Get to know the first transgender woman to land the cover of a fitness magazine

Amelia Gapin always considered running to be instrumental to her life, and it became even more of a necessity as she transitioned. In an interview with People, she said, “Running helped me get through the mental and emotional struggles I went through while I was transitioning. I was able to clear my head and approach things from a much better perspective.” And look where she is now — she’s going to be featured on the July 2016 cover of Women’s Running magazine.

Running is but a part of what Gapin does — though she is a seven-time marathoner, she’s not a professional athlete by trade. She’s actually a software engineer at Tumblr, as well as the co-founder and CTO of MyTransHealth (oh hey, check out our interview with MyTransHealth co-founder Kade Clark!).

Gapin’s Twitter account is a great one to follow, because she has a great sense of humor, frequently offers insight into what it’s like to be a trans woman in tech, and obviously, there are running tweets. News of the July cover happened to coincide with this weekends tragic events in Orlando, and Amelia had some especially poignant thoughts on the matter. false

Gapin landing this cover is a significant event for the trans community. She is the first trans woman on the cover of a health/fitness magazine, and she hopes that it’ll positively affect the community.

She told People, “I’m hoping that it shows people that are thinking about coming out, or want to transition and are afraid, that you can transition and things can go well,” she says. “It’s really scary to be a trans person right now with everything that’s going on, and I know that a lot of people who were thinking about transition are reconsidering that. So if I can show them that it can be a very positive thing and it’s not going to necessarily be horrible.”

Congratulations, Amelia — you’re an inspiration to all of us, and we can’t wait to see
hit the news stands!