Emira D'Spain (born October 8, 1996) is an Emirati-born American model,

social media influencer A social media influencer, or simply influencer (also known as an online influencer), is a person who builds a grassroots online presence through engaging content such as photos, videos, and updates. This is done by using direct audience intera ...

, television personality, and former beauty director. In 2022, she became the first Black transgender woman to model for

Victoria's Secret Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing and beauty products, beauty retailer. Founded in 1977 by a Stanford graduate student and his wife, Roy Raymond, Roy and Gaye Raymond, the company's five lingerie stores were sold to Les Wexner i ...

. She has also been a

cover girl A cover girl is a woman whose photograph is used for the front cover of magazines. She may be a model, celebrity or entertainer. The term would generally not be used to describe a person making a single, casual appearance on the cover of a magaz ...

for ''Glamour'' and was featured in ''

Nylon Nylon is a family of synthetic polymers characterised by amide linkages, typically connecting aliphatic or Polyamide#Classification, semi-aromatic groups. Nylons are generally brownish in color and can possess a soft texture, with some varieti ...

''. D'Spain has modeled for

Fenty Beauty Fenty Beauty LLC (stylized as FEИTY BEAUTY) is a cosmetics brand by Rihanna, that was launched on September 8, 2017. Popular for its broad inclusivity across various skin tones, its Pro Filt'R foundation became in high-demand upon its first rel ...

, UGG, Anastasia Beverly Hills, and

NARS Cosmetics NARS Cosmetics is a French cosmetics and skin care company founded by make-up artist and photographer François Nars in 1994. The cosmetics line began with twelve lipsticks sold at Barneys New York. Since then, NARS has created various multi-use ...

. She worked as the beauty director for ''

Paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

'' prior to the magazine's folding in 2023. D'Spain is a beauty content creator on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

, where she has over one million followers. On

, she posts ''Get Ready With Me Videos'', which have received over 85 million views. In 2025, she joined the cast of

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels * Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 * Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing compa ...

's reality television series ''

Next Gen NYC ''Next Gen NYC'' is an American reality television series that premiered on June 3, 2025, on Bravo. The series follows a tangled web of friends raised in the spotlight as they stumble into adulthood living in New York City. Overview Bravo announ ...

''.

Early life and education

D'Spain was born on October 8, 1996, in

Sharjah Sharjah (; ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is the capital of the Emirate of Sharjah and forms part of the D ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

to an Eritrean mother and a Polish father. After living in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

for three years, her family emigrated to the United States. She lived in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

and

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

before her family settled in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, where she attended a fine arts school. She grew up doing

competition dance Competitive dance is a popular, widespread sport in which competitors perform dances in any of several permitted dance styles—such as acro, ballet, contemporary, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, modern, musical theatre, tap, and improv—before a ...

. She attended

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, first majoring in Global Liberal Studies before transferring to the university's

Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development The New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development (commonly referred to as NYU Steinhardt) is the education school of New York University. The school was founded as the School of Pedagogy in 1890. Prior to ...

and

Stern School of Business The Leonard N. Stern School of Business (also NYU Stern, Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business schools, business school of New York University, a private university, private research university based in New York City. Founded ...

, graduating

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

with a degree in marketing and communications. D'Spain also studied in Paris her freshman year of college.

Career

Prior to becoming a beauty influencer, D'Spain worked for a marketing agency and a beauty editorial. She is signed with Collxab, a New York-based marketing agency. She was featured on the cover of ''Galore Magazine'' as "TikTok's It-Girl". She also was featured in ''

''. D'Spain has modelled and been in advertisements for

, Anastasia Beverly Hills, UGG,

, and

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

. She was the first black transgender woman to model for

. Her first online partnership with Victoria's Secret was a TikTok video titled ''Single Girl's Guide to the Perfect Valentine's Day'' as part of their 2022

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring a Christian martyrs, martyr named Saint Valentine, Valentine, and ...

campaign. She is known as @XOXOEMIRA on

, where she has over one million followers, and on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

, where she has over 100,000 followers. On her TikTok account, D'Spain posts ''Get Ready With Me'' videos, which have received over 85 million views. Prior to the magazine's folding in 2023, she had a

Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia social media and instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of the app are that pictures and messages, known as "snaps", are usually availa ...

show called ''Snatchural'' with ''

''. She also worked as the Beauty Director at ''Paper'', creating beauty content for their website and social media platforms and curated their

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel. In 2025, D'Spain joined the cast of the reality television series ''

'', which premiered on

on June 3, 2025.

Personal life

D'Spain changed her given name to "Emira", after the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

word " Amira", meaning "princess". She underwent gender confirmation surgery. She has also had two

rhinoplasty Rhinoplasty (, nose + , to shape), commonly called nose job, medically called nasal reconstruction, is a plastic surgery procedure for altering and reconstructing the human nose, nose. There are two types of plastic surgery used – plastic sur ...

procedures. She shared on ''The Conversational Podcast'' that she was sexually assaulted in Paris in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Spain, Emira Living people 1996 births African-American female models African-American LGBTQ people American magazine people American people of Polish descent American people of Eritrean descent American TikTokers American transgender women Entertainers from Dallas Female models from Texas LGBTQ Internet celebrities LGBTQ people from Texas LGBTQ TikTokers New York University alumni American social media influencers Transgender female models Transgender women entertainers