Marvia Malick has already had a big month, but she's not looking to slow down.
First, the transgender Pakistani woman walked the runway during the recent - and now she's landed a history-making role as Pakistan's first openly trans news anchor.
"I got a lot of appreciation from those associated with the fashion industry when I did catwalk modelling two weeks back, and now this..." she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "It's quite overwhelming."
, Malik expressed her excitement at landing the on-air job, saying: "The dream that I saw for myself, I was able to climb on the first stair to achieving it."
Malik recounts being thrown out of home after finishing the 10th grade, joining a beauty salon and earning just enough money to put herself through college.
"My story is no different from that of a hijra on the street you see begging," she says, adding that she hopes her work will help improve the lives of Pakistan's transgender community.
"Hijra" is a term given to intersex and transgender people in South Asia.
"My family knows I have modelled and they know that I work as a newscaster," she tells the BBC.
"It's the age of social media and there's nothing that my family doesn't know. But they have still disowned me."
Despite Pakistan's Senate protecting the rights of transgender people, Malik says there is a long way to go.
"Our community should be treated equally and there must not be any gender discrimination. We should be given equal rights and be considered ordinary citizens, instead of third-gender," she says.
