Estelle Asmodelle

Estelle Asmodelle

Biography Information

Physical Description

Professional Data

Alias(s):	Estelle Maria Croot
Birthdate:	Apr 22, 1964
Birthplace:	Bowral, New South Wales Australia

Hair color	Blonde
Eye color:	Blue

Skin color:	White



Website:	http://www.asmodelle.com

Estelle Asmodelle (born April 22, 1964), previously commonly known as Estelle Maria Croot, is an Australian model, belly dancer, writer, musician, and actress. She is known as Australia's first legal transsexual with the Births, Deaths and Marriages Department of New South Wales.

Estelle is an Australian transsexual who was instrumental in gaining recognition for transsexual and transgender people through her solo campaign to gain rights for transsexuals. Her activist career began in early 1983.

In 1986, she was labeled "Australia’s First Sex-Change Pin-up Girl". She is said to be the most photographed transsexual in Australia today

Early life

Born in Bowral NSW and lived in Berrima NSW, Estelle is the first child to Barry and Sylvia Croot, and she has one sibling, a sister named Belinda. A strong student and gifted at science and art she attended Chevalier College (then a boys-only school) and Moss Vale High School, where she frequently won first place in those subjects.

When she was 16 years old Estelle became seriously ill with Spinal Meningitis (Meningitis) and spent almost 1 year in hospital. She was bound to a wheelchair for some months and made a complete recovery.

After working briefly in Sydney, she moved to Wollongong, and attended Wollongong University where she studied towards two degrees, a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Mathematics, with the hope of becoming a research scientist. As a student she also worked in music ensembles, such as N-letts and Miscellaneous Music composing and played experimental and sometimes avante garde musical art.

During the university period she experienced discrimination by members of the academic staff because of her transsexuality. For this reason, she left the University to focus on art and music. She became a dancer, believing that dance was the true artistic synthesis of art and music.

Dance career

After working briefly in Sydney as an assistant photographer, she attended dance classes at Sydney Dance Company and also with an Authentic Egyptian Dance instructor. Six weeks after starting belly dance classes she gained work as a dancer.

As time passed she worked in many shows both in Australia and Asia. She was typically featured as the variety act for such shows as Esma Duo, Paris by Night, Las Vegas Under Lights and Les Girls. She returned to Australia and worked as a solo belly dancer.

Her campaign

During Estelle's dance career she travelled to Asian countries and experienced many legal difficulties, especially in Singapore where she was detained, because her passport denoted an M for male. She suffered serious problems with various customs officials and so she became determined to change the laws in Australia so as she could live as a normal woman. Given that the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's policy was to issue passports bearing the gender designation F to transsexuals who could demonstrate that they had completed sex reassignment surgery, it is difficult to understand why Estelle had to travel with a male passport.

Estelle continually sent letters and requests to the Attorney's General's Department of the Australian Government and eventually receive confirmation that her requests were answered. Others had also been lobbying for changes; Roberta Perkins and Vivian Sharman, were two such transsexuals, and had been lobbying the New South Wales government, especially the Attorney-General of N.S.W., for the right to amend birth certificates. Estelle was asked to go to the NSW Department of Births Deaths and Marriages and have her birth certificate amended. It was the first such amendment, making Estelle Asmodelle the first Legal Transsexual by recognition of the new name in the new gender. Months later, as a result of this action, passport sex designation was allowed to be amended as well.

A year later Estelle lobbied for anti-discrimination laws to be amended and also for the state hospitals ethics boards to allow research into ectopic pregnancy for sex-change women. This issue was considered far too controversial and as a result many newspaper and television interviews were somewhat negative.

After a media storm over that period Estelle decided to focus on her career. However her appearances were very extensive including: hundreds of newspapers articles, and hundreds of magazine articles, and over 100 radio interviews and dozens of television appearances in Australia and Japan.

Modeling

Her modeling began as a means of promoting her dancing, but after a while became more important than her dancing career and was photographed by dozens of photographers, in Australia, Japan and the United States. Names such as; Justice Howard, Nigel Dadswell, Uta Ville, Lucas Matesec, Jasmine Davis and Daniel Linnet, to name a few.

Earlier on in her modeling career she became "Australia First Transsexual Pin-up" by appearing nude in Australian Playgirl, unlike the US version of the magazine it was the first time a transsexual had appeared in a mainstream magazine in Australia being nude. It created a frenzy of interest.

Asmodelle is also the face of the Supermodel Agency in Australia - she has been their spokesmodel and also their main model since 1996.