strap yourself in because you're in for
like a really wild ride I'm a model I'm
a model
I was not considered pretty I was
considered gangly and buck-toothed those
are just some nicknames along with olive
oil and Bucky beaver
I had frizzy curly hair glasses I was
more content climbing trees and drawing
and writing and escaping into nature in
a fantasy world I grew up in a very
homogenous society so I was one of like
two or three black people in the school
and so I think growing up as a kid in
that environment I was very sensitive to
it and so I never thought of myself as
really pretty or beautiful but when I
was offered to model in Toronto started
to realize oh I'm kind of cute I had
just turned 18 and I was old enough to
get a job as a waitress this
photographer came in it was the busy
moment of the night and he kept
badgering me you should be a model you
should be a model my mom oh my goes and
everybody tells me that just get out of
my face I don't want to do it that's not
where I'm going I'm gonna be the First
Lady of the United States with my
boyfriend who's at West Point and about
a week later my boyfriend at West Point
broke up with me and I thought I don't
want to be a long island when he gets
home from school so I figured what will
it hurt me and my cousins and brother we
were going to the beach and we had a
cooler and a security guard stopped us
to check our cooler they took the
alcohol but at the same time lady ran
out of a rest Shan I was like oh my god
have you ever thought of modeling she
told me that in order for me to like
start working that I would have to take
my braces off and get them removed so I
called the dentist and they were like oh
it's gonna be $1,100 to remove them so I
was like well I don't have the money to
do that so I asked my dad if he had
pliers and I just popped them off I had
no money I didn't know what fashion
really was and I had these like boots
that were super slippery so I was
running around
all these castings in New York literally
like falling these really like strange
hallways with lots of other girls who
looked I mean they didn't look happy
like nobody was like can't wait to get
through this casting I felt like I was
kicked dropped into a very different
world it was just like a completely new
life that was a very attached to my mom
it was a hard process in the beginning
without my family without my friends I
just I started working right away I
didn't speak a word of English I went to
Tokyo by myself
there was no Skype or FaceTime and I
spoke with my mom maybe four times in
two months and I went there with a
contract for two years and I was sitting
there crossing the numbers I was a child
when you grown up it you've just been
taken care by your family by your
parents and then you've been sent
somewhere to the foreign country and you
have to figure out your way by yourself
so growing up in Uganda and being raised
in Uganda and then at 21 years old you
leave and you start a new life elsewhere
with 20 hour plane ride back home is not
the easiest thing when I started
modeling I still kept my housekeeping
job at st. cloud hospital for like the
first seven eight months I came back and
they were like girl weren't you on the
cover of Vogue why are you here cleaning
toilets with us and I was like because I
don't know what's gonna happen a month
from now like what I really needed to be
saved when I was 16 I wasn't in the
safest environment like you know my
brothers our stuff we're getting into
bad I'm gang banging in jail and
stuff like that so I knew I didn't want
to be a part of that so I was just
looking for a blessing I was praying
every day every day she did
out of there some way somehow and then I
saw a shooting sire yeah yeah should
have changed from there for the longest
time my parents thought I was doing
playboy because their idea of models is
like porn
I guess because they don't really know
what fashion is at all and I told my dad
I said that I've got no tits there's no
way I would ever be doing playboy or
porn I'm the face of Chanel he's like
okay nice actually I'm also on the cover
of T magazine which is like Times
Magazine you say oh really
I love that magazine I dis wha gets me a
copy and sendin her to yeah
so Times magazine he recognizes Chanel
it doesn't care about at all
I always looked at my career like a
brick wall every job had its own
repercussions and every job helped me to
build that brick wall my first shot with
Avedon he did for eight-by-tens double
sides so 8 shots vogue cover or it could
have been I was three months into my
career and I got the Lancome worldwide
contract you know I was making $100,000
basically it was a huge contract in the
1970s my father literally he was white
when he opened the paycheck and he said
to me take this money and put it in the
bank cuz you've got four years I don't
know why he chose four years what
walking with my dad in ohms in Siberia
and they were building this beautiful
new HUD building the residential
building and I was looking at that I was
like oh my god that's so beautiful I
want to live here he said don't even
dream about it we will never be able to
live with this in this place and I
looked at him and I was like I'm like
I'm not going to listen to you
Here I am in New York living in their
luxury condo the title of the shoot for
American Vogue was the world's next top
models I would go to the stand like
every day in every hour when I knew it
was gonna be like those couple of days
it was gonna be out to the day that it
came out I was like oh my god is it
gonna come out are they do they like are
they gonna cut me out of the picture
like when things are so big
I always think hmm do I deserve am I
gonna be in it is it gonna be real for
real American Vogue to me was always the
separation between the girls who had
done it and the girls who had it and I
finally booked it the magazine comes out
and I am so excited to show it to
everybody and when I opened it up they
had cropped my head of every photo and
you know there was like two page you
know two-page spread of my legs and and
my back
and like the side of my head and I and I
had to bring it to people that's where
this is me Valentino campaign and
everyone like make such a big deal I was
like I'm and she'd like it's fine I
realized okay campaigns actually a big
thing
my sole goodness Candace wanna pull his
hair what should I do and she speaks my
language so I can just go up to her like
speak to her and I did not have the
balls to do that so I literally sat in
the corner and take sneaky pics okay and
now I think about it and I know that's
actually a bit more creepy my first show
was for Prada which was very
intimidating and I was so scared and the
entire show my legs were just shaking
they were complete jello I've been all
around the world already in just the six
months that I've been modeling when
before I had never even really left the
southern states I love doing shoots
where I'm with girls that I love working
with and I also really love working with
people who have really strong artistic
vision Alexander McQueen Steven mysel
having pain all the people that I kind
of look up to I mean I've been really
lucky to work with the very best
photographers and designers so I'm I
mean I could just name them all
basically four models you know every
time you have a job it's almost like
you're going through a job interview
again and you have to learn how to not
take it personally but that's virtually
impossible to do because it's about you
when they see us on the runway those
minute on the runway they don't see what
happened before that that there were
hundreds of rejections hours of castings
the whole process before that minute of
glory on the runway first you want to
book the job then you want to have more
than one look in the show there's a lot
of competition and I hate competition
but I'm very competitive I never felt
that desperate competition I have to get
this over you
sometimes I shot away from really doing
my best in a casting because I saw
another girl who was up for the part
that I thought you know she really needs
this you know
what about that made you cry oh just
there was so many desperate people I
came across over the years that you
wanted to reach out and help then you
knew would do anything anything for that
moment of Fame of fortune and they sold
their souls I had friends that died for
this business if I could give myself
advice as a young model it would be to
let things go and let things happen
don't compare yourself to nobody don't
take from nobody be you and don't
be apologetic about it be strong coz
there's gonna be a lot of people trying
to test you trying to break you trying
to take you out of your frame I came
from the depths of hell and became a
motto at 16 if you want there's some
hard things like you wanna make it up
for real
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