'Filipa Gonçalves was born a boy in Lisbon in April 1979. At the age of three, she began to assert herself as a girl, rejecting being a boy. Observed by physicians of various specialties from an early age, it was confirmed, over the years, her determination to be a woman.
At the age of 16, still as a boy, she took a modeling course at The Idealis School. Invited by seamstress Luís Barbeiro to be the bride in his next parade, she started her career on the fashion catwalk. Soon several successful advertising campaigns followed. She became a successful model before her gender reassignment surgery, hiding her male ID document.
