Here she is, Caitlyn Jenner.Bruce Jenner proudly debuted as the woman who she was all along, as she graces the July 2015 issue of Vanity Fair.
"Every day you always had a secret. From morning til night. Caitlyn doesn't have any secrets," she said in b-roll video of the photo shoot. "[As] soon as the Vanity Fair cover comes out, I'm free."
The groundbreaking article and first images were shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz in Caitlyn's Malibu home.
"The last few days in doing this shoot was about my life and who I am as a person," she said. "It's not about the fanfare, it's not about everyone cheering in the stadium, it's not about everybody going down the street and giving you a that-a-boy Bruce pat on the back. This is about your life."
In the all-encompassing story, Caitlyn tells of how she suffered a panic attack the day after undergoing 10-hour facial-feminization surgery on March 15—a procedure she believed would take 5 hours. Thinking back to that time, she recalls thinking, "What did I just do? What did I just do to myself?" After counseling, she felt better about her decision."If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, 'You just blew your entire life. You never dealt with yourself,' and I don't want that to happen," Jenner explained.
And get ready to see a whole lot more of Caitlyn, too. This summer she will star in a docu-series on E!, a series centered on her new life. Jenner, of course, is aware that people will think this whole process isn't authentic. She's prepared for people thinking it's all part of a publicity stunt.
"'Oh, she's doing a stupid reality show. She's doing it for the money. She's doing this, she's doing that.' I'm not doing it for money," Caitlyn says. "I'm doing it to help my soul and help other people. If I can make a dollar, I certainly am not stupid. [I have] house payments and all that kind of stuff. I will never make an excuse for something like that. Yeah, this is a business. You don't go out and change your gender for a television show. O.K., it ain't happening. I don't care who you are."
Jenner added, "I'm not doing this to be interesting. I'm doing this to live." An avid golfer, Caitlyn then joked, "I'm not doing this so I can hit it off the women's tee."
Shortly after the cover reveal, ESPN announced that Caitlyn, a former Olympian, will receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the EPSY Awards in July.
Caitlyn is also already embracing social media. In her first tweet, sent just after the cover reveal, she wrote, "I'm so happy after such a long struggle to be living my true self. Welcome to the world Caitlyn. Can't wait for you to get to know her/me."
