Breaking the Glass Ceiling

This transgender trailblazer was awarded the Roger Baldwin Award at the age of 14 year's old, and since gone on to win 11 other awards, including Glamour Magazine's Women of the Year. And, she had super powers too!

Nicole Maines is an American actress, who is also a trans-rights activist both in real life and her on-screen character. Born in 1997, she was the anonymous "Doe" in the the Doe v,. Regional School Unit 26 case. 

As she remains an activist in trans-rights,  she first appeared on camera in 2015 in the TV show Royal Pains, followed the next two years in the documentaries The Trans list and Not Your Skin.  

But it was in 2018 that she landed her biggest acting break, cast as the transgender cub reporter Nia Nahl, who emerges as the super hero Dreamer in the TV series Supergirl (and also appears as Dreamer in an episode in the 2020 season of Legends of Tomorrow).  

To their credit, the producers have allowed the Nia/ Dreamer character to address transgender issues in the show, and they've done so quite well. 

Dreamer (TVseries Supergirl) 

Nicole Maines

Nicole is a role model for her generation, and these are the awards she has received for her activism to date:

Awards

Year	Award	Awarding Organization	Source
2011	Roger Baldwin	American Civil Liberties Union of Maine	[19][20]
2012	P.E. Pentlarge	EqualityMaine
2014	Community Organizing	Hardy Girls Healthy Women	[21][22]
	Samantha Smith	Maine Women’s Fund	[23][24]
	Woman of the Year	Glamour Magazine	[25][26]
2015	Spirit of Matthew Award	Matthew Shepard Foundation	[23]
	Young Women’s Social Justice Award	Maryann Hartman Awards	[27][28]
2016	Outstanding Individual Episode for a series without a regular LGBT character	27th GLAAD Media Awards	[29]
2018	Visibility Award	Human Rights Campaign of Chicago	[30][31]
2019	Andy Cray Award for Health & Youth Advocacy	Trans Equality Now	[32][33]
	Grand Jury Prize for Best Performance	Outfest	[34][35]
	Outstanding Supporting or Guest Actor Playing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Sci-Fi Series	Autostraddle's Second Annual Gay Emmys	[36]
2020	Upstander Award	Human Rights Campaign	[37]

Watch Nicole interviewed about her transition on Ellen

Follow Nicole on Social Media

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