Orange Is The New Black' breakout star Ruby Rose defines what it means to be 'gender fluid

Australian model/actress Ruby Rose has become the breakout star of the recently released third season of Netflix's "Orange Is The New Black."

It seems like everyone is talking about the 29-year-old androgynous beauty who plays mysterious new inmate Stella Carlin, who has eyes for Piper (Taylor Schilling).

In real life, Rose identifies as "gender fluid." She is currently engaged to Roald Dahl's granddaughter, designer Phoebe Dahl.
Rose has long been vocal about the rigidity of gender roles and recently defined being "gender fluid" to Elle magazine:

"Gender fluidity is not really feeling like you're at one end of the spectrum or the other. For the most part, I definitely don't identify as any gender. I'm not a guy; I don't really feel like a woman, but obviously I was born one. So, I'm somewhere in the middle, which - in my perfect imagination - is like having the best of both sexes."

She further explained: "I have a lot of characteristics that would normally be present in a guy and then less that would be present in a woman."

"But then sometimes I'll put on a skirt - like today," Rose told Elle earlier this month.

Rose says that it's a choice she makes daily, "not having to succumb to whatever society - whether it's work or family or friends or whoever - makes you feel like you're supposed to be because of how you were born."

The "OITNB" actress says she especially identified with one particular scene this season:

There's a line in OITNB where Stella is making fun of Piper, saying like "Ugh. Women - can't live with them, can't live without them." Piper's like, "What? You don't consider yourself to be a woman?" Stella says, "I do, but that's only because my options are limited." It's a very small line, but what I really read from that is that she is a woman - obviously, she's in a female prison - but if she had it her way, she probably wouldn't be. But, what's her option? To transition to a guy and then be in a men's prison would be incredibly dangerous.

"The takeaway," she says, "is that only you know who you were born to be, and you need to be free to be that person."

On the heels of Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair debut, Rose tells Elle, "I'm just proud to be alive during this massive shift in the world."

"Between 'Orange' with Laverne, the show 'Transparent,' and Caitlyn Jenner, obviously we're in the middle of something enormous - a transgender movement."

To read Rose's full interview with Elle, click here.