WATERLOO - As Mimi Marks, 38, prepared backstage last week for the Miss International Queen 2005 pageant in Thailand, a creeping self-doubt gnawed at her.

"Am I biting off more than can I chew? I'm 10,000 miles away from home and I'm competing against girls that have been alive as long as I've been performing," she recalled asking herself.

A few hours later, the answer was clear: Mimi Marks is one sweet transsexual.

Judges crowned the Waterloo native the winner, catapulting her to celebrity status in the country.

"People on the street recognize me and take my picture," Marks said in a phone interview from Thailand. "It's literally like Miss Universe, but just for transsexuals."

The Chicago-based performer said her life has been turned upside-down overnight.

The contest is a mainstream media event in Thailand and surrounding countries, she said. The show, sponsored by Coca-Cola, was broadcast live on television and huge posters advertised the contest on city streets throughout the country.

A hot commodity in the country's media since winning on Oct. 29, a typical day for Marks goes like this: Wake up at 6:30 a.m., do interviews, do more interviews and get home at 1:30 a.m.

Though she isn't returning to the U.S. for another week, a handful of U.S. newspapers and magazines have already contacted her, including People magazine.

But it's not really a big deal until Oprah comes calling, right?

"Oprah's show called my manager," she confirmed.

No wonder she's excited.

"This was something I never even dreamed about," she said. "To be honest with you, a lot of my aspirations have changed in the last week because a lot of these things that happened have taken me to another level."

If she accomplishes only one thing with her new-found fame, she said, she hopes it is an increased acceptance in the U.S. of the transgender community.

"People are so concerned about what's different about you, as opposed to just remembering that we're all human beings and we bleed the same blood, breathe the same air and cry the same tears."

One of the first things she noticed in Thailand was how accepting people are of transgender people.

"You would think coming from the United States that it would be more accepted for us, but it's not," she said. "(In Thailand) when you are a transgender, people treat you like a woman. But in the states, they still treat you like a man."

Marks said she has never lacked support from the most important people in her life.

"My family pretty much immediately accepted me for being this way," she said. "They don't even think about it anymore. I am their sister, I am their daughter and that's just the way it is."

The 1985 Waterloo West High School graduate grew up in Waterloo as Mark Kammeyer. She said she always knew she wanted to be a woman, though she didn't begin to live as one until moving to Chicago 15 years ago.

"I think I was in my sister's clothes more than she was," she said laughing. "To be honest, I knew from day one that I wanted to be a girl, but I never really knew that was a possibility because I didn't know anyone like that in Waterloo."

Her mother, Joyce Kammeyer, said Marks also displayed a flair for performing from a young age.

"She was a star in the West High variety show the whole time she was there," Kammeyer said. "One time she did a Cats routine and she got a standing ovation."

Jens Manuel Krogstad can be contacted at (319) 291-1580 or jens.krogstad@wcfcourier.com