[1][2] She was gender variant as a youth, and her perceived effeminacy was mocked by family members, teachers, and schoolmates.
[3] She left Nuwakot at age 18 and moved to Kathmandu, where she says she experienced "mental torture" due to incongruence with her gender identity.
[4][6] At the suggestion of other trans women she had met, Lama became involved with the Blue Diamond Society, an LGBT group in Nepal.
[8] Her early years modelling were difficult, as she experienced career discrimination due to being a trans woman.
[13][14][15] That year, she appeared on the cover of Elle India[16] and worked with Calvin Klein in 2019, becoming the first trans model from the Indian subcontinent to be featured in an international brand campaign,[17] and was announced to appear in the all-women Hollywood film Women's Stories in 2021.