Rikkie Kollé (she/her)

‘DARE TO CHOOSE FOR YOURSELF’

Text: Paul Hofman
Picture: Leon Hendrickx
Video: Paradox Productions

Rikkie Kollé (Miss Netherlands): ‘Dare to choose for yourself’. In 2023, Rikkie Kollé (23) was elected Miss Netherlands. The news even makes it to the New York Times. She is the first trans person to receive this honor. Now Rikkie is an ambassador for Pride Amsterdam. “I’m looking forward to it a lot.

MAGICAL
Her first Pride she experienced she remembers well. ‘It was an eye-opener for me.’ In 2023, she sailed in the Canal Parade herself. ‘It was one big party. So enchanting. All those people along the side, it felt like, no what a gift.’ Pride Amsterdam is important to her. ‘We celebrate freedom, but also let people see and hear that we are there.’ In the spring of 2023, she would be named Miss Netherlands. Her dream is coming true. ‘As a child I was nice and dramatic and already loved the spotlight.’ On television images, we see Rikkie emotionally receiving the crown and sash. She is glowing with joy. Her childhood dream has come true.

REBEL
She was born in Hoorn, but grew up in Den Helder. Rikkie spends a wonderful time there. ‘I had a great childhood. Everything was allowed and I had a cozy home. As a small child I already loved being dramatic and the spotlights. However, she was bullied a lot. It visibly hurts her when she thinks back. I was eleven years old when I came out of the closet. The bullying doesn’t stop. She has a rough time at school. The bullying lasted until I was sixteen. Then I started biting it off. I started pushing the limits. Out of pure frustration, I think. I became very rebellious and socialized with the wrong people. I was absolutely not comfortable in my own skin. but It did make her more confident.

It seems to be going in the wrong direction. Her parents are at their wit’s end. She fails her high school final exams. “Then I had to pay the price. It gets her thinking. Rikkie pulls out all the stops to still make it.

MISCHIEF
She gets her diploma after all. Rikkie is now eighteen when she decides to leave home. The world has opened up for her. She never regretted it for a moment. She knows by that moment what she wants to be. ‘Famous,’ she laughs. Via Amsterdam, she ends up in Breda where she lives to this day. ‘It was mainly a time of partying and going out. I made up for everything I had missed in Den Helder.’ By day, she does marketing training and modeling. She has her heart set on the southern city. The modeling world soon holds no secrets for Rikkie. Wherever she goes, someone is here.

“Everything I did for mischief in high school stemmed in part from insecurity about who I was. I mostly compared myself to others. You should never do that, I now realize. And take someone into your confidence. Talking has been the key for me to find out how I was. I can recommend that to anyone in this situation.

HOLLAND’S NEXT TOP MODEL
Women on the catwalk in high heels, can count on her interest. After high school, Rikkie ends up on the reality program Holland’s Next Top Model. At the age of seventeen, Rikkie participates in the eleventh season. She does not win but is praised by the judges as a talent in the modeling world. She was the second trans woman, after her role model Loiza Lamers, to ever participate in the television show. Her greatest passion remains dancing, singing and acting. A career in the musical world is certainly among the possibilities, she says bright-eyed.

MISS NETHERLANDS
Her great role model is Loiza Lamers. As a transgender woman, she won the finals of Holland’s Next Top Model in 2015. In doing so, she paved the way for Rikkie. Last year, she was named Miss Netherlands. Her pageant became world news and even the authoritative newspaper The New York Times paid attention to Rikkie Kollé. For the first time in Dutch history, a trans woman takes the prestigious title. She looks shy.

HATED
It earned Rikkie not only congratulations, but also numerous hate messages and even death threats. ‘I would be lying if I said it doesn’t bother me. The threats have lessened.’ Still, she’s pretty laconic about it now. ‘I do watch out, I ‘read’ people as it were and then ask myself whether I can trust this or that person. It shows that we are far from there yet. In no uncertain terms, she emphasizes that people should leave each other alone and allow each other happiness.

MISSION
That she has now become an ambassador makes her happy. ‘It is the proverbial icing on the cake. I am super proud because at the same time it is a tribute to the lhbtiq+ community. About her mission as an ambassador, Rikkie does not have to think long. ‘I want to break the stigma on being trans by telling my personal story. And being there for trans kids.’ If she wants her voice to be heard and to be a role model for all young women and queer people’. Like no other, Rikkie knows what it’s like to feel alone and not be surrounded by only positive thoughts.

PROGRESSIVE?
She also worries about increasing anti-lhbtiq+ violence and that “we are actually going back in time. Rikkie notes that the Netherlands is increasingly moving from an inclusive to an exclusive country. For example, being a man afraid to dress yourself feminine. Or having fear as an lhbtiq+ couple, walking hand in hand with your boyfriend or girlfriend as an lhbtiq+ person, or walking down the street as an older trans person.’

‘Let each person have their dignity. The rainbow family is under great pressure. The Netherlands was so progressive but it hasn’t been for a long time, she says regretfully.

LITTLE RIKKIE’S
Rikkie herself represents all little Rikkie’s who face rejection from their family and environment and their transition into the person they desire to be. ‘As you sit alone in your little room, not being able or allowed to be yourself as a person, it is SO important that you learn to love yourself. That’s what I’m going to work hard for with everything in me.’ She also plans to visit schools to talk about her personal story. ‘It’s all about raising awareness.’ She will undoubtedly become a figurehead of stature. ‘Above all, be yourself.’

Pride ambassador since 2024