NYFW’s Youngest Transgender Model Has Two Transgender Parents

New York Fashion Week’s youngest transgender model has two transgender parents, who said they plan to have the child undergo gender surguries at 16.

Noella McMaher, 10, made her NYFW debut on the catwalk for the Trans Clothing Company in February, and has plans to go to the Paris event next year. Both of the young model’s parents are biological females that identify as trans masculine.

Noella’s biological mother, Dee McMaher, has had a cosmetic mastectomy and sports facial hair. Dee has been working as an “advocate” for transgender children for their daughter’s entire life, and claims that Noella “was extremely unhappy being perceived as a boy,” and has been saying she’s not a boy since the age of two.

“She would refuse to wear boy clothes and have tantrums because she was so young, she knew what she wanted but didn’t have the words to say it. I should have known earlier as she hated anything masculine so I brought her to a gender clinic,” Dee claimed. 

“She blossomed as soon as we realized and allowed her to finally be herself. When she was seven, she legally changed her name,” they continued. 

Dee also stated that Noella transitioned before both of her parents did. The child model was adopted by Dee’s partner Ray McMaher, who works in “LGBTQ health justice,” after her biological father Timothy McCord, a former Chicago medical examiner, was arrested for aggravated child abuse in 2016.  

According to Dee, McCord fractured Noella’s arm while trying to wrestle her into “boy pajamas” during his visitation time. Dee tried to get him charged with a hate crime, but the court declined to prosecute. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment to avoid jail time in 2018. 

He’s not concerned with Noella’s declaration that she’s transgender. “I have no say in it,” McCord said. “She’s not my kid anymore.” After trying and failing to get visitation with Noella and her brother, he legally gave up his rights to the children.  

“I tried to get back in their lives but it ended up too contentious and stressful for everyone,” he explained. “I was given the opportunity to step back and let Dee’s partner adopt the kids and I did that in the hopes they would not have all the stress this was causing in their lives.”

Marie Finn