectations or perceived norms may find resonance in Geena.

Her story proves that what we tell ourselves is directly linked to who we become.

After all, it is about aligning your reality with your belief. It is of manifesting in tangible terms what you’ve always seen yourself as.

“I freed myself,” Geena says.

That is what it means to say, “This is who I am.”