I started modeling my senior year in high school, going to modeling classes, learning a beautiful "Cat Walk", how to dress, and create a natural looking face while still using makeup. I enjoyed it all.
How it Began
Fast forward to my first year in College and University of North Texas, I kick started my small yet wonderful career modeling for local photographers and entering into my first Runway. I felt like this was for me. The lights, getting dolled-up, meeting new people, seeing how these people saw the world throw the lens of fashion, and I was in love with being apart of it. But as I got deeper into my career I started to notice and pick up on things that I didn't really like. Small micro-aggressions, competitiveness between models, favertism when it came to women of color and who was more "Racially Ambiguous", a term I was truly never fond of as I understood what it all encompassed.
I began to crave validation, as though it was a drug. I wanted to feel even more beautiful in world that questioned my beauty. I saw modeling as an outlet for that at first. Being able to create "magic" in the eyes of the fashion artist and photographer was important to me. Every flaw, every imperfection I had, I wanted to correct. And as I began to do all of this, I realized something, I would still never be treated the same as a lighter counterpart.
Meet and Greet
I loved being in the world of fashion, but at some point I realized I didn't necessarily need to be in front of camera to love it! I can recall, a point in time when I was preparing for a meet and greet at downtown Houston, Texas, where inspiring models go to meet other models and photographers and I noticed how they would choose lighter complexed women and men over is called darker complexed men and women. Even I got overlooked by a photographer as he choose my more mixed complexed modeling friend. It hurt. It stung. Was this how I would always be treated in the modeling industry? Was this something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life? And the conclusion I came to was no.
It was that pivotal moment that sent me on my way into wanting to create my own brand. A brand for women who do not necessarily fit the old "status quo" but the ones that stand out from the crowd in all their glory waiting for the whole world to see.
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