Breakout Star

She made global headlines this spring for becoming Pakistan’s first transgender newscaster, but things haven’t always been rosy for Marvia Malik.

- Laaleen Sukhera

“I knew I was different ever since I was four years old,” says broadcast journalist Marvia Malik, 21, who grew up in a conservative joint family in Lahore, Pakistan. “Before I even turned 10, I wanted to express what I felt inside. So, I began calling myself a girl. But my family was strict and wanted me to behave like a boy,” she says, admitting that she has only visited them twice since she was thrown out of her home over a year ago, for refusing to conform. By this time, she had embraced her gender identity, wearing lipstick, and speaking Urdu in the feminine tense.