Early life
Rau was born in Paris and is of French-North African descent. Rau transitioned and underwent gender-affirming surgery at the age of 16, after being inspired by the life story of English trans model Caroline "Tula" Cossey.Career
After turning 18, Rau started dancing for DJs in Ibiza, during which she became friends with David Guetta. In 2013, at age 23, she first posed nude with Tyson Beckford for a spread in ''OOB'', a French luxury magazine, shortly after coming out as transgender. In May 2014, she first appeared in '' Playboy''s "A-Z issue" in a spread titled "Evolution" that aimed to depict the growing acceptance of gender identities beyond the male-female binary. She became the second transgender woman to be featured in ''Playboy'' after Cossey in 1981 and the first who came out voluntarily (Cossey was outed against her will and reappeared in the magazine in 1991). She was also rumoured to have been in a relationship with French footballer Kylian Mbappé. Following her magazine appearances, Rau worked as a model for Nicole Miller, Alexis Bittar and Barneys New York. She also appeared in '' Vogue Italia'' and in a campaign for Balmain. In October 2017, Cooper Hefner, son of ''Playboy'' founder Hugh Hefner, announced that Rau would appear as " Playmate of the Month" in the magazine's November/December 2017 issue, making her the first openly transgender woman to be featured this way. Hefner likened the choice to feature Rau to his father's decision to feature Jennifer Jackson as the first African-American model to appear in ''Playboy'' as a Playmate in 1965.Activism
Following her coming-out, Rau became more active campaigning for transgender rights. In 2016, she appeared on the TF1 news format ''Sept à Huit'' on an episode focused on her life.References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rau, Ines French female models French people of Algerian descent 2010s Playboy Playmates Transgender female models French transgender women Living people 1990 births Models from Paris