By ANABELLA ZAMBRANO

Although Miss Universe has accepted trans participants since 2012, the 26-year-old Angela Ponce will be the first trans gender woman to participate in the global Miss Universe Pageant. After beating 20 other contestants in the Miss Universe Spain Gala and making it to the global pageant, Ponce aims to change the world.

Facing rejection throughout her career for being trans, Ponce wants to become a voice for trans kids and let them know they are beautiful and not alone in the world. Trans teenagers around the globe face high attempts of suicide and not enough help is being offered to this issue.

Transphobia is common all around the world and a topic that is quickly ignored, Ponce wants to use this pageant as a platform to bring awareness for transgender individuals of all ages all around the globe who face suffer suicidal thoughts and attempts as well as legal codes who discriminate against transgenders publicly either in public bathrooms and also employment discrimination.

According to NBC, an European transgender group TGEU published a study last year and discovered that “77.5 percent of 885 transgender people more than 16 years old polled in Georgia, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Sweden had considered taking their own lives and that 24.5 percent of respondents had made at least one attempt.”

News outlets have done a great job at communicating Ponce’s perspective on this milestone and not keeping quiet about this. Ponce’s interview with the Associated Press Madrid in Spain has gone viral allowing people around the world to know about this issue.

It is important that they have not ignored her message, where she does not aim for the title of the crown but more importantly fight for transgender rights.