Young transgender reality TV star extends the illuminating conversation

Always eager to keep up with the changing times, TV producers make it a point to come up with new shows about the latest social or pop-cultural phenomenon du jour.

On the shifting gender and relationships scene, a pioneer in this regard has been Bruce Jenner’s reality show chronicling how he went the transgender route to become Caitlyn Jenner.

Jenner’s show has done a lot to bring the topic of transgender choices into mainstream conversation and dialogue.

All of a sudden, many viewers have gotten a crash course in all of the complex factors that make a man realize that he’s really, psychologically a woman and vice versa.

But Caitlyn is a senior citizen who made her transgender move relatively late in life. What about the millions of younger women and men who need to “transition” to their true sexual identity and essence—where are the TV shows that will make the sometimes contentious journey clearer for them?

In 2014, “Brave New Girls” premiered on E! Canada to do just that, and has since been telecast in other TV territories.

It focuses on Jenna Talackova, a young “trans” woman who hit the headlines in 2012, when she won a legal battle to be allowed to compete in the Miss Universe Canada beauty pageant.

Since then, Jenna has parlayed her 15 minutes of fame into a determined bid to make it big as a model and TV personality, with “Brave New Girls” as her main “engine” of exposure.

Since Jenna is tall and lissome, she quickly established her “K” to make it in the beauty and media biz. Doors open for her even before she reveals her unique “trans” factor, which adds to her “edgy” cachet and makes her uniquely “right” for some fashion and promo campaigns.

Unique backstory

On the debit side, Jenna isn’t a very good talker, so her ad-libs are relatively sparse and laconic. Given her unique backstory, viewers want to know much more about how she feels and thinks than she’s willing to share.

Even when she’s given friends to interact with, she still falls short in the sharing department. So, the show is “forced to good” by focusing instead on its visuals, which are as bright, blithe and busy as can be, to fill in the blanks.

It also doesn’t help that Jenna is less focused on work than other aspiring models are. She wants to have a good, fun time, and occasionally stumps her handlers and schedule masters when she makes unannounced exits to see the sights, socialize with a new friend or contact, etc.

All is not lost, however, because after her handlers read her the riot act, Jenna contritely pledges to do better.

The best part of the “Brave New Girls” telecast we watched recently showed Jenna stripping down for an eye-catching pictorial for a vegetarian campaign that had her “dressed down” in artfully designed and combined veggies!

There were “pearl” necklaces made of beans and small vegetables, a bra fashioned out of colorful salad greens—all topped by a triumphant showgirl’s headdress of vegetarian “plumes” fit for a meatless Follies!

If Jenna and her show can keep coming up with visual exclamation points like this, her show should continue to be an edgy and instructive viewing treat.