Amanda Lepore explains how being bullied as a kid inspired her: “I didn’t want to look like a basic girl”

I lived in New Jersey, but I moved [to New York] in 1989. I hated New Jersey. It doesn’t accept alternative people at all. That’s how we all end up in the big city. It’s better for people like me.

…The final step in the sex change was when I was 17. I used to look at drawings of Varga Girls and I wanted to look like that because they had beautiful skin and hair.

It was kind of 1940s. I always did a retro thing. Since I was a kid, I loved Marilyn Monroe and all the blonde bombshells, so that’s still an influence.

…I think I was harassed as a kid so much that I didn’t want to look like a basic girl. It wasn’t my goal. A lot of transsexuals wanted to just fit in, but I had a punk thing about me that just said, “F*ck it.”Amanda Lepore in conversation with COBRAH for Interview magazine.