Caitlyn Jenner on magazine cover, Twitter

— -- Caitlyn Jenner made her debut Monday in photos that will appear in the July issue of Vanity Fair.

"Call me Caitlyn," declares a headline over a photograph of her in a strapless corset, legs crossed, sitting on a stool. The image was shot by famed celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz.

According to Vanity Fair, which tweeted the cover Monday, Jenner, 65, spoke emotionally to the magazine about her journey.

"If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, 'You just blew your entire life,'" Jenner said.

Jenner marked the announcement Monday with the debut of her own Twitter account. The account reached 1 million followers in about four hours, setting a record for time needed to hit that milestone, according to Twitter, and taking less time than President Barack Obama, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and other celebrities to do it.

The Vanity Fair story also  includes video of Jenner's photo shoot.

Meanwhile, ESPN announced that Jenner will be presented with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at The ESPYS on July 15 in Los Angeles. According to Vanity Fair, all 10 of her children and stepchildren will be on stage with her.

Jenner first discussed transitioning to a woman in an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer that aired in April. At one point in the two-hour broadcast, Jenner told Sawyer: "My brain is much more female than it is male. It's hard for people to understand that. But that's what my soul is."

Bruce Jenner won the 1976 Olympic decathlon, setting a world record and becoming an international sports star. Jenner later became an actor in a number of TV movies, a race car driver (winning the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1986) and a successful businessman. Jenner married his third wife, Kris Kardashian, in 1991, and became part of the E! network series "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" in 2007. (Kris and Bruce Jenner divorced in December 2014.)

In the Vanity Fair story, Jenner talks about going into an office in Beverly Hills on March 15 as Bruce and leaving as Caitlyn. The passage reads:

"Bruce Jenner went into the office in Beverly Hills, thinking the facial-feminization surgery would take about five hours. Caitlyn Jenner left the office in Beverly Hills after the procedure had taken roughly 10 hours."

The story also talks about "Bruce" and uses the pronoun "he" before the surgery. The story uses "Caitlyn" and "she" after the surgery, illustrating the significance of the March 15 date for Jenner.

She said at one point that Bruce Jenner was "always telling lies" and that Caitlyn Jenner "doesn't have any lies." The Vanity Fair photo shoot took place May 6 at Jenner's Malibu, California, home.