Transcriber: Silvia Monti Reviewer: Mirjana Čutura
I'm in Paris
and waiting in line for over an hour.
Finally, it's my turn to present my portfolio with all my years of work
to the booker of the agency.
He flips through my portfolio two or three pages at a time
and looks at me.
"Maybe in New York or London you have a shot,
but even there, it's difficult for black girls."
He passes my book to the other bookers sitting at the table.
None of them look at it.
He shakes his head and says,
"Look, you're gorgeous, your legs are amazing,
and I know you can walk
because black girls always know how to walk."
He stands up and hands me back my portfolio.
"Too bad.
If you were white, I would have signed you on the spot.
Next."
But this was not the first time that I had heard this.
It started when I was discovered when I was just 15.
Imagine being told you have to work twice as hard
just because the color of your skin.
Imagine what it does to a 15-year-old girl.
At some point, I'd been told by so many people from the industry,
"Your nose is too black; you should get a nose job"
that I made an appointment with a clinic to make my nose look more Caucasian.
However, at this exact family dinner,
right before my brother took this picture of me and my sisters,
I told them what I was about to do.
To which my sister replied,
"Well, if you're going to do it, we're all going to do it."
Or I'll just stick out like a sore thumb.
It was humor and common sense like this
that kept me sane and grounded in difficult times.
And by the way, this is my original nose.
(Cheers)
(Applause)
Because all of the things I'd experienced at such a young age,
I didn't believe in myself.
But someone else did.
The man who discovered me knew my struggle
because he himself was a former model who happened to be black.
He was also one of the top casting directors
and owned his own modeling agency.
Sometimes, he would just send me to castings even if I wasn't invited,
just to show them my face.
And that's how it began.
While working for fashion houses such as Dior
and walking along one of my role models,
Naomi Campbell,
I always felt a deep sense of feeling inferior, worthless.
And it didn't make any sense.
I should have been on top of the world.
I started to feel the need for self-reflection and healing.
I began telling myself every day that I was enough.
And through therapy, meditation and journaling,
I made a conscious decision to stop feeling worthless.
I made my inner beauty top priority.
And you know what?
It worked.
I went from feeling like this ...
to that.
(Cheers)
(Applause)
Age 25, back to university to study cultural and social entrepreneurship,
and what I learned shocked me.
Did you know, worldwide,
only 10% of women see themselves as beautiful?
Did you know that 60% of these women quit an activity they actually enjoy?
Seventy-five percent of women between the age of 10 and 17
have low self-esteem
and feel high pressure to be pretty-looking.
This is mostly caused by themselves
but strongly enforced by current and social media.
Unfortunately, this doesn't go away when they become women,
and it often results in underpaid jobs, unhealthy relationships
and even isolation.
There is a generation of women out there who need our help.
So, I created a platform for change,
"Model For Models,"
a platform to improve women's inner beauty and self-worth,
to confronting their own self-image
and providing them with role models and means
to maximize all of their talents and developments.
I empower these young women
and help them realize it's only a matter of changing perspective.
In our workshops, we provide 12 different tools
to increase self-reflection
and to encourage sharing inner beauty and personal developments.
Our workshops range from self-defense to meditation,
or from basic money management to how to deal with social media.
So far,
I'm happy to share that we have helped over 130 young women to feel empowered.
And nowadays, these women come back to us saying,
"The hardest part of transforming
was accepting that the most difficult insult or rejection was by myself
and not from the outside world."
Today, so many women want to become models
because they think it's the optimum level to success and happiness.
Truth be told, we can't make the majority supermodels.
But we can guide them
and learn them how to cope with the pitfalls
of this industry and of life.
I hope to mean something to someone with my story.
I believe there is hope for a new generation of young women
to become strong, independent individuals.
And for now, I would like to ask you something.
I want you to close your eyes and put one hand on your heart.
I want you to know
that you have all the power within you to overcome your struggles
just by changing the way you talk to yourself.
I want you to repeat these words in your head after me.
"I'm in this life to have fun,
and I accept all that I am.
I have the power to change my limiting beliefs.
I have the power to do something now."
Now open your eyes,
and look at the person sitting next to you,
and say, "I am enough."
(Audience) I am enough.
(Laughter)
Thank you.
(Cheers) (Applause)