Raquel Reyes

(active mid 1990s–2007)

American trans model, writer, and early internet figure noted for her pioneering role in online self-representation. Emerging during the first wave of personal web culture, she developed a distinctive digital persona under the moniker “The TS Goddess,” combining glamour modeling with autobiographical storytelling.
Her work circulated across forums and early image-sharing platforms, positioning her among the first trans women to attain international recognition through online media. Scholars and commentators have since cited Reyes as a formative influence in discussions of digital identity, body politics, and trans visibility in the early 21st century.

Born: (1970s)
Occupation: Model; Writer; Internet personality
Years active: mid 1990s–2007
Known for: Goddess (2005); early trans digital visibility
Website: thetsgoddess.com

Early Online Career

Reyes began sharing images and journal entries online in late 1999 and continued throughout the early 2000s, during a transitional period for web culture that pre-dated social media algorithms. Through self-curated photo archives and a personal website, she cultivated a following that blurred distinctions between performance, documentation, and self-mythology.
Her online approach paralleled—and occasionally prefigured—strategies later associated with influencer culture, positioning her as an early architect of trans digital aesthetics. Her popularity in the early days of internet culture was groundbreaking. At the height of her fame, she was considered the most downloaded transsexual model in the world.

Goddess (2005)

In 2005, Reyes began sharing excerpts of her personal journal with her online subscribers. Those excerpts, highly sensitive, exposed parts of her life that redefined her carefully curated image. Later, she self-published Goddess, a memoir chronicling her life and career. The book gained attention within LGBTQ and academic circles for its candid depiction of gender transition, erotic labor, and internet-era fame. Though it sold out immediately and went out of print soon after release, Goddess has since been described as a “cult classic” and remains a reference point in contemporary studies of early trans media.

Cultural Context and Legacy

During her active years, Reyes became associated with evolving conversations about gendered performance, online authorship, and the commercialization of identity. Her later withdrawal from public life—often interpreted as a deliberate act of digital disappearance—has been analyzed as part of her broader project of self-control and authorship.
In recent years, her work has resurfaced through academic research, digital preservation projects, and renewed critical interest in early-internet histories of trans representation.

References & Related Projects

Primary Source:
thetsgoddess.com — curated archive and official domain of record.Secondary Projects: Not Affiliated with Raquel Reyes
•Raquel Reyes Legacy — archival and preservation initiative
• Trans Documentarian Project — digital research and scrapbook curation
• Trans Raquel Reyes Index — catalog of documented references and reexaminationsFurther Reading
•In Search of the Transsexual Goddess by Riley Haven, cultural essay tracing Raquel Reyes’s early internet mythology.
•Becoming the Mirror: Raquel Reyes, Trans Aesthetics, and the Myth of the Self-Made Woman by Jonathan Erickson, PhD, academic analysis of digital identity and impact.
• Angelyne and Raquel Reyes: Media, Gender, and the Art of Self-Creation — From Billboard to Browser, Across Decades and Technologies, Two Media Icons Reimagined What It Means To Be Seen