Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine July 2017 | Page 543

I started modelling back home in St. Maarten but not as a real job, just to express myself and to showcase my clothing. When I came to the UK, I was signed by a few agencies in London who helped me to find modeling jobs. My modelling came about as a way for me to boost my self-esteem as I really struggled with my physical image growing up. I was teased a lot and made fun of and simply was never considered attractive. I never needed that assurance from anyone and figured if I can feel good in my own skin that it personally never matters what other people thought of me or how I look. I was told I can never be a model because am not tall enough or my striking features such as my “Bambi” eyes and “Giraffe” neck will never cut it. Maybe indeed it would have been this way a few years back but now the fashion industry has opened its doors and expanded diversity in the way models look. We now see more plus size models and models with autoimmune conditions that set them apart from every other model such as vitiligo, albinism, and alopecia universalis.